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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 25, 2000)
FAR LEFT: Nebraska quar terback Eric Crouch rushes for a six-yard gain and is tack led by Iowa's Mike Dolezal and LeVar Woods in the second quar ter. The Huskers rushed for331 yards but passed for all of their touchdowns. LEFT: Matt Davison, split end for Nebraska, cele brates his second touchdown before halftime to make the score against Iowa 21-13 in favor of the Huskers. Davison would have two touchdowns in the game, and was the first to put the Huskers on the board. Mike Warren/DN TOP: Nebraska I backCorrell Buckhalter is hit by Iowa freshman defensive back Benny Sapp after a 16-yard gain to the Iowa 29-yard line in the second quarter. Alexander had a game-high 114 yards, while Buckhalter was second on the team in rushing with 100 yards. LEFT: Nebraska rover Joe Walker and right rush end Kyle Vanden Bosch stop Iowa running back Ladell Betts at the line of scrimmage. NateWagner/DN Hawkeyes defy their critics in loss ■Iowa stays close to 42-point favorite Nebraska for three quarters before succumbing in final period BY JOHN GASKINS_ Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz smiled sarcasti cally and threw his arms in the air before giving his post-game remarks. What could he say that was new? For the 14^ time in his 15-game career at Iowa, Ferentz had to explain how it felt to lose, this time to top-ranked Nebraska by 29 points, in a game his team was supposed to lose badly. Ferentz looked like someone who had done this 12 games in a row and was tired of it. “What can I say?,” Ferentz said. “The loss hurts... It’s a blow to the stomach.” A big blow, considering how surprisingly possible the Hawkeyes’ second victory in their last 20 games really was. For all but four seconds of the first half on Saturday, perennial doormat Iowa went blow for-blow with the No. 1 team in the nation and silenced a country and stadium full of skeptics expecting a slaughtering. Slated to lose by 42 points, the team whom nobody gave a prayer had charged to a brisk 76-yard opening-touchdown drive, trailed by a single point, had ran just one less play and gained just 20 yards less than the supposedly unstoppable Big Red Machine. Iowa’s previously dormant offense shook up the Blackshirts in the first half. Quarterback Scott Mullen threw for 153 yards. Reciever Kevin Kasper caught five passes for 104 yards. Tailback Ladeil Betts gobbled up 56 yards. Nobody was laughing at the sad-sack Hawkeyes anymore. “We knew it was us against the world,” said Iowa wide receiver Kevin Kasper, who led all receivers with 129 yards on eight catches. "We knew about the point spread and all that stuff. No one had any faith in us. I think we shocked some people at the beginning,” Kasper said. Then came the first half’s last four seconds, which pretty much decimated the first 29:56 of bliss. With time for one last play, NU quarterback Eric Crouch launched the ball into the heavens from the 43-yard line. Touchdown. NU led 21 -13 at the break instead of 14-13. One play. One mistake. Momentum and fairy tales destroyed. It seemed to be the ulti mate reminder of how this rebuilding Iowa program can't seem to catch a break in its quest for a breakout victory. "It was certainly a big play,” Ferentz said. “The timing wasn’t the best You’d like to think you’re coming off the field in a dogfight That certainly opened things up for them. “Our nemesis continues to be the big play,” he said. Does it ever. As they did in a 42-13 loss that was closer than the score read, the Hawkeyes performed respectably in their opening-three losses - against fourth-ranked Kansas State (27-7), Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo (27-21) and rival Iowa State (24-14). But in those games, Iowa allowed at least nine plays of 27 yards or more, including touchdown passes of 78 and 36 yards against WM and a 58-yard TD run versus the Cyclones. The Huskers gained at least 22 yards on eight plays, including a 31-yard Crouch-to Davison pass to tie the game at seven in the first quarter and the ego-bruising, last-second, 43 yard TD that put one of the nation’s worst defenses back in its place. But many Iowa players and coaches said the touchdown didn’t shatter any hopes of an upset. The scene at halftime was reminiscent of the Hawkeye locker room in last year’s NU con test, when IU trailed just 7-0 at the midway point before losing 42-7. “We came into the locker room pumped up,” Iowa defensive end Kampman said. “We went out of the locker room pumped up. We knew we could play with these guys. I don’t think anyone really quit believing.” But on the opening series of the second half, the Iowa defense went back out and watched the Huskers trample all over it to an eight-play, 70-yard scoring drive that included seven rushes for 60 yards. Ferentz said that drive hurt Iowa as much, if not more, than the bomb to end the first half. “You put those (drives) back-to-back, and that certainly made it tough," Ferentz said. “You’d like to play the ball game close and take it to thefourth quarter and see where you’re at” Iowa still trailed just 28-13 going into the fourth, but the Hawkeye offense couldn’t draw any closer, gaining just 88 of its 299 total yards in the second half. The Mullen-Kasper duo managed just three hook-ups for 25 yards and Betts was slowed to 22 yards. Still - despite NU's 331 rushing yards and 490 total yards - the scoreboard read 28-13 with under four minutes left to play. “I don't know if I’d say we. were surprised at ourselves, but we were proud,” offensive line man A.J. Blazek said. “We came in wanting to be in that situation, and there we were. We expected to be there. We just lacked confidence and dropped our heads too much. We lost focus.” Which is why the 0-4 Hawkeyes, who open Big 10 conference play at Indiana Saturday, won’t be celebrating their noble attempt to kick a brutal losing habit nor the opportunity they had to knock off the nation’s No. 1 team for almost the entire game. “Honestly, I think a lot of guys came into this game expecting to win, not just to have a good appearance or a moral victory,” Kampman said. “We’re sick of that”
