Misfiring Cowboys Lose Gunfight

     Sometimes it's ok to be wrong. Every once in a while, a game doesn't go as you anticipate it will. When you're wrong, and it still results in a 35 point win, embrace and accept it.
     I expected Nebraska to pound Wyoming into submission with a run-heavy package that wore their defense down and allowed multiple ball carriers to get 100-yard games.
     I was about as wrong as the would-be John nailed by the undercover cop on the prostitution sting. Dead giveaway, if she's cute, she's a cop.
     Tommy did his damage through the air. He hit on 20-34, for 377 yards, 3 TDs and 1 pick. He also ran fro a score. Tommy broke the record for most TD passes in school history. It used to be Taylor Martinez. Who? Oh, that guy.  The guy that caused Bo to go all R. Lee Ermey. The guy who could score on an 80 yard run at will, but couldn't hit an 8-yard out to save his life.
     That's in the past, though.
     Tommy can make a lot of the throws he needs to. The bomb to Porn Stache was beautiful, deep passes to Reilly and Moore were also good. He hit his RB's where he needed to on screen passes. The medium range stuff still needs work. Better than most games, but still some head scratching misses. With 1 interception in 34 attempts, it's hard to quibble. Quibbling is what I do and doing hard things can be fun. First down, goal to go. Tommy rolled to his right, his throwing side, got some pressure sooner than expected, which forced him to throw earlier than he would have liked. There were three defenders between him and the intended receiver, five if you count the guys bringing pressure. Tommy, it's first down, unless your dude is wide open, wing it as hard as you can to Thomas Tvurdy, from Crete, in section 17 who's about to tuck into that Fairbury hot dog, he just forked over three bucks for.
     I have to give credit to Wyoming, they sold out to stop the run. They brought dog blitzes up the middle, they brought corners off the edge, I think they even brought Dick Cheney's hunting party on a couple of plays. Stop the run, force their 50-50 quarterback to beat us with the pass. Decent strategy, except the 50-50 quarterback beat the odd, not by a bunch, but he did beat them.
     I know a lot of Huskerfans were a bit knickertwisted with only a 7-point lead, heading into the fourth quarter. Was it a clean game? Nope. Penalties reared up again, wiping two scores off the board for the Huskers and extending drives for Wyoming. Seven penalties for 93 yards. Not cool, man. The one on Gerry for unsportsmanlike should have been off-setting. It was kind of a dick move to hand the ball to the quarterback after picking him off. But the Wyoming quarterback deserved a flag for whipping the ball at Gerry.
     Dude, you just threw it to him twice in the last five seconds.
     Nate, better way to handle that, don't ever, ever, ever let the quarterback tackle you on a return; or, if he does, you bulldoze his stupid ass into the turf...legally, of course.
     The defense played pretty well, they gave up some big plays, but made more. Five picks in a game for the first time since 2010. Add in a fumble recovery and you get a +5 in the turnover margin. Going to win most of your games with that stat.
     That third quarter, though. Give up a field goal to cut your lead to seven, oh yeah, drive extended by big penalty. That's fine. Get good filed position, then go three-and-out, ok, four-and-out, with an odd, what, fake-punt option? Start running what looks like a rugby punt, it started off, well. Then Lightbourn tucked it and ran, hoping the blockers knew what he was doing. Either the play call or the execution was a big, whaaaaa?
     Wyoming, driving again. Drive extended by a big penalty, stopped by a pick on fourth down.
     Opportunity. Huskers drive length of the field and score on a beautifully executed screen pass. Except for the Cethan Carter touching a defenders back when it wasn't even necessary. TD called back, Tommy sacked, forced to punt.
     Huskerfan getting nervous. Top three things heard around the stadium. 1. Riley still hasn't learned the Killer Instinct. 2. They should have put this game away, already. 3. The longer you let an underdog stick around, the more confidence they gain, and the harder it will be to finish them.
     Kieron Williams gets his pick-six lottery winnings, the lead goers back to 14, heart rates slow a bit. Get a stop and a score, and the game is over.
     Got it.
      Someone forgot to tell Wyoming. Six plays, 76 yards and a TD. The lead is back down to seven points. See above paragraph concerning top three things, repeated.
      In the third quarter, Wyoming outscored Nebraska's offense, 10-0. Outgained the Huskers, 156-49, with at least 43 yards coming by penalty. Hmmm, Nebraska looks just awful. Maybe that's why they play four quarters.
     In the fourth, Nebraska outscored Wyoming 28-0, outgained them 177-23. Forced four turnovers, all of them at midfield or closer. Just to show how confident the offense has become, Ryker Fife was given the nod to check out to a fly route when he saw the cushion being given to Gabe Rahn. I know, I'd never heard of him, either.
     You flip open the local fishwrap and see 52-17. Must have been an ass-kicking. It was.
     One of the seals fortelling Nebraska's return to greatness has been broken. Huskerfan is bitching about a 35 point loss, the spread was 24.5, they covered. They lead the entire game (essentially). People still aren't happy.
     Just like the good old days.
     Next up, the Ducks. I want to send them home feeling as ugly as their uniforms.

Cowboy Dreams and Router Nightmares

Due to the death of a router (Netgear sucks), and all of the scurrying around that accompanies trying to sort out technical issues, Husk-Husk will not deliver a pretty-game issue. Rather than allow the quality to slip in a hurriedly cobbled together, inferior piece, I'm going to try to recapture the standards with an excellent post-game piece.
For the record, Nebraska welcomes back Craig Bohl with a nice, smash-mouth, 49-17 hootenanny. Huskerfan is nervous with only a 21-14 halftime lead, though. Tommy goes 12-12, 157 yards, 2 TDS, 1 pick. Ozigbo and Newby both hit 100 rushing.
Go Big Red!

Putting Down the Bulldogs

     The day was a weird one. It started out with an earthquake. A real earthquake. While it wasn't Charlton Heston in collapsing Los Angeles level earthquake, it was as unusual as a construction worker ordering his own pumpkin spice latte.
     The weather was weird, too. Very cool for early September, a little rain, then, just as the stadium was filling in, the skies went sploosh. It was like a freaking monsoon for about 20 minutes, then tapered off, and cleared up just in time for kickoff.
     As far as the game, it almost...almost felt old school. There was a sense of inevitability from the get-go. A feeling that Nebraska was going to pound Fresno State into submission, just how long would it take was the question.
     As I sat in my office, puffing on a cigar, Nebraska Clean Air Act be damned, taking the occasional pull from the desk bottle, I watched the crowd disperse from the stadium to the various sports bars, gin joints flesh bazaars like a cloud of virulent spores. All right, not virulent, we won, so the rage factor was minimized. I can be a little harsh, it's my line of work. I know that they appear outwardly good, but experience has taught me that there are layers that can be peeled back, for a price.
     I reflected on the game, I didn't get into a drive-by-drive breakdown, like Lloyd does. I couldn't even tell you what o-line package was on the field when x play was run for y result, that's like calculus, baby, and I'm not wired, that way.  I look for the key moments, the impressions, the schwerpunkts that happen along the way.
     Nebraska's opening drive, was a bit disappointing, or was it? Super conservative, three running plays and then they ran the missing man punt formation for a delay of game penalty to Honor Sam Foltz, the punter who was killed in a car wreck, this year. Brilliantly handled, coaches. Get it out of the way early in the game. The kids can have their cathartic moment early on, and get back to normal emotional level for the rest of the game.

     Fresno was super classy about the moment, too. You could tell that they honored the moment, as well.
     The Bulldogs came to play. They moved the ball well, early. Not surprising, since Nebraska had nothing to prepare with, since FSU had new coordinators. The defense solidified in time to force a missed field goal. Energy was good, speed looked good, no-one was out of position, Fresno made some good plays. The out route to the tight end was working for them.
     Then, the pounding began. Over the next two possessions, Nebraska ran 17 plays, 1 pass, and scored two touchdowns. It was almost like watching game films from the 80's. The defense was stepping up, too. They forced two 3-and-outs and were controlling the line of scrimmage. The d-line was particularly impressive, as they stoned the FSU o-line and let the backers roam around cleaning stuff up.
     Then, it got sloppy for a while. A Demornay Pierson-El fumble on a jet sweep, set up a long yards to make situation, and two good defensive plays by the Bulldogs forced a punt, which was blocked.
     Fresno State had the drive of the night, only 32 yards, but converted on third down twice. Both times, FSU made good plays. The touchdown, their only touchdown of the night, was a good play design and took advantage of a size mis-match. Gotta give them a 'well done'.
     Sloppiness continued as a dumb penalty for illegal formation negated a first down. Iffy playcalling on a third and 7. Going deep to Westerkamp, ummmm, ok. Another punt, and Fresno is still in business.
     On a third and long, scramble play, Luke Gifford gets a flag for helmet to helmet, giving FSU a first down. Luckily for Nebraska, piss-poor clock management in the final minute, made the Bulldogs settle for a field goal. Personally, I don't think Gifford should have been flagged. He's taller than Virgil, he had his head up, and he approached with his arms up to deflect the pass attempt. Yes, his helmet made contact with Virgil's, so by the letter of the law, the flag comes out. What was more disappointing was how disorganized the defense became after that. They gave up chunks of yards on the drive. Short memories, lad, like politician level short memories.
     The opening of the second half was almost scripted, perfectly. Fresno goes 3&O, Nebraska pounds it right down the Bulldogs' throat. 21-10, breathing room and you can just tell that the o-line is beginning to dominate.
     The rest of the 3rd quarter is a snooze fest. The Blackshirts allowed just 33 yards in the quarter and forced an interception. Except for the first drive, the offense sputtered on their other two drives, amassing four yards and getting knocked for 30 yards in penalties.
     At the end of the 3rd, the impression was one of underperformance. The game should have been in hand, the running game was working, the passing game was ok, special teams was not great and the defense was exceeding my expectations. Put them away, already.
     In the 4th, that's just what they did. Tommy opened the nuclear football and dialed up a launch code to Alonzo Moore. Great strike, score is 28-10, and FSU crumbled.
     The rest of the fourth quarter was old-school. The backups came in and pounded the ball all over the field. Tre Bryant and Mikael Wilbon showed their stuff. Ryker Fife even completed a pass. The most interesting play in the fourth quarter came on an extra point attempt. The Huskers have a new pre-snap alignment for extra point attempts. the snapper, holder and kicker liner up in an I alignment, with 4 o-linemen spread out on each side of the line of scrimmage. Prior to the snap, the linemen assume their usual positions, the holder and kicker line up and kick the PAT. On this play, the snapper snapped the ball to Zac Darlington, the holder, who swept right, then cut back to the inside and powered into the end zone for two. He spun the ball on the turf, getting a penalty (rightly so), but the commenters didn't get into this kid's back story.
    In 2013, his senior year of high school, Zac was playing quarterback in the season's first game. He was a Nebraska prospect, we had even offered him a scholarship. He took a massive hit, and had to be dusted off by helicopter from the field. He had such a severe concussion, he was told that he probably shouldn't play football, anymore. Nebraska stood by him. Former coach, Bo *%$#*, told him that the scholarship offer stood, and he was still welcome here, even if he never played a down. I can understand his exuberance on that play, which we will probably never run, again.
         The only point of interest toward the end of the game was covering Cowboy Steve's betting line, 29 points. Chris Jones prevented lots of money from changing hands with his interception in the end zone. Two plays prior, we got another stupid penalty. The refs made the right call in picking up the flag for targeting, but were right in dropping one for unsportsmanlike conduct. Great breakup by Aaron Williams, but the celebration was over the top. Save that shit for when your getting paid to do it, and the other guy is getting paid to take the risk. Just my 2 cents, which I cant really afford.
     Up next are the Cowboys from Wyoming, and a bit of a reunion with former DC Craig Bohl.
     I went back to watching the crowd. Trying to not let the unpleasantness of porn and blackmail intrude on my enjoyment of the post-game festivities. It would be a losing effort.

New Season, New Cases

   

 I have drifted to a new locale. Jake's was fun, while it lasted, but a new joint has opened up in town, and instead of the Hipsters and the college kids, Cigarz is the hang-out for an older, more seasoned, and decidedly more worldly clientele. It's the kind of place where the occupants have more stories, more experience and more secrets. Some secrets that need to be protected from exposure, and some secrets that need to be revealed.

      Sam Hammett, private investigator, discreet inquiries, is what it said on my business card. I still had a bunch of them. I placed an order for 500 and still had most of them in a little box, back at the office. I carried some around with me, but I also had a small city constructed on my desk, while we all waited for the phone to ring.
     I was supposed to meet a client. I got the call a couple of days ago, and the case intrigued me enough to listen. The offer of half a G in order to solve it intrigued me even more. I sat puffing on an Isla del Sol, watching the smoke drift into the ventilation system and sort of paying attention to the myriad of TV's, all dedicated to news and highlights of the sports world. Serena Williams was obliterating yet another hapless Russian, Go Terminator. Don't get me wrong, I love Serena. I think she may be the best women's tennis player of all time. I also think she could probably dunk a basketball and pin me in under thirty seconds of  wrestling, but I digress.
     More stories about Colin Kaepernick and his refusal to stand for the National Anthem. Lots of hand-wringing and attacks on his patriotism, loyalty, intelligence and manhood. Tricky thing, that First Amendment. We veterans dedicated ourselves to protecting it, and I for one, get it, that sometimes the exercising of those rights can be something we disagree with. Personally, I think the flag represents the ideals we strive for, as well as the shortcomings of the Republic, currently and in the past. If dude wants to focus on the negative, that's all right with me, as long as he's cool with criticism from those of us who disagree with him. He'll be back to riding the pine, soon enough, and counting his 11 million bucks to watch the game from the sideline. Stupid, oppressive America.
     Sigh.
     FrankenAl was there. FrankenAl are a couple of older cats, late 60's or so, whop hang out just about every single day. Eavesdropping on their conversations is a trip. Frank is a 'Nam vet, served up in I Corps as one of Uncle Sam's Misbegotten Children. He's always got a big smile and a twinkle in his eye, but looks like he could still field strip your rib cage with a K-Bar if he needed to. Al is softer, claims he was at the '68 convention in Chicago. Sometimes you hear them solving the world's problems over a stout, sometimes it's the 1918-19 flu pandemic, and sometimes they are delving into the philosophical interpretations of The Big Lebowski.
     The other reason I like Cigarz, is that it offers a greater degree of protection from the heat. There are days in Nebraska where the heat and humidity get to the point where it feels like a Great Dane is sitting in your lap, panting in your face. The bar is down an alley, in the shadow of a parking garage. It's air conditioned, and offers booze and cigars. What's not to love?
     The season was turning from Hot to Football. Here, we have four seasons, Cold, Wet, Hot, and Football.  The leaves were turning, the wind making those leaves skitter through the gutter and the topic of conversation typically revolved around predicted season record, and who was going to play third-string tackle. A couple of players had been suspended for the season opener, one dude for getting busted for DUI, the other for 'an unspecified violation of team rules'. I always like that one, it allows me to make up my own stories about what the kid had done. Pure speculation, here, but I wondered if he road tripped to Colorado, partook of the perfectly legal brownies, there, and then tested positive. Remember kids, you can get drunk off your ass, and nobody gives a rat's ass, because it's legal. Drop some herbally infused edibles, and it's still a no-no, if it's in the team handbook.
     I have no idea if that's what happened or not. Just spitballing.
     The season opener is tomorrow. The Fresno State Bulldogs are rolling into town. It is a 7 o'clock kickoff and about 90,000 people will be downtown and drunk. Riley Mk.II will be on display, and we'll get to see if a year of familiarity with the system makes things a little bit better. Another year of knowing what is in the playbook and in the coach's head for everybody should make things a little more efficient, a little more cohesive. Hopefully less improvisation and check downs to plays that don't even exist. Fewer examples of not being lined up in the proper place to pick up a blitzing linebacker from the quarterback's blind side. More familiarity for the defense so they can read and react, instead of thinking about what they are supposed to be doing. Having to think, slows reaction time. When a receiver is blazing past you with his 4.4 speed, you don't want to waste even .05 seconds wondering if you're doing the right thing.
     Tommy Armstrong is back for his final year. Hopefully the coaches realize that he is closer to being Cam Newton than he is Joe Montana, and let him use his speed and athleticism, more, than trying to force him to be a pocket passer, making multiple reads and hitting those 8-yard outs. Tommy's deep passes are good. His short passes are ok. His medium passes are an adventure, every time.
     The receiving corps is stacked. This may be the best pass catching unit Nebraska has ever seen. There are 6 guys who are legitimate targets on every play. Jordan Westerkamp and his awesome porn 'stache could break several career records, this year. Cethan Carter has finally showed up, and is a real threat on seam patterns from the tight end position.
     Nebraska is deep at running back. There are about 4 guys who could start about anywhere in the B1G, except for maybe Michigan and Ohio State. If the staff commits to the run, like they did against UCLA, big things will happen. The O-line is the big question mark. They are bigger and stronger than last year, but they are not very experienced. Hopefully, they gel quickly, so Tommy isn't scrambling for his life on every third down greater than 3 yards.
     On defense, the line is also a bit novice, but Freedom Akinmolodun is back, and I hope is ready to sack opposing quarterbacks, with abandon. Note to the student section, whenever he gets a sack, I want to hear, 'Freedom!', a la Braveheart.
     The linebackers might be the best unit at that position, in years. Talent and experience will have them as the strength of the defense. They finally have some depth, too, so if someone gets hurt, it's not a green flag to the opposition to go after the replacement.
     The defensive backfield is an intriguing situation. They were really bad, last year, so I'm hoping that experience and learning the scheme will lead to a big improvement.
     The kicking game is a mystery. Drew Brown seemed to figure it out, last year, and will be pretty reliable. The punting duties are going to be interesting, following the tragic death of Sam Foltz. While I am interested in seeing how the team pays tribute to him, in the first punting situation, I'd rather not have to punt.
     That could happen against Fresno. The Bulldogs are a far cry from the team that could scare a good D-1 program or even pull off the occasional upset. It may take a few possessions to shake off the rust and work out the kinks, and Cowboy Steve tells me Nebraska is favored by 28. Just looking at the talent and depth disparity, Nebraska should pound them into oblivion. Tennessee should have pounded Appalachian State, last night, too, but needed overtime to pull it out.
     It;s not a very big limb, but I think the Huskers will cover, and this year gets out to a nice, satisfying 45-14 bang.
     My client finally showed up. He looked nervous. He looked familiar. he pulled a laptop computer out of its carrying bag and plopped it down on the table, next to me. "I need help," he said. "This damned thing has gotten me into some trouble, and I need someone like you to get me out of it."
     I took a big drag from the cigar. Computers. Shit. I was really hoping he had been conned into investing in a guided fishing LLC in Mali. Maybe he had sent the wrong e-mail in a fit of interoffice squabbling, and needed me to create a detente situation by digging up dirt on the rival. It was probably porn, though. Whatever it was, I would need to retain Lloyd Ellroy, tech-geek to the stars, to help me out.
     I didn't want to touch it. I tapped the grey, consumed carbon into the ash tray.
     "Porn?" I asked.
     He nodded.
     Sometimes I hate being right. 

 


     
 

Let's ruin Iowa's Season

            The weather finally turned on us. It had been giving us warning signs for the past week, but yesterday, she finally turned away and said, 'don't touch me'. So I did what I normally do when I hear that, I went to the office and pretended to work. I pushed papers around, mis-filed files and generally gave myself a headache. I did spend some time looking out the window and watching as the cold, bitter drops of rain began to harden and collectivize on metal surfaces like a liquid auto-workers union. I knew deep down that it would turn to snow, just enough snow to make getting around a chancy proposition, like picking up a stripper with tattoos on her neck.

            The big game is finally here. Not, BIG GAME, like it was back in the day, when Oklahoma would roll into town, tease us for a couple hours before stabbing Huskerfan in the heart and whispering, 'shhhh' as our football blood seeped around the blade known as 'Sooner Magic'. True believers know the perps, Elvis Peacock, J.C. Watts, Buster Rhymes (not the rapper), Jamielle Holieway, Keith Jackson (not the announcer) have all played a part in season-ending tragedy for Nebraska.

            Not even Big Game, like when Colorado was foisted upon us by the Big 12. Yeah, they became rivals, sort of, but that was due to the bloviating of Woody Paige at the Denver Post, more than actual football. He's responsible for the 'N is for knowledge' joke. Colorado was a rival on par with Oklahoma for about 10 years. From 1986-1995, Nebraska went 6-3-1 against the Buffaloes. They had a pious, devout, evangelical Christian, who let his players run amok on campus and pimped out his daughter as a recruiting tool; at least according to various, hear-say accounts you can hear when the clock turns past midnight and the booze flows. We had a pious, devout, Christian, who let his players run amok, too, but he got results, damn it.

            The not rivals played apart as one of the fixed points in football time for Nebraska. In 2001, Nebraska was sitting at 11-0, ranked 2nd in the polls, rolled into Boulder for some light, mop-up duty before getting a re-match with Texas and a shot at Miami for the National Championship. Didn't happen that way. Chris Brown and Bobby Purify  and the Jumbo Formation happened. 62-36 happened. Yeah, Nebraska ended up backing into the National Championship and getting trounced by Miami, but that Colorado game is pointed to, by a lot of people, as being the game where Nebraska lost its Mojo, and it hasn't found it after 14 years.

            Now, the B1G has decided that Iowa is our rival. Ok, sure, I guess. Hawkeye fan likes to bring up the 1981 game, when they won 10-7 as one of their crowning achievements. Ok, big pat on the back for you. Since 1979, Nebraska and Iowa have played 10 times, Nebraska has gone 8-2. Even in the B1G era, Nebraska is 3-1. Iowafan is trolling around, wanting to claim that Memorial Stadium should be re-named 'Kinnick West' and that this is their biggest game, ever, and to be honest, it is.

            That is why I want to take it from them, so badly. Iowa is 11-0 for the first time in school history. Iowafan has already penciled in the victory on their season schedule poster and just knows  that they will beat Michigan State in the B1G championship and knock off Alabama and Clemson and win the National Championship and it will rain skittles and the smell of the pork factory farms will change to that of daisies in spring.

            Slow-down there, little buddy. Before you start making plans based on a pipe dream like a tweaker in the West Des Moines, let's get by Nebraska, first.

            Yep, that 5-6 Nebraska who doesn't belong on the same field as Iowa. Mighty Iowa, who has proven worthy of the ring by beating ranked opponents like Northwestern and, um, er, Northwestern. Yes, they beat Wisconsin, in Wisconsin, 10-6 when Joel Stave played like Joel Stave and fumbled inside the five. It's only against Nebraska that Stave looks like Russell Wilson.

            Yes, that pathetic 5-6 Nebraska, who has been in every game, and has been given the fickle finger of fate cavity search by an overzealous TSA agent. That weak, Nebraska team that is finally healthy, and finally running the ball well. That simpering, craven team that already has one of their five wins being over a better opponent than any of the 11 wins Iowa has.

            I want Nebraska to ruin Iowa's season so badly, I can taste it like leftover cafeteria gravy. I want to see the crowing Hawkeyes brought low and crawling back to the buses with thoughts of 'if only' dancing in their heads like jitterbugging rats. I want 90,000 maniacs, braving the cold and the wind, and the snow to show Iowa what true fan support is. I want the 18 seniors to go forth from Lincoln on a career-ending high note. I want Iowa fan to experience the pain and heartbreak of that 2001 Colorado game, and learn that the path to the National Championship is treacherous.

            One final note, I can't watch it, and won't watch it. I gotta find a movie or something to keep myself occupied.

            Final score, Drew Brown hits a 37-yard field goal, as time expires, 26-24, Nebraska.

            Go Big Red.  

Tommy was Tommy, Huskers beat Rutgers

            I got all the confirmation I need. Once, an accident, the Miami game, missing the comeback and coming back to watch the pick in overtime. Twice, a coincidence, the Minnesota game, not being able to watch the most complete game of the year. Three times, it's a conspiracy, the Michigan State game, the biggest win in at least five years.

            Hypothesis tested, Rutgers game, a good win against a team that Nebraska should beat. That equals confirmation, in my book. I am going to deliberately avoid watching the Iowa game, for fear of further ruing Nebraska's season.

            I'm sorry it took this long to figure out. I figure I'm worth about a touchdown a game, so, it stands to reason that Nebraska should be 10-1, if I had figured out that I was the source of the bad mojo.

            Sorry, Husker Nation.

            On to more positive things. Huskers get the win, a desperately needed win in order to remain bowl eligible. I don't want to put too much stock into the correlation between the success of the football team, and the overall vibe of the town...bull, this town lives and dies in the success or failure of the football team. Things have been a lot mellower, lately. the fans aren't completely embracing Riley, yet, but they seem to be less apt to spit when you mention his name and ward off the evil eye. It's kind of like the scene in Blazing Saddles, when the old lady brings Bart a pie, but reminds him to have the decency not to mention that she had been there.

            Tommy had a Tommy game. Three touchdowns and three picks. All fourteen of Rutgers' points came from Tommy picks. I have to hand it to Rutgers on their drive that made it 21-14. They got the pick, aggressively attacked with a long pass, then called a special to punch it in.

            Outside of that, there wasn't a lot for the Scarlet Knights, which sounds like a 50's do-wop group, or possibly a fabulously well-dressed crime-fighting team, to cheer about.

            The Blackshirts looked presentable. I know it was just Rutgers, but they have been doing an excellent job of making bad offenses look pretty good, this year. A couple of picks, six sacks, and blowing up a fake punt attempt, are all good bonus points on a performance that made the Rutgers quarterback look really bad.

            The controlled the ground game, only giving up one explosive play and keeping rushing yards to under a hundred. 41 yards lost on sacks help that number, too. Overall, Rutgers had a tough time getting ahead of the chains, which made life more difficult to get a passing game going.

            The secondary did a decent job, only giving up a couple of big plays, maintaining good coverage, which helped to pressure the quarterback, and containing, for the most part, Leonte Caroo. Caroo is a good receiver, he was playing hurt, but he made life miserable for Michigan State, earlier, this year. I don't know who was doing the play-by-play, (which I watched, on Sunday, on BTN To Go, thank you) but he seemed to really enjoy saying 'Leonte Caroo'. Not just when he made the catch, or was the intended receiver, that I understand, but it was almost like every time he caught sight of the kid. It wasn't that he would just say Caroo, either. Every time he mentioned him, it was the full, 'Leonte Caroo'. I can understand it, to some degree. I always enjoyed saying Manu Tuiasosopo, but, when he got a sack, you just say, 'Manuuuuuuuu'. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is another one of the fun names to say, but he's German, and played soccer, so it doesn't really count.

            Back to the 'Skers.

            Tommy started hot, hitting all of his first eight passes. Then he got sloppy, and impatient. Given the situation, and the success the offense had been having, I get why they wanted to put one more in before the half. To go up 28-0 at halftime would have had the proverbial foot on the throat. Two picks in the final 5 minutes is not how you want to do it, Tommy. Yet again, slow it down, just a tad. Oh, and let's quit calling that middle screen, shall we?

            How about Cethan Carter? I've been waiting for him to emerge. Made four catches, including a TD and ran a tight end reverse for a touchdown. I haven't seen a play like that since Keith Jackson, (the freakishly fast tight end from OU, not the pasty, portly announcer) did that to us in the 1985 game.

            Imani Cross looked pretty good. Solid, between the tackles running, with one big play to boost his numbers. He doesn't have breakaway speed, but he's pretty good in traffic, and is probably the best back for a run it right at 'em approach.

            The receivers did their bit. Westy and Zo did what we have grown accustomed to, and Carter made huge contributions, Brandon Reilly got a little dinged up, so we saw more of Lane Hovey, but I have to admit, 14 catches on 21 attempts means that the running game is working and the services of the receivers isn't quite as critical. To really break it down, of the 14 catches, four were by the tight end, and two by the running back. Eight catches for the receivers, but not horrible, considering the grind out the clock nature of the offense when you're up 17 in the fourth quarter.

            I kind of like it when Tommy has under 25 attempts. It means that things have gone well.

            We have a week off, now, to get healthy, get a little extra practice in, and watch lots of game film of Iowa. I want Iowa to beat Purdue, but I want Purdue to at least take them into the fourth quarter. I want Iowa to roll into town undefeated, with 'Hawkeyes' penciled in to one of the playoff slots. I want to be the ones that completely ruin their season.

Post Michigan State

            Because of a previously scheduled engagement, where I ended up helping a colleague, Joe Hardman, solve a 70-year-old cold case, I was not able to watch the Michigan State Game, live. That led me to a conclusion, based on a theory that has been bouncing around my noggin for a while now.

            It's me. I wasn't able to watch the biggest win for Nebraska since 2001. I wasn't able to watch the Minnesota game, the best performance, this year, prior to MSU. I wasn't watching the 4th quarter of the Miami game, but came back to watch the overtime period.

            To paraphrase a well-known, pipe-smoking, violin-playing, coke-addicted, fellow investigator; when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Therefore, I will not watch another game, live, until Nebraska loses again, exonerating my mojo as the culprit.

            Biggest win? Yes, indeed. Nebraska hasn't beaten an opponent ranked 7th or higher since, 2010, when Roy Helu ran through Missouri like von Manstein on a French holiday excursion. Nebraska hadn't beaten an opponent ranked 6th or higher (in another poll), since 2001, when Eric Crouch caught the throwback pass to beat Oklahoma. A play, coincidentally, that Oklahoma tried to run, but the field turf tackled the quarterback before he could catch the ball. First win over a Top 7 team when unranked, since 1977, when Alabama came to town and Nebraska ruined their season and somebody stole Bear Bryant's hound's tooth hat.

            Yep, it was big.

            For one week, football was fun, again. Huskerfan doesn't, or hasn't gotten to experience this feeling, too often. That feeling of victory against all odds. Winning, when no one, not even your mom, gives you a chance of pulling out the victory. The ebb and flow of the game proved it. Nebraska got up to a 10-0 lead, Huskerfan thought it was a maybe. At the half, MSU was up 17-13, close, but Nebraska has not been comfortable in close games, this year. Punch in an early, second-half score, and it was 20-17, Nebraska. The Spartans responded, and how. 20-24, became 20-31 at the end of the third quarter. Michigan State was in control. Fans got up, as Brandon Reilly said, 'Maybe they had something more important to do'. Fear and doubt took hold, along with the sense of resignation and bitter acceptance of it being over.

            Nebraska came back. The scrappy bastards made it 26-31, and tried, but failed for two. Down by five and needing a stop, the defense rose up, right? Wrong. Sparta marched down the field, taking almost nine minutes off the clock and leading 26-38, with just over five minutes to go. You expect the Huskers to quit, at this point, right? Wrong again. Ten play drive, Tommy scores on a qb sweep that looked like it surprised MSU. I have a sneaky feeling that was the play Tommy was supposed to run against Illinois, but that's just a hunch. 33-38, a skosh over two minutes left. Onside kick didn't work, they rarely do. Two timeouts, one Michigan State first down, and the game is over. First down run; timeout. Second down run; timeout. Third and 8, run, holding penalty on MSU, they are forced to punt.

            Nebraska gets the ball back, 91 yards away, no time-outs, 0:55 on the clock. They're dead, right? First and 10, own 9, 23 yard pass to Jordan Westerkamp. First and 10, own 32, 38 yard pass to Westy. First and ten, MSU 30, Tommy fires into the end zone, where a defender has both hands on the ball, but let's it pop free upon hitting the ground. Nebraska goes, 'whew'. Second and ten, MSU 30, 0:17 on the clock. Tommy launches a pass down the sideline to Reilly, who makes the grab, and hits pay dirt for a touchdown. 39-38, Nebraska, it's not over yet. Squib kick, doesn't quite work. Sparty gets closer, a field goal wins it. 0:07 on the clock, Connor Cook drops back to pass, can't find anyone, pressure gets to him, he bobbles the ball, launches it to get one last play off before the clock expires.

            Too late. When the ball came down, there is no time left. Game over.

Reilly's Game Winner

             

There has been a lot of ranting, mainly from northeast of here, about Reilly's touchdown catch. The Big Ten officiating Big Bosses stated that the crew called it correctly, reviewed it correctly and ultimately enforced the rule correctly. The key element of the play is when contact between Reilly and the defender was made. Any contact, is considered sufficient enough to 'force' a receiver out of bounds. He doesn't have to be shoved with both hands, or driven like a getaway car, or bodily hugged like the defender was hallucinating Lana Turner running down the sideline. All-in-all, 'Nuts' to Sparty fans.

            Not going to say the game was well officiated, there were several head-scratchers. I don't think I've ever seen 'off-setting' interference penalties. How was Zo not interfered with, in the 4th quarter, when the defender held his arm down? Sparty got away with having 12 men on the field, twice. Both o-lines were holding, but, in theory, you could call holding on just about every offensive play if you wanted to. Shilique Calhoun, MSU's outstanding defensive end, is still whining about getting held, even posting pictures. I don't know what his exact snap-count was, but Nebraska ran 69 plays, and Calhoun's stat sheet was goose-eggs, all across. 0 tackles, 0 sacks, 0-0-0. I haven't seen that many Zeroes since watching 'Baa Baa Blacksheep', and those weren't even real Zeroes.

            In addition to Calhoun playing Houdini, and disappearing, let's not blame the refs for one's inability to cover porn-stache king, Jordan Westerkamp. Nine catches for 143 yards. 61 of those yards on the final drive. I'm not getting big-time defensive coordinator bucks, but I would have double-teamed JW on that final drive. If Stanley Morgan, or Brandon Reilly or Lane Hovey beat me, fine, I'll live with that. I'm not going to let the known go-to guy, and the quarterback's roomie, get open by playing soft zone, where do you think you are, the NFL? I guess I can't put too much on the coach, the MSU secondary was a train wreck, by the end of the game, and made Nebraska's secondary look like the Legion of Boom.

             At the end of the game, the Huskers celebrated. The players who put in the blood and sweat danced with joyous abandon. The coaches, who have taken a lot of heat, who came up with the game-plan, and called just enough right plays, felt 30 years melt off in an instant, and danced with their kids, who they want to see successful. The fans (those that stayed, anyway), who didn't give up hope, who didn't care what the odds were, young and old, danced and jumped and cried and felt as if they were part of the team, as well.

     'Let Me Clear My Throat', by DJKool, might just become a thing. Maybe 'Sirius' is due for retirement. We acknowledge that Huskerfan gets wrapped up in the Game, too much so, sometimes. Part of the reason I pull for a Husker win, is that it puts everybody in a much more pleasant vibe. I don't have little old ladies in Husker gear telling me to 'get the fuck out of the way', at Target. True story. Even on gloomy, rainy, November days, when the bone-chilling winds sweep into Nebraska from Mountain State, there is a spring in the steps and a cheerful hale from Huskerfan after a big win. Let's keep it up, lads.

            This game may have been the turning point, I know, I know, I said that after Minnesota, but Sparty was a different beast. Sparty has been one of the better teams in the Big 10 for years, now. They have been to two of the four B1G Championship games, and won one, with Connor Cook. This game has all the appearances of being that moment, that game, that vibe, where it all fell into place. Where the players 'got it' and started playing instinctively, instead of thinking about every little thing. This game was a huge trust-builder, too. Trust between players, between squads and between players and coaches. Most importantly, this game was a huge trust builder between the Staff and the Fans, yes, I capitalized both. On the one side, the Staff was able to fill their credence bank with some desperately needed cache, yes, cache. On the Fans side, they now get to tell the staff that they should beat anyone, anyone, ranked 7th, or lower now, no excuses. Time to set sights on bigger game.

            Michigan State has good traditions, and probably the best nickname, in terms of football, in the Big Ten. A couple of years ago, they wore alternate uniforms with a Spartan credo, Molon labe, come and take, on the helmet inset above the facemask. It's origins go back to the Battle of Thermopylae, in defiance of the Persians, and has a distinct level of badassery.

            I love the attitude, but on Saturday, Nebraska said, 'peerame', we took.