Missed opportunities haunt Baylor
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BY RYLY JANE HAMBLETON / Lincoln Journal Star
Robert Griffin knew it was an ugly statistic for the Baylor team.
“When you’re 0-for-10 on third-down conversions, most of the time you’re going to get the ‘L’ and we did,” the freshman quarterback said.
One of those missed opportunities was particularly big for the Bears. After Jason Lamb blocked a 52-yard field-goal attempt by Nebraska in the third quarter, Griffin found Kendall Wright streaking down the sideline for a 44-yard gain.
The Bears, facing third-and-goal from the NU 1-yard line, looked to their playmaker. Griffin dropped back in the shotgun, took the snap and darted to his left. But he was met by a surging Nebraska defense, led by Zach Potter and Larry Asante, and he lost a yard. On the next play, Baylor’s field-goal attempt hit the left upright and bounced away.
“We’ve got to get points out of the deal,” said Baylor coach Art Briles. “We had a speed option called, so he (Griffin) has the choice to keep it or deal it.
“To get down there and stalemate, it stings you a little bit. But you’ve got to understand there’s going to be good and bad series and you’ve got to overcome the bad ones.”
Griffin said it would be easy to second-guess himself on the play.
“When you run the speed option on the goal line, most of the time the quarterback keeps it. It’s a quick-hitting play,” Griffin said. “I saw the crease and tried to hit it and they closed on me. As I look back on it, maybe if I had pitched it, we would have scored, but you can’t live in the past.”
The Bears weren’t able to back up the momentum they got at the end of the first half. Nebraska had just scored to take a 17-14 lead. Baylor drove right down and Jacoby Jones scored on a blast over the left side to put the Bears back on top 20-17.
“We knew we were getting the ball back in the second half and if we scored again, we’d give ourselves a cushion,” Griffin said. “They (the Huskers) like to ball-control and that would put them in an uncomfortable position, but we didn’t come back out and score and that hurt us.”
After racking up 234 yards of offense in the first half, the Bears had just 116 in the final two quarters.
Griffin broke the Baylor record for consecutive pass attempts without an interception, improving his error-free run to 175 attempts.
“They’re not as fast as we are. The speed we have on the field is an asset for us, so we try to utilize it. It just didn’t work out that good. Whatever they did, it was working a little bit for them,” Griffin said of the Bears’ difficulty getting their passing game going.
“They played inside on our slots, taking away the inside routes, so we couldn’t throw the quick slants that we throw most of the time. That was a good job by Bo Pelini.”
Griffin re-emphasized the Bears’ speed advantage.
“They are a good, tough defense, solid. But when it comes to running laterally and up and down the field, they couldn’t stick with us,” he said. “Jay (Finley) scored his touchdown from pretty far out and I did on mine. It just shows nobody can run with us.”
Jordan Lake, the free safety who led the Bears with 15 tackles, said the loss was frustrating.
“It hurts. There are no words to explain it. It’s pretty deflating to let them come down like that and take the lead,” he said. “We knew they would try to run the clock. That’s their offense. We didn’t do a good enough job getting off the field.”
Reach Ryly Jane Hambleton at 473-7314 or rhambleton@journalstar.com.
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