Curt McKeever: For Huskers, no reboot; just game over
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NORMAN, Okla. — How many times has this happened to you? (No, not watching Nebraska lose to Oklahoma 62-28, because we all know the answer to that question.)
You’re working on your laptop researching something really important online. Or, maybe it’s about as important as filling out your fantasy football lineup.
Anyway, all of a sudden, one of those error messages pops up and asks if you’d like to report the problem or not. You initially think, “OK, maybe I’ll learn something. Maybe I’ll hear back from some Microsoft official explaining the deal.”
Missouri 31, Baylor 28: The Tigers drove 75 yards and got a 34-yard field goal by Jeff Wolfert with 2:31 to play to avoid the upset and remain in control of their fate in the Big 12 North Division. Baylor, which had tied the game on Robert Griffin’s 36-yard TD pass to Jay Finley with 9:54 left, had its final hopes dashed when the freshman quarterback threw his first interception in 210 attempts this season with 1:40 remaining.
Arkansas 30, Tulsa 23: Exclude the Golden Hurricane from further discussion about BCS bowl game matchups. Tulsa entered 8-0 and as the nation’s top-scoring team, but managed just three points in the third quarter and was shut out in the fourth (its first scoreless period of the season). Arkansas’ Dennis Johnson returned a kickoff 96 yards for a TD late in the third quarter to break a 23-23 tie, and the Razorbacks forced a fourth-down incompletion from their 7-yard line in the final minute to improve to 4-5.
Michigan State 25, Wisconsin 24: The Spartans kept their Big Ten title hopes alive by scoring the game’s final 12 points. Brett Swenson’s 44-yard field goal with 7 seconds left capped the comeback. Michigan State began its game-winning drive at its 17-yard line with no timeouts left and just 1:19 remaining, then got a chance for a breather as Wisconsin called a timeout trying to rattle Swenson. The Spartans can earn at least a share of the Big Ten title by finishing with wins against Purdue and Penn State.
But, of course, that never happens. Does it?
That’s the kind of response the Huskers got from Oklahoma after it malfunctioned against the fourth-ranked Sooners here Saturday night.
There isn’t a reboot that could have magically fixed their issues.
It’s only been two years, but it doesn’t look like anything has changed with these two tradition-rich programs since OU beat Nebraska 21-7 in frigid Arrowhead Stadium to win the 2006 Big 12 championship.
The Huskers don’t have near the megabytes or pixels to handle all the information OU was throwing at them.
While it’s hard to imagine things going any worse for Nebraska than they did Saturday, these teams could play here another five times and the message the Sooners would deliver wouldn’t be any different.
Come back and see us when you’re more ready.
Well before halftime, heck, well before the end of the home team’s 35-point first quarter, a good portion of the Oklahoma-based media in the press box had turned their attention to what was going on in Lubbock, Texas, between Texas and Texas Tech.
Can’t blame them, either. And no offense to Tech and Oklahoma State, who now sit in a four-team quagmire atop the Big 12 South standings, a Sooner-Longhorn rematch in the national championship sounds appealing.
I’d like to see Texas try to beat the team that showed up here Saturday.
OU looked so much faster and stronger and better prepared that you might wonder whether the mismatch will test the friendship between fellow Youngstown, Ohio, natives Bo Pelini and Bob Stoops.
No chance. In fact, all it’s likely to do is stir up Pelini’s competitive fire.
What it definitely should inspire him to do is go get a quarterback like Sam Bradford, a rare gem and homegrown product from just up the road in Oklahoma City.
Bradford doesn’t remember much about Oklahoma’s 31-14 win against No. 1 Nebraska in 2000, a result that should have let Sooner Nation know Stoops was about to unleash a monster. Bradford was playing hockey in 2000.
On Saturday, it was the Huskers who looked like they were on skates while trying to keep track of Bradford’s ‘on-goal’ throws.
What Nebraska saw for the first time live was that it was no fluke Bradford finished his freshman season last year ranked No. 2 in nationally in passing efficiency. Nor that he’s up there again this year.
The over-the-shoulder, 41-yard strike he laid out for Ryan Broyles while rolling to his left on the Sooners’ first drive was as pretty a delivery as you’ll ever see. OU went on to punch the ball into the end zone for the eighth time in nine drives.
The next time he took the field, Bradford connected with Quentin Chaney for a 48-yard touchdown. It left him, in less than two seasons, with 30 completions of at least 40 yards, a feat accomplished by no other Sooner.
Bradford left after three quarters, having completed 19 of 27 passes for 311 yards and five touchdowns.
Meanwhile, a defense that gave up 550 yards to Kansas State was out to prove it left its problems in Manhattan, Kan.
That mission was accomplished in five plays — the amount it took the Sooners to record three turnovers.
In the three games since giving up 45 points to Texas, that’s 13 takeaways for OU.
No doubt, that’s encouraging stuff for the faithful who hung around well after OU had finished off the Huskers and celebrated Tech’s stirring last-play touchdown as they watched the action from monitors located throughout the stadium.
To them, their error-message report response had come in.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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