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Blackshirts, er ah, Striped Shirts prevail Lincoln, Nebraska. Benefiting from some controversial refereeing, the Nebraska Cornhuskers unleashed a brutal ground game to jump to a 27-point lead, then held off the resurgent Washington Huskies, 51-38, in front of 85,110 bucolic fans, who were mostly dressed in idyllic red.Nebraska rushed for 309 yards, and Washington drew 90 yards in penalties and turned the ball over 3 times. The game was supposed to have consummated the marriage between Nebraska and the Big Ten Conference with the Big Ten Zebras, who can't count to 12 either, presiding over the ceremony. Instead the refs did the consummating while Washington did the receiving. Controversial calls are part of the game, but the ruling near the end of the first half and the one at the beginning of the second half seemed to turn the game around, in what otherwise had been a closely fought contest. "I'm still in disbelief right now," UW running back Chris Polk was quoted as saying. "The game could have gone a different way if we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot and if a few of the calls had gone a different way." Both controversial calls involved interfering with a punt receiver's chance to field the ball. The first punt bounced off the Nebraska receiver and was recovered by the Huskies on the Huskers' 25 late in the first half. But it was ruled that Cort Dennison had interfered with returner Tim Marlowe's chance to field the ball. In the ESPN replay, Dennison didn't appear to be anywhere near the ball, with Marlowe having ample room to catch it. The Striped Shirts gave the ball to the Blackshirts and then marched off 15 yards against the White Shirts, while the sea of Red Shirts roared in approval. Kicking a 35-yard field goal, the Huskers parlayed the gift into a 20-17 lead at the half, a lead they never relinquished. Washington coach Steve Sarkisian seemed livid on the sidelines, his face blending in with the background. Before the start of the second half, the flummoxed leader questioned a mulish ref about the call, but to no avail. UW went three and out at the beginning of the second half, and Kiel Rasp punted. As chance would have it, Desmond Trufant was ruled to have interfered with the Nebraska returner's chance to catch the punt, which he fielded cleanly. Once again the replay seemed to refute the Zebra's claim. Washington was penalized 15 yards, plus 5 more yards because its angry coaching staff had rushed onto the field to protest the call. It took 9 plays and 56 yards for Nebraska to take a 27-17 lead. And then the cookie crumbled, and the doughty crowd really whooped it up. The 85,110 loyalists all stayed to the end of the contest, for what else is there to do in Lincoln? On the ensuing kickoff, the Cornhuskers recovered true freshman Bishop Sankey's (for you name game buffs: a clergyman lost at sea) bobbled ball at the Washington one-yard line, scored and took a 34-17 lead. After falling behind 44-17 early in the fourth quarter, Washington scored 21 of the last 28 points in the game to narrow the margin of victory. Battered, bruised and limping after the game, Washington quarterback Keith Price completed 21 of 37 passes for 274 yards and 4 touchdowns. He was picked twice. His passing efficiency was 143.83 on the game and stands at 165.91 on the season, his season highlighted by 11 touchdown passes. The affable Price can take a pounding and come up smiling. His PE is 17th best in the FBS. Chris Polk rushed for 130 yards on 22 carries, while James Johnson caught six passes for 108 yards. While he only caught one pass for 15 yards, true freshman TE Austin Sefarian-Jenkins looks like a super stud in the making. An offsides penalty on a kickoff cost Erik Folk a touchback in the second quarter. Sark maintains Will Shamburger, the alleged culprit, was not offsides. As a result of the penalty, Ameer Abdullah ran the ensuing kickoff back 66 yards to the Washington 34, from where Nebraska scored to take a 17-14 lead. In effect UW was tagged with a 46-yard penalty.
Washington (2-1) failed to stop Nebraska's rushing
attack (309 yards on the game), which was the most disappointing aspect
of the shindig for me. In its first two games, UW couldn't defend against
the pass, and now it's the run. As a result, Washington ranks 108th in
the FBS in total defense and
115th in pass defense. It ranks 107th in scoring
defense It's too early in the campaign to write the Huskies off, for ... Optimistically speaking, one could say the refs cost the Dawgs 10 points and the Dawgs gave the Cornhuskers 7 (Sankey's fumble). That's 17 points; the difference was 13. And then there was the home-field advantage. Table 1. Keith Price's cumulative passing efficiency. Not too shabby for a newbie.
Richard Linde, aka Malamute can be reached at malamute@4malamute.com |
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