1999 Nebraska vs Colorado

Boulder)--Eric Crouch took it in from the two ending the first overtime
and the ballgame in a 33-30 Nebraska victory.

Crouch's first and only touchdown of the game followed a Dan Alexander
nine yard blast that put the ball on the Colorado two yard line.Nebraska
was trailing for the first time as well following a Colorado field goal
earlier in the overtime.

The game was sent into overtime when Colorado missed a short field goal
with one second remaining in regular time. Had that kick not gone awry
the Kansas State Wildcats would have represented the Big XII North in
the championship game.

When the fourth quarter began it looked like Nebraska was going to win
running away and possibly move into second place in the BCS rankings
for a shot at a national title. Fourteen minutes of playing time later
it appeared the Huskers weren't even going to play for the Big XII
championship as the Cornhuskers saw their 27-3 third quarter advantage
dwindle to a 27-27 tie.

Then a booming Dan Hadenfeldt kick pinned Colorado inside their own ten
yard line. Two plays later All American Mike Brown forced a Colorado
fumble and Keyou Craver recovered at the fifteen yard line.

It appeared Nebraska would come away with at least a three point lead
with only two minutes left in the game, but Dan Alexander who had led
a massive first half rushing attack fumbled the opportunity away and
Colorado had the ball 85 yards away from the goal in a tie game.

The Boulder altitude appeared to be getting to the Nebraska Blackshirts
as the Buffaloes knocked and smashed their way downfield. Colorado
moved the ball downfield to inside the twenty and then let the clock
tick away to one second before calling a time out.

Earlier the Colorado kicker had put six points on the board and this
was well within his range. Just before play began Nebraska called a
timeout of its own as the Husker faithful wondered whether Kyle Vanden
Bosch would come up with a fourth blocked field goal of the day.

As it turned out a block wasn't needed and the kick missed by going
just outside the right upright and the game was sent into overtime.

Colorado had tried a trick play on the very first play of the game
with an onside kick which Nebraska managed to cover giving the
Cornhuskers great field position on the fifty yard line.

The first play from scrimmage saw Dan Alexander sprint around the
right end and rumble fifty yards into the end zone followed by a
Josh Brown PAT to put Nebraska up 7-0.

Colorado received the Nebraska kickoff but were unable to generate
any offense and were forced to punt the ball away when the
Blackshirts demonstrated just how tough they can be.

The Cornhusker offense found itself with good field position again.
On the fourth play of this series Dan Alexander exploded again to
put Nebraska up by two touchdowns after Eric Crouch had scrambled
through the Buffalo defenders for a 36 yard run.

Neither team produced much offense during the remainder of the first
quarter. Then very early in the second quarter Josh Brown kicked a 34
yard field goal with 14:47 left in the half.
Colorado's next possesion ate up a lot of clock and went 64 yard on
17 plays. But the Buffaloes had to settle for a three point field
goal from 30 yards out.
For it's next possession Nebraska gave the ball to Alexander again
and he rambled 80 yards from scrimmage for his third touchdown of
the afternoon which combined with another Josh Brown conversion gave
the Huskers a 24-3 halftime lead.

Nebraska kicked off to Colorado to start the second half and the
Buffalos fumbled a pitch on the 24 yard line in yet another fist
play disaster. However, Nebraska was unable to take advantage of
the short field when Dan Alexander fumbled and Colorado got the
ball back.

Colorado limited Nebraska to only a three point Josh Brown field
goal in the third quarter but were unable to make any further
dents in the Blackshirt defense. Nebraska led 27-3 at the end of
three.

The Blackshirts had dominated the Colorado offense for three
quarters with only a couple of exceptions but in the fourth quarter
the Buffalos behind the leadership of Mike Moschetti showed big
hearts and gave Nebraska all it wanted and more.

The Colorado running game was beginning to work a bit and Moschetti
was looking like he could pick apart the Blackshirt secondary
despite being anchored by two All Americans in the Browns
(Mike and Ralph).

Meanwhile the Colorado defense was stepping things up a pace and the
Nebraska offense was being troubled by fumbles again. Twenty four
unanswered points later it was a tie game. Colorado had the ball
inside the twenty in great field goal range and there was only one
second left on the clock.

Nebraska won the coin toss for the first overtime and elected to go
on defense first. The Nebraska Blackshirts held the Buffalos to just
a field goal which put them up by three points for their first and
only lead of the game, but that made 30 unanswered points. The
question now was could the Nebraska offense hold onto the ball
and send the game into a second overtime or win it outright.

Eric Crouch hit Matt Davison for a short pass and then sent Willie
Miller up the middle. The next play big Dan Alexander made up for
his fumbles by gaining the first down on the Colorado one yard line.

The next play Crouch took it in and sent Nebraska to San Antonio
to seek revenge against Texas in the Big XII championship game.

"We only scored three points and lost momentum in the third quarter
and then the game went right down to the wire," Nebraska Coach Frank
Solich told reporters after the game.

"We got the win and we'll take it," Solich added. The narrow victory
would cost the Huskers their chance to move ahead of Virginia Tech
in the BCS standings and a chance to play Florida State for a national
championship.

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