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| 2000
Season in Review-Re-caps of each game of the 2000 season including
pictures and links to other articles on the web pertaining to that game. 2000 Recaps Page 2
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| Week 3 - It hasn't been pretty but the Big Red is 3-0 after outlasting
Iowa.Just win baby may have a whole new meaning in Lincoln. 1 Nebraska 42 NR Iowa 13
LINCOLN, Neb. -- Eric Crouch made nearly every pass count against Iowa, and No. 1 Nebraska came away with another victory.Nebraska went to the pass attack and it was effective Saturday.
Crouch
only threw the ball 13 times Saturday, but the results couldn't have been much better --
10 completions, five touchdowns and a 42-13 win over the Hawkeyes. "It's
great to know our passing game is there when we need it," Crouch said. "We've
still only thrown what, 38 passes so far? That's not a lot. It's not like it was an air
show or the West Coast offense or anything like that. We run the ball, that's what we
do." The Hawkeyes matched a school record with their 12th straight loss. "The guys were trying hard and giving good effort. We've just got to play smarter, more disciplined football," Ferentz said. An unranked team hasn't beaten No. 1 since Michigan State upset Ohio State in 1998. The Hawkeyes stayed within range until late in the fourth quarter.The Huskers weren't able to put the game away until Crouch's 4-yard TD pass to Wistrom with 1:27 left in the game. Troy Watchorn added a 39-yard interception return for a TD with 55 seconds left. The Hawkeyes, who last lost 12 straight in the 1973-74 seasons, never got their running game going and finished with 47 yards rushing. Scott Mullen was 19-of-40 for 252 yards, but the Huskers had two interceptions and four sacks. Crouch, who had just one passing touchdown in the Huskers' first two games, threw three TD passes to Wistrom, including a 10-yarder on the opening possession of the third quarter that gave Nebraska a 28-13 lead. "They are dangerous on the ground and in the air," Iowa defensive back Mikkel Brown said. "They don't go for big plays. It's all just misdirection. That's Nebraska for you." Davison caught Crouch's other two scoring passes. Crouch's 43-yard pass to Davison on the final play of the second quarter gave Nebraska a 21-13 halftime lead and sent a deflated Hawkeye team into the locker room.
The Huskers got the ball at their own 20 with 1:44 left in the first half with only a
14-13 lead after two Nate Kaeding field goals for Iowa. Nebraska looked like it was
running out the clock when Crouch broke a 25-yard run that set up the Huskers at the Iowa
41 with less than a minute left. After an incompletion and a sack, Crouch hit Davison at
the 5-yard line and Davison backed into the end zone. "It was a huge play. Otherwise,
we would have gone in 14-13 and that wouldn't have been good," Davison said.
"That gave us some momentum." Iowa shocked Nebraska by taking a 7-0 lead on a
29-yard pass from Mullen to Kevin Kasper, who jumped between two defensive backs for the
catch. Nebraska tied it on its next possession when Crouch's hit Davison with a 31-yard
pass, capping a 10-play, 86-yard drive. Crouch added a 12-yard touchdown pass to Wistrom
in the second quarter. Week 4 - Welcome to chapter 4 in
the year of the upset.College football is on a wild ride this season with the unbeaten
teams dropping off like flies,and other top ranked teams slipping by sub-par foes.
Again Nebraska looked very average in Saturday's 42-24 win over Missouri,in response Nebraska was dropped to No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25. The Cornhuskers remained No. 1 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll. Defending champion Florida State moved into No. 1 . The Blackshirts know they are not up to par this season,rush end Vanden Bosch said about dropping in the polls "We can't do anything about that, but one thing we can do is work on ironing out our mistakes and come out and play the dominating type game that I know we can play." Nebraska center Dominic Raiola said that the Huskers are always aiming for a dominant performance,but the team is happy to win and move on. "You always want to beat a team bad, but being No. 1, you're going to get everyone's best shot," Raiola said. "Winning is all that matters. If you win all your games, there's a good chance that you'll get to play in the national championship game. Let the polls say what they want to say." Following a 27-24 overtime win at Notre Dame and a uninspired 42-13 victory over winless Iowa, the Seminoles had been steadily closing the gap on Nebraska. ESPN's Chris Fowler -- one of the most high-profile of the 71 media poll voters -- repeatedly said that if Nebraska wasn't impressive against Missouri, it would more than likely lose his No. 1 vote.It is safe to say the Husker's knew it was coming. Florida State (5-0), which became the first team to go wire-to-wire at No. 1 in the AP poll last season, inched past Nebraska (4-0). The Seminoles, who cremated Maryland 59-7 Thursday night received 42 first-place votes and 1,745 points. The Cornhuskers had 28 first-place votes and 1,731 points. Last week, Nebraska had 39 first-place votes and 1,743 points compared to Florida State's 30 first-place votes and 1,732 points. In the new poll, Florida State gained 12 first-place votes, while the Huskers lost 11 first-place votes. Nebraska's tumble in the AP poll marked the first time that a No. 1 team won and was still demoted since it happened to Penn State -- twice -- in 1997. The Huskers also plummeted from No. 1 that season after a 45-38 overtime win at Missouri. NU slipped from No. 1 to No. 3 following the narrow escape in Columbia, Mo. In the new coaches' poll, Nebraska and Florida State remained 1-2, but the Seminoles took seven first-place votes away from Nebraska. The Huskers collected 37 first-place votes and 1,452 points, while Florida State totaled 21 first-place votes and 1,434 points. Nebraska I-back Dan Alexander said that he thinks opponents are rising to the occasion when they meet the Huskers. "I think opponents are playing up to our level," Alexander said. "I don't think we've played a complete game yet. We're not on top of our game right now and I think we're letting ourselves down at times, but I really think teams are out there giving us their best shot. "That's hard for us, but we've got to be prepared for that. I don't think we had the best practices this past week and we were kind of playing at a low level." Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch, who passed for 173 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 110 yards and another score, said he thinks the Huskers are on the verge of playing like a No. 1 team. "It just seems like we haven't put everything together yet as an offense, defense and special teams," Crouch said. "I think we're just right there. There's just a few small things we need to fix and we'll be there right in it." First, it was shitty special teams play that was causing Nebraska's coaching staff concern. Now the defense sucks. Missouri outgained Nebraska 492-484 in total offensive yardage. The Huskers, who entered the game ranked 27th nationally in total defense, let the Tigers gain 10 or more yards on 19 of 70 offensive snaps. MU had 283 yards passing and 209 yards rushing. "Certainly, we're concerned," Nebraska defensive coordinator Craig Bohl said. "But what you've got to do is stay positive as a coach. "We're going to really go back to the drawing board as far as some of our designs and we'll take a critical look at the tape and come out on Monday and work to get better." Bohl said he thinks Nebraska's defensive problems can be corrected. "I'm not alarmed and we're not going to panic," Bohl said. "We've got an experienced coaching staff and we've got an experienced scheme and there's a philosophy that we have. What we need to do is keep on taking steps to get better." ....DUH REALLY !!Alot Better or it may become a long season. Week 6 - All week the
state of Iowa was a buzz with talk of knocking off a seemingly vulnerable Husker
team.Results:A steadily improving Husker sqaud,did what the Huskers always do to Iowa.Beat
them! Second ranked Nebraska(#1 in coaches poll) was
behind at the half (14-13)for the first time this year,but rallied in the second half for
5 touchdowns and a 49-27 victory over the pesky cyclones of Iowa St. Crouch ran for 138
yards and passed for 164 to keep the Cornhuskers (5-0 overall, 2-0 Big 12) in contention
for the national title after trailing for the first time at halftime this season.
"Part of football is overcoming adversity and that's one of the things we talked
about at halftime," said Crouch, whose 1-yard run in the fourth quarter gave him
eight rushing touchdowns to go with his eight passing TDs. "We're a powerful football
team and offense is something we take pride in," Crouch said. "We knew what they
were going to line up in. It was a matter of picking out the plays that we wanted to run
and executing every single one of them." The Cyclones (4-1, 1-1), off to their best start in 20 years, led 14-13 at halftime but could not stop Nebraska in the second half as the Huskers scored five touchdowns. Sage Rosenfels was 22-of-42 for 346 yards and two touchdowns to lead Iowa State. But the Cyclones, who averaged 227.5 rushing yards, couldn't run the ball and finished with just 37 yards on the ground. "We got beat up front. We didn't run the ball," Iowa State coach Dan McCarney, who fell to 0-6 against Nebraska. "They were more physical than we were. We didn't sustain blocks." It was the first time since McCarney took over at Iowa State in 1995 that the Cyclones haven't lost to the Huskers by at least 35 points. "We played a lot more good snaps against Nebraska than we ever have in the past," McCarney said. "We went into this football game trying to win, not be respected, trying to close the gap. We weren't able to do it." Iowa State was within range of the upset until Crouch took over in the second half, shaking off a second-quarter interception that the Cyclones returned for a touchdown. Crouch was nearly flawless in the second half, completing 3-of-3 passes for 53 yards. He also rushed for 79 yards in the half to lead Nebraska on four of its final five scoring drives. Crouch finished 7-for-17 for 164 yards. Crouch's 1-yard touchdown run with 4:05 left was the Huskers' fourth of the second half. It was the first of the game for Crouch, but he played a large part in the Huskers' next three. Crouch had a 22-yard run in a 39-yard drive that set up Buckhalter's goal-line dive that gave Nebraska a 19-14 lead early in the third quarter. Crouch also hit Aaron Golliday with a pass for the 2-point conversion. After an Iowa State touchdown and failed point-after try brought the
Cyclones to 21-20, Crouch led the Huskers on an 11-play, 70-yard drive for a 28-20 lead
that ended on Willie Miller's 9-yard touchdown run. Crouch kept the drive going with a
25-yard pass to Buckhalter and a 20-yard strike to Tracey Wistrom on third downs.
Buckhalter added a 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth and backup QB Jamaal Lord added a
late TD on a 6-yard run. The Cyclones took a 7-0 lead on Rosenfels' 53-yard pass to Craig
Campbell, who got behind Nebraska's secondary and scored untouched in the first quarter.
Jamarcus Powers stepped in front of Crouch's pass and outran the quarterback in a dash for
the end zone and the Cyclones led 14-13 at halftime. It was the first time Nebraska had
trailed at the half this year. Buckhalter scored on a 9-yard run that tied it at 7 and
Josh Brown hit field goals of 40 and 24 yards. The Huskers drove inside the Iowa State 30
three other times in the half, but did not convert. Crouch was stopped on a fourth-and-3
at the Cyclones' 24 and Brown missed field-goal attempts of 39 and 48 yards. Articles about the Iowa St. game: Nebraska head coach Frank Solich is
getting used to The Eric Crouch Show. He especially likes the endings. The junior
quarterback only... |
MU