[Husker] Various interesting stats and thoughts...

[Andrew Smith]

A few interesting (at least to me) stats:

    * Nebraska had more first downs (17-13) and yards (366-307)
    * Nebraska crossed midfield 7 times to OU's 3
    * Nebraska started in OU territory 4 times to OU's 2
    * Brandon Jackson had 70 yards on 13 carries (5.4 average) vs OU's
      top RB's 35 on 15 (2.3 average)
    * Nebraska had 1 3-and-out (to OU's 4)
    * Taylor spread the passes to 10 different receivers (to OU's 5) -
      usually considered a good sign
    * All 3 of Taylor's INTs were when intentionally taking greater
      chances - at the end of the very end of  the 1st half (with about
      2 minutes left) and after Nebraska was down 21-7.  Not an excuse,
      but mitigating circumstances in my opinion

I totally agree that "too much pressure was put on Taylor by passing as 
much as we did. We completely went away from the run and OU could key on 
the pass with us in the shotgun".  At 5.4 yards per carry why did run so 
little?  Besides the desire for good yardage, a more balanced attack, 
etc., as Osborne pointed out, a key to dealing with a 14 point deficit 
is to not panic.  Putting so much pressure on Taylor makes it harder for 
him not to push the envelope in his passing decisions. 
After it was 21-7, THE FINAL 24 NEBRASKA PLAYS WERE ALL PASS PLAYS!!!  
Is it really a surprise that Taylor threw 2 INTs against a top defense 
under such circumstances?!  I think it was a big mistake to go away from 
the run so completely at that point.

While I agree that saying "take away those <some #> plays and it would 
be different" is a perilous exercise, in this case, take away just 1 out 
of several plays and the game could have been quite different.  It 
wasn't until Nebraska was down 21-7 and they started taking more chances 
in their passing game they were in trouble.  If at 14-7 even into the 
middle of the 4th quarter, the game would have been quite winnable. 

Of course, all of this just makes the loss that much more painful.

On a slightly different note, did you all notice how the announcers 
statistician gave Osborne credit for 2 additional titles (for a total of 
5)?  An intentional mistake I'm certain in order to add to the UN-OU 
mystique.  While he certainly was an important contributor to Devaney's 
titles, assistant coaches seldom get to claim credit for "winning" NCs.

Andy