Late To the Party

Once again, we'll wrap up last weekend a couple days too late. The picks from the weekend at TSL ended up being 4-2 in the Big XII with Texas A&M and Texas Tech winning on the road against North opponents. Non-conference was 1-1 once again, I'm no longer picking LSU for anything this season. The good thing was that Ohio State lost, dashing any hopes for a third consecutive national title game berth. Thank God.

Nebraska played in inverse order in terms of their performance two weeks ago in Ames, Iowa. The first half made me believe that Baylor would stand a chance to win in Lincoln. The though made me ill. I can't imagine how many problems Robert Griffin is going to give us down in Waco next year. But the defense adjusted in the second half and didn't give up any more points in a 32-20 win for the Huskers.

Our safety play is atrocious. Anyone who has been watching this year knows that. Matt O'Hallon is quite possibly the slowest safety to ever play for the Huskers, and Larry Asante, while improving, still looks lost in coverage. I will say that O'Hallon did make a career saving tackle to prevent a score in the second half.

Quentin Castille needs to hang on to the ball. This is the second straight week we've left points on the field, and this week was due to Castille fumbling on the two yard line that would have made the score 36-20 and nailed the coffin shut on Baylor. Instead, they had to rely on the defense to come up with a safety, which was nice to see.

The one big bright spot on the weekend and the win was senior wide receiver Nate Swift breaking the all-time receptions record set by the Heisman Trophy winning Johnny Rogers with 143. Swift finished the day with 147 for his career. Rogers was only at Nebraska for three years compared with Swift's four, however it shouldn't diminish the feat that much. People traditionally think of Nebraska as a run first school, however the Huskers did toss the rock around quite a bit under legendary coach Bob Devaney.

The Huskers are going to have to play mistake free if they plan to give Oklahoma a game down in Norman this Saturday night. My prediction is if the Huskers can move the ball and play virtually mistake free, we could be looking at a Texas Tech-esque game. However, if they turn the ball over and commit stupid penalties, as this team has show a propensity to do, they'll lose big.

This weekend in Norman, both schools will commemorate the "Game of the Century" between the Huskers and the Sooners which was played on November 25th, 1971. From what I've read, most of the players from both squads will be on hand before the game. I'd take a Nebraska win to cap off the event.

Obviously, I wasn't around for that game, however all the highlights I've seen and condensed versions of the game how could you forget it? How many times have you heard Lyle Bresmer's famous "Man, woman and child!" call from that game when Rogers returned one of the greatest punt returns in college football history? If you watch that highlight and don't get goosebumps, you might want to a have a trained medical professional examine you.

It's not often a school hosting a game will acknowledge a loss, however this game between #1 and #2 to decide who played for the national title in '71 was historic. It would be nice if things got back to normal with these teams playing each other every year, sadly since the Big XII is a please Texas first conference now, the Red River Rivalry took over the day after Thanksgiving clash between our one true rival. Anyway...

Here is how the picks stand on the year. In the Big XII, the record stands at 14-4 and overall is 17-7. Hopefully this week I'll have something other than SEC and Big 10, although the Georgia Florida match up will be hard to ignore.