I am getting this written tonight so I can file this fucking mess away and not give it any more thought.
As the clock hit triple 0 tonight a head coach raised his hands in victory as his team partied on the field in a wild celebration and the fans stood and gave a wild ovation to tell their team how much they loved their teams effort. Certainly not an unusual sight at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln or any other stadium after every game on a Saturday for that matter but what made this unusual is that the coach, the team and the fans doing the celebrating actually had less points than the other team which walked off the field with their heads bowed low as if they would be embarrassed to be recognized by any family or friends. And make no mistake both reactions were more than justified.
Make no mistake South Dakota State had fewer points than Nebraska at the end of the game, 14 fewer as a matter of fact, but they not Nebraska won this game. This wasn't Missouri in 2000 sitting in a circle in their locker-room while their head coach lead them in a chorus of Kumbaya this was a small time football team that hit and played harder than their much larger opponents.
And for all of my fellow Cornhuskers fans trying to whitewash this game by saying things like "well they were a lot better than they were given credit for" This team lost to Delaware fucking State 26-3! Delaware fucking state! Yes SD State played harder and in many ways better than Nebraska did tonight but they are not a good football team and there was no excuse for this performance tonight.
Offense: F. Taylor Martinez was a Freshman tonight. Fumbling away the ball on Nebraska's first play from scrimmage, Two godawful interceptions one of which was returned for a touchdown and called back for a block below the waste and his decisions on the zone read were so poor that Shawn Watson started to call planned handoffs and taking the decision away from him. In the fourth quarter Martinez was replaced by Cody Green and he too was terrible missing wide open receivers twice. I suspect that Martinez let his new found fame and everything that goes with it I.E. the new friends both Male and Female get to his head. The Kid is going to be great no doubt about it but he was terrible tonight. South Dakota State's defensive line handled Nebraska's offensive line and both Helu and Burkhead ran sideways more than they ran forward. Especially Rex Burkhead who usually is the consummate north and south get every yard you can runner. Tonight he decided to be Gene Kelly and Fred Astare all wrapped up in to 1. Pathetic all the way around.
Defense: C- Yes South Dakota State only had 3 points ( though one could argue the officials had more to do with that than the Nebraska defense) But their offensive line pushed around Nebraska's defensive line all night. Nebraska's secondary again was stellar but how much of that was SD State's inability to throw the ball? I get it that the running back for SD State is pretty good but their is no reason for them to have a 100 yard running back tonight.
Special Teams: C- 3 return yards? SD with over 100 return yards? as one of my favorite bloggers Husker Mike said to me on Twitter when I asked him if Nebraska did anything well tonight "Alex Henery punted and kicked fine...that was about it..." I couldn't agree more. BTW thank you to SD State for their decision to kick away from Niles Paul. That was one of the few things going right for Nebraska all night. Of course the one time they did punt to him he fumbled it twice before Austin Cassidy recovered it for Nebraska.
Overall D-. Nebraska had 17 points and South Dakota State had 3. That saves them from an F. The only good thing about this game is that Bo Pelini has 12 days to chew ass before they take the field again. The bad news is until Thursday October 7th this is the last image of 2010 Nebraska football we will have in our heads and 12 days to stew on this bullshit may retire us all to bedlam. Watching Kansas State beat a bad UCF team in the last 20 seconds I mentioned that I saw nothing that made me fear our next game against them...I should have waited a few hours. Oh and how close was Nebraska to total disaster tonight? After Nebraska fumbled on their first play SD State had first and goal on the Nebraska 5. On Second and Third down SD state may have scored a Touchdown both plays were called down. 4th Down SD State lost a yard. In the 4th quarter SD State intercepted a Taylor Martinez pass and returned it for a touchdown the return was nullified by a blocking below the waste penalty.
Around The Big 12.
UCLA 34 Texas 12. Man I was really laughing my ass off until I watched Nebraska play.
Oklahoma 31 Cincinnati 29. Man what a great day for the Big 12. Nebraska and Oklahoma playing like monkey piss Texas getting blasted at home.
Missouri 51 Miami of Ohio 13. Give the Clampetts credit for doing their job something other Big 12 teams did not do today.
Kansas State 17 Central Florida 13. Central Florida gift wrapped this game for Kansas State. Something tells me the next 12 days won't be much funner for them as it will be for Nebraska.
Iowa State 27 Northern Iowa 0: On a night that many Big 12 teams sucked giraffe testicles this qualifies as a nice win for the Cyclones.
Kansas 42 New Mexico State16. At least one Cornhusker is happy tonight.
Baylor 30 Rice. 13. Again all things considered this qualifies as a nice win for the Bears.
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