SaturnDrew

It's really been my perception as a Husker fan that while we produce some excellent quality teams on the field, we don't often win games that we shouldn't, especially against caliber squads. I would much rather have a consistent team than one that spanks a top 10 team and then folds to a team like Iowa State the following week. (I won't mention any names!) But I would still love to see Nebraska just pull off a huge upset, even though next week it won't necessarily be that extreme of an upset. And by the way, many of the 12 losses were from Florida State and Miami squads in the Orange Bowl. A few also from Texas, Washington, USC, and Oklahoma. While I don't have statistics to back it up, I usually notice 1 or 2 teams every week in the Top 10 get beat by an 11 or lower. Edit: I was curious so I looked it up for this season. Week 8: 1 Week 7: 3 Week 6: 2 Week 5: 0 Week 4: 1 Week 3: 1 Week 2: 0 Week 1: 0 So on average, about once a week. Thanks. Me no read all words so good sometimes. So we're 1 out of the last 13. I'll guess on average that 8 of the top 10 teams played someone 11 or lower, so 1 out of 8 teams out of the top 10 beat a top 10 team. 1 out of 13 vs 1 out of 8 isn't terrible. And if we beat Mizzou, it becomes 2 our of 14, or better than this average. It probably is a bit worse because some of those 7 out of 8 teams that lost were FCS schools or real bottom feeders, which we haven't been. But it still kind of falls in that statistical aberration category. On the other hand, I'll bet a lot of our losses were to FSU and Miami teams that were in the top 2 or 3. btw, you wrote this. It's much better than something Beano Cook would come up with.

If you liked it, I did. If not, it was written by Beano Cook. :-)

How many? And this is beyond the scope of what you looked at, but how often do Top 10 teams get beat, even just by teams 11-25? While I don't have statistics to back it up, I usually notice 1 or 2 teams every week in the Top 10 get beat by an 11 or lower. Edit: I was curious so I looked it up for this season. Week 8: 1 Week 7: 3 Week 6: 2 Week 5: 0 Week 4: 1 Week 3: 1 Week 2: 0 Week 1: 0 So on average, about once a week.

Undefeated and 7th ranked Missouri is coming to town to take on our 14th ranked Huskers. The opportunity to knock off a Top 10 team comes around once or twice a season, but how often is it that Nebraska plays the role of spoiler in that a Husker team ranked below 10th has defeated an opponent ranked 10th or higher? I did a little research, and think I found the answer. Bo Pelini hasn't done it yet. Last week's victory over then #14 Oklahoma State was the highest ranked opponent he has defeated since becoming head coach. Bill Callahan? Yeah, definitely didn't happen. Frank Solich? Surely he had some spoilers. Nope. Nebraska was usually ranked higher than 10th at the prime of his coaching career in 1999-2001, but after that, no victories against 10th ranked teams or better. So yes, the last time a Nebraska team ranked lower than 10th defeated a team ranked higher than 10th was during the Osborne era. So it had to have happened during our decade of dominance in the 1990's, yes? No. Nebraska was seldom ranked below 10th during the 1990's. And in the seldom times they weren't ranked that high, they would get dominated by either an Oklahoma team or in a bowl game. The 80's? Nope. The last time this phenomenon occurred was October 22, 1977 against 7th ranked Colorado. The #18 Husker team licking its wounds from an Iowa State upset the week prior took down the Buffalos 33-15. Blame many things for this long streak continuing. The fact Nebraska was in the Top 10 for many weeks of this streak doesn't help, but there are also many weeks Nebraska was not in the Top 10 and had a chance to break the streak. The most recent opportunity was last year's game against Texas. Who, by the way, have done this to the Huskers four times since the Big 12 started. Since the 1977 win versus Colorado, a sub-10th ranked Nebraska team has had 12 chances to end this streak. The streak has seen some good games and others that were just lousy. Yes, the Huskers played tough against those high-ranked Longhorns last year. The Texas Tech game in 2008 went into OT. The 2006 Texas game was also victory within our grasp. And in 1998, Nebraska was a blind referee missing Eric Crouch getting his head twisted 270 degrees by Kansas State from possibly ending the streak. It is time Nebraska ended this streak. They can do that with a victory over Missouri--in my opinion, a very winnable Missouri team.

I would rather have biased announcers than biased officials (as was the case last week against Texas). But speaking of, Nebraska got penalized on that play for apparent delay of game I believe. I was in the bar and couldn't hear everything that was going on, but how did they get delay of game penalty when they were waiting for the injured player to be removed from the field?

I lol'd. There is such a thing as an introvert, or he's just plain shy. It can also be fun in itself to be nonchalant about scoring. Maybe he doesn't want to get his team an excessive celebration penalty.

HAHA! I yelled at my roommate for drinking orange vodka last night and then leaving it out on the counter. He didn't understand.

yup same old crap all the time As long as he keeps winning games, he can say as much (or as little) as he wants.

It will be worse for me than the ASU game. I didn't have that much against ASU other than Bruce Snyder being an a$$ and bitching after the 1995 game because we "ran up the score." I even lived in Phoenix at the time and was running my mouth the week of the game. Oh the crow I was force fed! This will be much worse for me. Like a kid wanting an official Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200-Shot Range Model Air Rifle and getting a pink bunny suit for Christmas kind of worse. Like the movie though, this plot will also have a happy ending though.

I will probably just cry. A lot.

HAHA! He pulled a Chase Daniel!

mmmmmmm Chick-fil-a! The only redeeming quality in knowing there is not a Runza within a 12 hour drive.

It will be interesting to see if Oklahoma and Missouri are both undefeated as well, which one they will select for the late coverage. Both Missouri and Oklahoma State are ranked about the same, as well as Nebraska and Oklahoma.

I realize that this game, in terms of importance for the season, probably is no more important than any other, simply because Texas is not doing well this year, but I really think this is important for the psyche of the team as we head to the Big 10 conference. A loss to any other team would stink, no doubt about it, but we've had scoreboard on them. I just feel like our move to the Big 10 won't be complete without this win Saturday. It will leave an emptiness in my stomach that a loss over Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Missouri, Iowa State, or Kansas wouldn't. That's why I compare it to the Orange Bowl from 1995. The conference championship game from last year stung, but I didn't feel a sense of urgency of Nebraska needing to win it. I wanted to see Suh go to a BCS bowl for all the hard work and dedication he gave to the program.

However many points Texas has outscored us by since 1998, we will make that up in this game alone and then some. Mark my words. Unless I'm wrong. Then just ignore me.

I was trying to think of the last time I had wanted the Huskers to win a game this badly. I've been on the huskerboard and huskermax looking at the news every hour just to see if there is some big development in the game. The closest I would think of would probably be the 1995 Orange Bowl vs. Miami. I wanted Osborne to win the national title and break the bowl losing streak so badly. After that, we got kind of spoiled by the success of the Huskers. Winning was nice, but didn't seem crucial. Then Solich and that other coach took over and games just didn't seem all that exciting any more. Things seem different now. For many reasons, there is a sense of urgency in beating the Longhorns this time. No doubt there have been other great games, but it has been a long time since I've been this psyched up for a game before. Do you feel the same I do? When was the last time you've been this psyched up for a game?

I remember 1990, I was around 10 and Oklahoma beat Nebraska horribly...something like 45-10. I felt like that kid in the OU shirt below. The last thing I wanted was a television camera in my face. I feel sorry for this little kid. He literally has his heart broken in this pic. He's just a little kid!

With an Alabama loss coupled with the big Nebraska win, we may see Nebraska leap frog TCU and/or Boise State. There are many anti-non BCS Conference voters who would love to have us in the Top 3 with Oregon and Ohio State. Unlikely, but I've seen pollsters do stranger things.

Okay, so I know this is horrible, but even funnier than the sad looking "I hate N" sign person was the kid they showed in the stands (8-9 years old maybe) who was crying. It was sad yet you couldn't help but snicker just a bit. I would ask someone to try to find that picture in the game and post it, but that would be really, really, really mean and classless. (Email it to me instead! LOL)

I really liked the "I Hate N" sign because the guy holding it looked sooooo sad. "(snif, sniff) I hate you guys!!!" (sob) LOL....Somebody needed a hug!!!

They have the letter "X" in their name. I always thought that "X" is a cool letter. Except that is more of a testament to the state, and not the school. Hmmmm. This is tough. I like the play call back in the 1996 Big 12 Championship game. That took balls. I will give them credit for that.

I was watching the game at the bar with a few KSU fans in the room, and when the "I hate N" sign came up on the screen, (Which by the way, give them credit, I bet it took a Kansas State fan the whole bye week to come up with that clever saying) I yelled, "Awwww, but we will always LOVE YOU, Kansas State!!"

I respectfully disagree with Snyder being a "class act." A good coach, yes, I will give him that. Too many weird stories about frozen butter, sunny side of an airplane, and his obsession for wanting to play the worst non-conference schedule in football makes me question the guy's character a bit. But then again, I don't know him personally, and there's probably reasonable explanations for his apparent control issues.

Hate often stems from jealousy. It's been well over 10 years since we've been hated. It's the ultimate compliment.

The game can now officially be played!