Kansas City, Mo. – It wasn’t a homecoming, but Nebraska quarterback Zac Taylor looked forward to facing the team from his hometown just the same.
Yet once again, Taylor walked away disappointed.
Taylor tossed three interceptions and threw a few others that were simply dropped by Oklahoma defenders.
He finished 23-of-50 for 282 yards and one touchdown Saturday night, never quite getting comfortable in the face of a Sooners defense that gave him a variety of looks and brought just enough pressure to make his decisions quick and not all the time sound.
“Personally, I threw a couple of interceptions in the red zone,” said Taylor, a senior from Norman, Okla. “You can’t expect to win if you do that.”
This wasn’t Taylor’s first loss to Oklahoma. He was at the helm of the Nebraska offense last season when the Sooners went to Lincoln and won 31-24. This was, though, the last chance for Taylor to beat OU. Taylor grew up a fan of Oklahoma’s, but he wasn’t recruited by the Sooners.
After the game, OU coach Bob Stoops spoke to Taylor.
“He just said, ‘Great game, great season,”‘ Taylor said. “There’s a lot of respect between both teams and both coaches. He’s a great guy.”
Game’s biggest play
Faced with third-and-10 at his 1-yard line, OU quarterback Paul Thompson hit freshman tight end Jermaine Gresham on a 35-yard pass play. Eight plays later, the Sooners scored on a 3- yard pass from Thompson to wide receiver Malcolm Kelly.
Nebraska defenders pointed at the Thompson-to-Gresham pass as the turning point in the game.
“It really changed the way the second half went,” Huskers defensive end Jay Moore said.
Clearance to play
Denver isn’t the only city that has seen a recent drop in temperature and rise in snow accumulation. Kansas City had much of the same the past few days, and workers had to clear 10 inches of snow off Arrowhead Stadium’s grass surface on Friday to make the field playable.
Footnotes
Nebraska tailback Brandon Jackson left the game in the third quarter with what coach Bill Callahan called a “hand injury.” He did not return. … Nebraska had an estimated 60,000 fans in attendance. … Allen Patrick’s quick touchdown for OU was the fastest any team has scored in Big 12 title game history. It took the Sooners only 48 seconds to score. And it marked the seventh consecutive year the Big 12 South team scored first in the championship game.
