LINCOLN, Neb.—Nebraska coach Bo Pelini knows his Cornhuskers could get clobbered if they don’t clean up their act this week at fourth-ranked Oklahoma.
“We’re going to be going down there to play a heck of a football team, probably as good a football team as there is in the country,” Pelini said. “We need to play better than we have to be up to the challenge.”
The Huskers (5-3, 2-2 Big 12) managed to get away with sloppy play to beat Baylor 32-20 on Saturday. They committed four personal fouls, missed a lot of tackles and fumbled at the Bears’ 2-yard-line.
“We make it interesting, don’t we?” Pelini said.
The Huskers find themselves tied for first place in the Big 12 North after wins in consecutive weeks over Iowa State and Baylor. But this week they’ll be facing their third Top 10 opponent of the season in Oklahoma (7-1, 4-1). In their other games against the elite, they lost 52-17 to then-No. 4 Missouri to 37-31 in overtime to then-No. 7 Texas Tech.
The Bears, who brought in a 2-48 record in Big 12 road games, had themselves believing they could win and Nebraska fans fearing an embarrassing loss for much of the afternoon at Memorial Stadium.
Robert Griffin ran for 99 yards in the first quarter alone, and Baylor led 20-17 at half.
The turning point came on the Bears’ second series of the third quarter. Griffin hit Kendall Wright on a fly pattern for 44 yards, but defensive end Zach Potter and safety Larry Asante came together to throw Griffin for a loss on third-and-goal at the 1. Ben Parks’ 19-yard field goal attempt was no good, bouncing off the left upright, and Nebraska went on a 12-play, 80-yard drive to take a 24-20 lead.
It looked as if Baylor would go three-and-out on its next series, but Will Henry roughed the punter. After Griffin ran for 11 yards to the Nebraska 37 on first down, the Huskers’ defense held again, with Asante sacking Griffin on fourth-and-4 at the 31.
Nebraska then went 65 yards in four plays to lead 30-20 on Joe Ganz’s 53-yard touchdown pass to Nate Swift.
“Our team is growing character-wise, they’re growing in their confidence,” Pelini said. “Where we need to keep growing is in our consistency and execution. Our guys aren’t getting rattled when things happen—not as rattled as their head coach. It’s not doing much for my blood pressure.”
A couple seasonlong bugaboos cropped up on the Huskers.
They were flagged six times for 70 yards and now are 108th in the nation in penalties per game (8.0) and 104th in yards penalized (68 ypg).
They also had no takeaways for the fourth time in five games and are 96th in turnover margin (8 takeaways, 14 turnovers).
“Ultimately, we just need to fix the things that are hurting us,” Pelini said. “We need to make people beat us. We can’t beat ourselves, and at times we do that.”
On the injury front, linebacker Phillip Dillard and receiver Menelik Holt left the game with injuries.
Dillard hurt his right ankle in the third quarter on a 19-yard run by Griffin. X-rays were negative, though Pelini said “he’s very sore to the touch.”
Holt had ice wrapped on his right knee after he was helped off the field after a first-quarter kickoff.
“We’ll have to evaluate him in the coming days,” Pelini said. “I don’t think it’s season ending.”
————
On the Net:
University of Nebraska-Lincoln athletics:
