Battle of the Big Red: One night only!!!

When I think of Oklahoma vs Nebraska, I think of 2 great programs who are rivals not out of hatred, but out of deep respect for one another.  2 tradition rich and dominant programs that co-existed in the same conference, since the days of the Big Eight and even beyond.

Throw in the numbers if you'd like.  12 National Titles, 86 Conference Titles, 8 Heisman Trophy winners, over 100 consensus All-Americans.  Games of the Century I & II.  Sooner Magic.  Switzer and Osbourne roaming the sidelines.  How can you not love this, the amount of respect that these 2 teams have for each other.  Even the fans can't help but throw friendly jabs at each other every now and then.

So it was only fitting that Nebraska and Oklahoma got together one more time, to close the chapter on the Big 12 Conference.  For one night only; where people can reminisce about the time when it was these 2 teams running the show.  None was 2nd best to the other, and everyone else was playing for the scraps.

You never really quite knew what to expect with this Nebraska team.  First, they blow out Kansas State (who in turn blew out Kansas), then come back 2 weeks later and lose to Texas.  They didn't even get an offensive touchdown.  The next week, they go to Stillwater and Taylor Martinez puts on a passing clinic against Oklahoma State.  They then followed that up with some less than convincing performances against Iowa State, Kansas and Texas A&M before bouncing back to beat Colorado.  It was becoming rather hard to know what to expect from this team.

I doubt any of us thought that OU would be trailing 17-0 midway through the 2nd quarter.  Especially after Nebraska's 2nd touchdown was set up by a Landry Jones interception (yeah, I know we're still trying to forget the 5 he threw last year in Lincoln).  I was starting to wonder where this Nebraska team was when they played both Texas and Texas A&M.  

However, Oklahoma had a little Sooner Magic up its sleeves.  Against one of the better defenses in the nation, especially against the pass, Oklahoma was able to go deep a few times and got some results.  Nebraska neutralized Oklahoma's short passing game (which at times has been rather annoying), and their pass rush forced Landry Jones into making some throws early or just throwing it out of bounds altogether (where's Broderick Brown when you need him).

Earlier in the season, had Oklahoma been trailing 17-0, especially on the road (coz that sure ain't happening in Norman), it would have been understandable if you wrote the team off.  Something happened to Landry Jones along the way, and aren't we glad it did.  He was on the money on those attempts, and Oklahoma outscored Nebraska 23-3 in that span.  He just stayed with it and it paid off.

Had it not been for Nebraska's defense, this game might have been a blowout.  How often does a team turn over the ball 4 times, get completely shut out in the second half and lose only by 3 points?  The second half turned out to be a retro Big 8 match up; smash mouth defense ruled the day and neither team would budge, save for a couple of long gains and those didn't come easy.  Sometimes, the beauty of a masterpiece lies not in the result but in the struggle.

Despite the result, this game will surely go down as one of the good ones in this storied rivalry.  The next Oklahoma-Nebraska is scheduled in 10 years, unless they meet in a bowl game.  Until then, thank you for all the memories.  It sure was fun while it lasted.