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 Saturday, October 27, 2001
Nebraska's game plan was brilliant
By Gary Danielson
Special to ABC Sports Online
LINCOLN, Neb. -- I said before the game that I thought both defenses would be able to shut down the other team's primary offensive weapon. Nebraska was better able to utilize its second option than Oklahoma.
|  | | Eric Crouch accumulated 186 yards of total offense in the winning effort. |
The option game was taken away from Eric Crouch, but Frank Solich's game plan was brilliant. He felt his defense was good enough, and he played a punt game. He said on Friday that he would be very patient. He felt that Oklahoma would not be able to drive the ball on them. He was right. He did not allow Oklahoma to start one drive in Nebraska's territory all game.
Crouch ran that game plan and did not get caught up in his personal statistics. He showed a lot of patience and waited for his big plays towards the end of the game. He is still in the running for the Heisman. He will have a nice highlight film game for him. They will be able to show the touchdown catch. They will see a big win. He didn't ice anything, but he did what he had to do against one of the top two or three defenses in the country.
Jason White's knee and Nate Hybl's shoulder hurt the Sooners. Hybl was not 100 percent. His shoulder will be like that the rest of the year. Every time he threw the ball, he winced afterwards. He is clearly not as healthy as he was at the beginning of the year.
When you have two nicked quarterbacks and you are looking for yards against a tough defense, someone has to make a big play. The Sooners' receivers didn't step up. They could have caught the ball better. No one made any juggling catches. The receivers came up with nothing the whole day. I am a little disappointed in that.
The OU coaching staff also outsmarted themselves a little bit at the end of the first half when they ran two straight times against the tough Nebraska rush defense behind their freshman tackle when they clearly knew that matchup was not a good one for them. And they had to settle for a field goal.
The youth on the Oklahoma offensive line was taken advantage of Nebraska. It would have been problematic anyway. This offense, even when Josh Heupel was running it, is susceptible to pressure. You have to throw the ball quickly. You have to dink and dunk. A lot of defenses have learned to take away their easy finesse plays and are forcing them to hold the ball a little longer, and that wears and tears on the quarterback. This offense produces yards, but it almost equally produces welts for the quarterback.
You have to rank Nebraska No. 1 with this victory. There is no doubt about that. This was a big test for Nebraska. The Colorado game in Boulder on Nov. 23 is going to be a huge football game. Colorado has no fear of Nebraska.
I would not drop Oklahoma very far. That's the way the game goes. If Oklahoma does its job the rest of the way, it will get back into the Big 12 championship game.
My one worry is that these two great teams could knock each other off in two tight ball games. We have seen the first tight game, which Nebraska won on its home field. The next one would be at a neutral site in Dallas. If Oklahoma comes back and wins it, we might have seen the two best teams in the country knock each other out of the championship.
If they do meet on Dec. 1, I would have to favor Nebraska. The Huskers have more weapons and OU's offensive line is not going to grow quickly enough.
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 Oklahoma can't catch up to the double reverse as Mike Stuntz airs it out to Eric Crouch for a 63-yard TD.
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Nate Hybl comes off the bench for the Sooners and hits Trent Smith in the end zone.
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Nate Hybl's pass bounces off Antwone Savage's helmet to Nebraska's Erwin Swiney for an interception.
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The Sooners go for a double reverse of their own, but can't convert when Nate Hybl slips.
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 Frank Solich talks to ABC's Jack Arute about the win over the Sooners.
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Eric Crouch is glad to be on the receiving end of a touchdown pass.
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