Nebraska Football: The Good, Bad and Ugly of the 20-13 Loss to Texas

THE GOOD

- A RECORD SET: Leave it to Mack Brown—whom I don't rate highly at all as a coach, even though he outcoached Pelini on Saturday—to nearly blow this one. Up 20-6 late in the fourth quarter and with NU on the ropes, Brown calls a bizarre fake field goal-turned-pooch punt that Eric Haag returns for a school-record 95-yard touchdown. There was absolutely no reason for such a fake—a regular old punt out the back of the end zone would have required a sputtering NU offense to drive 80 yards and then get an onside kick. But Brown, suffering from either hubris or incompetence, came pretty close to giving away a game that Nebraska had spent the entire afternoon giving to him.

- Z-MAGIC: There's been a small but vocal cadre of Nebraska fans clamoring to see Zac Lee in the game. They got their wish when Taylor Martinez was pulled in the second half. Lee had an immediate impact, settling the team down, improving the read on the zone read option and forcing the Texas defense to play more straight-up in respect to the pass. After the game, Cornhuskers coach Bo Pelini made it clear that Martinez was still his starter, and Lee had some issues of his own in his time in relief.

- A SATURDAY FULL OF UPSETS: Ohio State, Florida and South Carolina all went down to defeat this weekend, taking some of the national attention away from Nebraska's clunker in their Mother of All Games. (Think there might be some "Red Out Around The World" T-shirts on the clearance rack this week?) As a result, the damage to Nebraska from a national perspective is mitigated. Yes, if this is one of the "Goods," it should tell you a lot about how the game went.

THE BAD

- DROPPING THE PASS: It's the obvious difference in the game. Nebraska had eight drops officially, but that doesn't really encompass the damage this area inflicted on NU. At least two of the drops were sure touchdowns that could have wrestled momentum away from Texas. Making those catches when Martinez was still in the game would have forced Texas to respect the pass more and open more lanes for NU's ground attack.

- DROPPING THE BALL: The one fumble Nebraska lost set Texas up on a short field, helping them go in for their first touchdown and putting the Longhorns in control of the game in the first quarter. NU had a total of four fumbles, including one inside its 20 and one on a critical third down late in the game. I've been saying for weeks that those fumbles would cost NU a game, and in part they did on Saturday.

- DROPPING THE FIELD: NU suffered from horrible field position throughout the game. Some of that was symptomatic of their offensive struggles, and some of that was their inability to contain the Texas running attack at times. But facing the long field time after time put added pressure on a Nebraska offense that clearly wasn't ready for what they faced.

... AND THE WRONG MOTTO

After last year's Big 12 championship game loss, Nebraska adopted the motto "FINISH" to remind them to finish the job. After watching this team's struggles against Texas (and, to a certain extent, against South Dakota State), a better motto would have been "START."

Inexplicably, NU came out flat and unfocused. There's really no other way to explain poor tackling, dropped passes, fumbles, and penalty after penalty. Texas deserves all the credit for circling the wagons and doing what they needed to win the game, but NU's lapses provided the Longhorns with the ability to do so.

In his post-game interview, Pelini was remarkable in not placing the blame for the loss directly on the coaching staff. Instead he focused on "inexplicable" errors NU makes time and time again. While there's plenty of blame to lay on the coaching staff for this loss (did someone not inform NU that the Texas QB was an eligible ball carrier in the first quarter?), NU's first-quarter performance dug themselves a hole that their butterfingers couldn't quite climb out of.

THE BIG PICTURE

On paper, Nebraska's goals remain intact. They control their own destiny in the Big 12 North, with their main rivals in Missouri (who looks to be a lot more dangerous as the weeks go on) at home.

But let's not kid ourselves.

NU had this game circled since last December, and to lose against the hated Longhorns in such a manner has the potential to really knock the wind out of NU's sails. Throw in at least the possibility of a quarterback controversy with NU showing a short hook to Martinez in two of the last three games, and there's all kinds of fault lines that could develop into fissures and send this season into a real tailspin.

THE NEXT GAME

Nebraska at Oklahoma State (2:30 p.m., ABC): Oh, by the way, the Cowboys are undefeated and will likely be ranked higher than Nebraska coming into next week's game in Stillwater.

While the 'Pokes still don't play a lick of defense, their offense is more than capable of giving the Blackshirts all kinds of problems. Pelini has two things going for him, though, going into next week.

First, he's shown a real talent to get his teams to play well on the road (as this is being written, the Washington team that NU dominated is running nationally ranked Oregon State off the field). Second, Pelini's teams have always performed well after a loss.

Pelini will need every ounce of those factors to get his team right over the next week, or a season that started with such promise could get away from NU in a hurry.

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