KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Nebraska's defense played like Big 12 Conference champions Saturday.
At least that's how NU senior defensive end Jay Moore said he felt inside a chilly Arrowhead Stadium after losing to Oklahoma 21-7 in the Big 12 Championship.
The Blackshirts came away from the game dejected, to be sure. So much so that many defenders declined interview requests after the game.
But most of the blame likely won't be falling on a unit that held the vaunted Sooner rushing attack to 13 yards in the first half and just 42 for the game - easily OU's lowest rushing total for any game this year.
"I thought we played our best ever on defense the whole year," Moore said. "For the most part, we played well enough to win that ball game."
Of course, there were a couple notable exceptions. The first came on a 66-yard touchdown pass from OU quarterback Paul Thompson to wide receiver Malcolm Kelly that gave Oklahoma a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter. The second was a long touchdown drive by the Sooners to take a 21-7 lead late in the third period.
It was that drive - an 11-play, 99-yard trip that took three minutes, 21 seconds - that proved to be the undoing for Nebraska's conference title hopes.
After holding OU to two consecutive three-and-outs to open the second half, Nebraska had the Sooners at third-and-10 from their own one-yard line after Oklahoma had narrowly avoided a safety the play before.
On a play-action call, Thompson hit OU tight end Jermaine Gresham with a 35-yard pass, opening up the field for the quarterback to run multiple bootleg plays. Thomson would complete five more passes on the drive - four of which went for nine yards or more - and the Huskers didn't find an answer in time for a stop.
"It's just one of those things where they got into a groove," said NU senior safety Andrew Shanle, who grabbed his fourth interception of the year in the second quarter. "They got some confidence, and they just enjoyed throwing the ball, and, unfortunately, we didn't take them out of it."
What made OU's long drive all the more frustrating for Nebraska was the good field position it had for most of the third quarter. The Huskers started their first two drives of the period from the Oklahoma 45-yard line and its own 47, respectively, but both resulted in punts.
The Sooners' average starting field position in the third quarter was from its own eight-yard line.
"We had the short field in the third quarter several times," said Nebraska Coach Bill Callahan. "Their defense was just too stingy. They were the better defense. We just didn't get it done."
Husker defenders said stopping the OU running attack was their main goal, one they largely accomplished. But Thompson threw a career-high 34 passes for 265 yards and two touchdowns as the Blackshirts struggled to establish a disruptive pass rush.
"It was tough," NU senior quarterback Zac Taylor said of having to watch much of the game from the sidelines. "You feel bad because you watch your defense sit out there and just make play after play after play. Eventually they're going to give something up."
Adding to Taylor's ire was the solid play of the Husker special teams, highlighted by sophomore punter Dan Titchener pinning six of his seven kicks inside the OU 20-yard line.
"Our defense played good enough through the course of the game for us to win, and we put them in some bad spots," Callahan said of Oklahoma. "We just didn't capitalize. We just didn't make the plays we got to make in the championship game."
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