Cornhusker squad nabs critical win over Jayhawks

During the fourth quarter of Nebraska's 45-35 weekend win over Kansas, the crowd's volume reached a sustained level that likely hasn't been heard in Lincoln for some time.

The Cornhuskers were up two scores for the majority of the final quarter and appeared to be stomping the life out of their opponent. The fans in attendance, sans a large chunk of empty student seats, cheered as they sensed an impending NU victory.

It was reminiscent of those old-school Nebraska victories, the ones where the Cornhuskers would wear a team down for three quarters and then pull away from their exhausted opponents at the end.

"I wouldn't say it was easy," NU linebacker Cody Glenn said, "but it was pretty dominating fashion on our part."

Nebraska gained 495 yards of total offense, only allowed Kansas to convert three of its 12 third-down conversion attempts and sacked KU quarterback Todd Reesing five times.

However, the Huskers were down 21-17 late in the third quarter because turnovers had taken away scoring opportunities for the Big Red and given them to Kansas.

Reesing had just thrown a touchdown pass after a Nate Swift fumble gave the Jayhawks great field position. It was Nebraska's third turnover and each of them had proved costly.

Nebraska's next drive started with a 14-yard shovel pass to running back Roy Helu Jr., was extended on a third and four pass to Swift on a crossing route for 24 yards and ended with Helu diving into the corner of the endzone on a 10-yard run. Nebraska would never trail the Jayhawks on the scoreboard after that.

"I knew we had a really good plan, I knew that we were executing it but then shooting ourselves in the foot," NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said. "We had a little 'let's all get on the same page' meeting upstairs at halftime and made sure the kids understood what was really taking place: we were just stopping ourselves."

Kansas tried a reverse that NU's Tyler Wortman snuffed out on the next Jayhawk possession to force a three-and-out. Nebraska's next play after the KU punt was a 52-yard Helu touchdown run. The stadium exploded with cheers. Several players said the atmosphere in the stadium at the end had a lot of to with the team's strong finish.

"I think it was when we got the 31-21 lead when I kind of noticed things switching and the momentum going our way," Swift said. "I kind of felt like our offense couldn't do wrong. That's a great feeling when you go out on the field and know you're going to score."

Swift and the offense scored on each of their remaining drives, except for the last one where the Huskers kneeled down to end the game.

The first of these scores was set up by another nifty Helu run where he hurdled over a defender en route to a 23-yard gain. Two plays later, Swift and Ganz hooked up for another key third-down conversion - this time a 22-yard gainer on third-and-six that set NU up at the KU two yard-line.

Nebraska then put defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh at fullback in its goal line set and Ganz found him on a two-yard touchdown pass.

Another NU defensive lineman, Zach Potter, caught a pass on the next play from scrimmage. This time it was from Reesing.

Potter's big interception set NU up in field goal range with a chance to put the game away.

However, Nebraska couldn't convert a first down and decided to settle for the field goal. Or so it seemed. Place-holder Jake Wesch took a snap in field goal formation and flipped it over his shoulder to kicker Alex Henery who was already on his way toward the first down marker eight yards away. Henery eventually got the first down, but had to cut back inside a defender to do so.

"It was nice to see him try and cut back to get the extra yards for the team and try and get that first down," Swift said. "It just shows what's kind of coming over the team. Everyone is trying to finish and do whatever they can for the team."

The trick play set up Ganz and Swift for yet another key third-down play which iced the game for good this time. NU faced a third and 13 when Ganz found Swift on an outside post route in the left corner of the endzone.

Nebraska's 45 points were the most the team has scored since posting 47 in the season-opener against Western Michigan.

"Nebraska played really fine football," KU coach Mark Mangino said. "They put a complete game together offensively. I thought they had good balance."

NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson called NU's fourth quarter success a "feeding frenzy" that started with Helu's 52-yard touchdown. Ganz said the KU defense was struggling later in the game and showed their desperation by sending a lot more blitzes at him.

"That's when we came in with our kill game where we're killing them with some passes," Ganz said.

NU receiver Todd Peterson said the coaching staff has emphasized the importance of finishing things - everything from conditioning sessions to games - since the Huskers started working with Pelini. Peterson said the results are starting to show.

"We always want to start fast and finish even faster, that's been our goal," offensive guard Matt Slauson said. "To end the game on the field in our victory set - that's the greatest feeling in the world."

The victory set Slauson referred to is the formation teams use when they want to run out the clock by having their quarterback kneel down to end a game like Nebraska did on Saturday.

Peterson added that NU wants to win its next two games against Kansas State and Colorado to set the tone in the Big 12 Conference North division for years to come. To do that, NU will have to finish the remainder of this season as well as they finished off the Jayhawks.

"We've been talking about it since last week when that all transpired. We have a chance here to finish things right," Peterson said. "We have three very winnable games coming up against Big 12 (Conference) North (Division) opponents that we need to beat year in and year out if we want to accomplish the goals that this program has, and just set that tone."

krisknowlton@dailynebraskan.com