N I I 1 Ir I FB F I II III ebraskas-Broken May tracks Ukianoma By Bill Seek Of Ihe Pott-Dispatch Staff NORMAN, Okla., Nov. 26-As the newspapers say, national champion Nebraska came from behind in the last minute and 38 seconds here yesterday to defeat Oklahoma, 35-31 on tailback Jeff Kinney's fourth touchdown of the afternoon. The game caused the Orange Bowl sponsors to celebrate, the Sugar Bowl sponsors to weep and President Richard M. Nixon to make two expensive long-distance telephone calls (holding for a half hour on one of them). It was a game in which an Owen Field record crowd of 63,385 surely got its six bucks worth, but for all the tumult and shouting, it turned on one homely little broken play with time running out in the fourth quarter. Jerry Tagge, Nebraska's S-foot-2, 215-pound quarterback, couldn't help grinning like an idiot as he described the play afterward and at that moment, Tagge looked pretty funny, anyhow. He had been thrust under the shower by Us Cornhusker teammates and while he was there, Nebraska Gov. J. J. Exon had reached in to slap red velvet hat oa Tagge's streaming head. Tagge still wore the governor's hat along with wet clothes as he told how, with less than four minutes remaining and Nebraska trailing, 31-28, the Cornhuskers final drive seemed to have run out of steam on the Oklahoma 46-yard line. "Our whole game plan was not to fall into a third-down and long yardage situation against Oklahoma," said Tagge. "When you do that, they play a three-man line and send everybody and his sister back on pass defense. "So here we are looking at a third-down and eight and we're too far out to think field goal. And if we turn the ball over we might never get it back, so I called an "all hook" pattern with four receivers down. That means they go down about 10 to 12 yards and then hook back. "It should have worked because their middle linebacker (Steve Aycock) should have gone to one side and then I could have thrown to the othtr. Instead, he dropped straight ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 1 A pons IOB MOEG, Editor Fri., Nov. 26, 1971 PAGES 1 IOB back and I had no place to throw," Tagge said. "So I started running for the sidelines. Then I noticed that Johnny Rodgers (slotback) had started something, too. He was drifting right with me. So I popped him right between two linebackers and, thank God, he caught it. When you've got a great receiver and a smart receiver, things like that are possible." Tagge's pass was no thing of beauty-low and sinking and Rodgers made a falling, shoestring grab. The Important thing was that the connection gained II yards and a first down at the Sooners' 35. That made it possible for the Cornhuskers to continue the drive which was capped when Kinney dived into the end zone from the 2 for the points that won the game. Almost everyone said that the winner of the titanic clash between Nebraska, the nation's No. 1-ranked team and Oklahoma, No. 2, would have to score first as well as last and that's just what Nebraska did. But throughout, the Sooners remained as dangerous as 11 puppies on a new rug. They led, 17-14, at the half, dropped behind, 28-17, at one point in the third quarter before narrowing the gap to 28-24, and then jumped into the lead again, 31-28, before the Huskers' final march. ' Nebraska's first touchdown came on a 72-yard punt return by Rodgers, after which Kinney scored on lunges of one yard, three yards, one yard and two yards. The Sooners opened with a 30-yard field goal by John Carroll and then got a pair of three-yard runs from quarterback Jack Mil-dren plus Mildren touchdown pass of 24 and 16 yards to wide receiver John Harrison. What about spectacular Greg Pruitt? The little Oklahoma right halfback was shadowed ; constantly by Willie Harper, Nebraska's All-America candidate at end, that he was held to , 57 yards rushing and no touchdowns. The most prolific runner of the day was Kinney, with 171 yards on 30 carries. He had : 21 trips for 140 yards in the second half. Mildren got 130 yards in 31 carries to become the . first Big Eight quarterback in history to run for more than 1000 yards in a season. He has 1098. In addition, Mildren completed five of 10 passes for 137 yards. The Cornhuskers, wno bagged the Big Eight title with their victory, are headed for the : Orange Bowl and a New Year's Day date with Alabama. Oklahoma will meet Auburn in the '. Sugar Bowl. But in the first half, Nebraska didn't look -much like it intended to win. Except for Rodgers's punt return TD and a 54-yard drive to start the second quarter for . Kinney's first touchdown, which gave the TURN TO PAGE S, COL 1
