Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 23

Lansing State Journal Sunday, Sept. 10, 1995 fesunm Nebraska MSU a Mller road. 'I Nebraska impressive in winning its first two games on road Scoring Summary Nebraska 10- 10 MSU 7 0 i. i J11 I 1 5 1 7, 1 1 JCTY i By Dave Matthews Lansing State Journal EAST LANSING Has there been a better road team since Crosby, Hope and Lamour? It's doubtful. Not that it really matters much where one dares to challenge defending national champion Nebraska.

But, for the record, the Corn-huskers are every bit as terrific on the road as suggested by their 50-10 spanking of Michigan State here They have no fear of foreign entanglements. "This is a good road team," Coach Tom Osborne said, pointing not only to Saturday's win, but to a 64-12 season-opening, romp at Oklahoma State the weekprevious. "I feel good about their chemistry, and I feel good about their attitude. I'd feel comfortable taking them into any environment today." Of course, it should be noted that the Huskers are never really that far from home. They take a lot of Lincoln with them when they travel.

Or, more accurately, a lot of Lincoln comes along for the ride. Many, many thousands of red-and-white clad fans could be counted among the 73,891 in Spartan. Stadium. It does make a difference. "When we walked out there and saw splashes of red all over the stadium, it helped us out a lot," linebacker Jarred Tomich said.

But it doesn't make that much difference to all the Cornhuskers. "I think a lot of the guys get extra fired up when we go on the road, in front of a big crowd," defensive tackle Christian Peter said. "I think we're really playing against the crowd." Quarterback Brook Berringer looks at it somewhat more analytically. "We just come out and play football, no matter where we are," he said. "You have to stay focused, and that's something I think we do pretty well." And, this from veteran offensive lineman Chris Dishman.

"The big thing is what winning on the road does for our confidence," he said. "After today, I think we have a lot of confidence going for us. I thought the line (a rebuilt unit) played like veterans today." First quarter Nebraska 3, MSU Kris Brown 23-yard field goal, 12:21. Eight plays, 29 yards. Big plays: Derrick Mason fumbled opening kickoff, Nebraska recovered at Spartan 34-yard line.

Lawrence Phillips rushed three times for 29 yards. 10, MSU 0: Phillips 2-yard run, Brown kick, 10:09. Four plays, 68 yards. Big play: Phillips 37-yard run and 15-yard facemask penalty. Nebraska 10, MSU 7: A 16-yard pass from Tony Banks to Muhsin Muhammad on third-and-goal, Chris Gardner kick, 6:28.

Ten plays, 76 yards. Big plays: A 24-yard pass from Banks to Muhammad. A 15-yard pass interference penatly. Second quarter Nebraska 17, MSU 7: Phillips 1-yard run, Brown kick, 10:52. Four plays, 41 yards.

Big plays: Phillips gained 38 yards on three carries, including 19-and 18-yard runs. Nebraska 20, MSU 7: Brown 47-yard field goal, 3:36. Nine plays, 51 yards. Big play: Clinton Childs 25-yard run. Third quarter Nebraska 23, MSU 7: Brown 20-yard field goal, 10:18.

Nine plays, 44 yards. Big play: Childs 40-yard kickoff return. Nebraska 23, MSU 10: Gardner 25-yard field goal, 6:27. Eleven plays, 72 yards. Big plays: Banks was 4-for-6 on the drive for 66 yards, including a 2-yarder to Derrick Mason, a 17-yarder to Napoleon Outlaw and a 21-yarder to Luke Bencie.

Nebraska 29, MSU 10: Phillips 1-yard plunge, two-point coversion attempt failed, 4:29. Five plays, 78 yards. Big play: A 51 -yard pass from Brook Berringer to Reggie Baul. Nebraska 36, MSU 10: Phillips 50-yard run, Brown kick, 1:10. Four plays, 76 yards.

Fourth quarter Nebraska 43, MSU 10: Ahman Green 57-yard run, Brown kick, 1 3:24. Three plays, 66 yards. Nebraska 50, MSU 10: James Sims 80-yard run, Ted Retzlaff kick, 8:23. One play, 80 yards. Phillips takes off: Nebraska's Lawrence Phillips cuts behind a block by Clester Johnson on Marvin; Wright Saturday.

Phillips gained 206 yards in 22 carries and scored four touchdowns. 16 1 50 10 0 45 yards Passing yards MSU Banks 21 A 35 290 114 g3Xi 1 GameIndividual Sta I Nebraska JZ1 Michigan State i 1 First downs Rushing The road is, of course, where Nebraska became national champion with an Orange Bowl defeat of Miami. It is also where, in all likelihood, the Huskers will win or lose the Big Eight title at Colorado on Oct. 28. But, most importantly, it is where they hope to make it two No.

1 rankings in a row, and to heck with Florida State. Senior I-back Lawrence Phillips 1 4 I it ROD SANFORDLansing State Journal' "Besides, I had it easy today. Wes had such great blocking, all I had; to do was carry the ball down the field." That's not false modesty. Just; Phillips. But in case you missed few of his better moves as so many potential Spartan tack-1 lers did, hear this from Berringer "Lawrence Phillips is just get-' ting better and better.

He does things that absolutely amaze Home and away. ty good job; they're big and they're, competitive," defensive tackle; Christian Peter said. "I just think we played pretty well. But believe! me, it wasn't easy out there." Spartan guard Bob Denton told a slightly different story. "We shot ourselves in the foot and then shot ourselves in the foot again," Denton said.

"We jusC made a bunch of stupid mistakes. I can't explain it. We were ready for. this game." But not ready enough to avoid 1 1' penalties for 91 yards, including, four illegal procedure calls and hold. And not ready enough to-avoid six fumbles, two of whicfc were lost to Nebraska.

"We just didn't play as well as we are capable of," Saban saidJ "Even in the first half, when thought we competed well, we; made too many mistakes. "We didn't execute well, and we; didn't do a very good job of-coaching." Saban did concede that the ex-! perience of facing off with mighty Nebraska may have long-term; benefits. "Playing the good teams: makes you better," he said, i Instantly better? The Spartans will find out Saturday, when they visit Louisville for another noon kickoff. 1 The Cardinals aren't bad; they opened the season with a victory at Kentucky. But, colors aside, they aren't Nebraska, either.

haven for anyone who gave less than 100 percent and probably; there never will be. Advantage check back in two; weeks, after the Spartans play afe Louisville and Purdue. Those are two games MSU can; win, 11 reasonably neaitny ana 1 games it'll likely lose without stronger show of heart. What do you think? Write to-JackEbling, 120 E. Lenawee, Lan- sing, 48919.

happy A -A is a prime Heisman Trophy candidate. And he did his candidacy no damage at all by romping through and around the Spartans for 206 yards and four touchdowns But did Phillips want to talk about the Heisman Saturday? No, just the long, winding road. "We want to get to Phoenix, and that's all I'm thinking about," said Phillips, speaking of a Bowl Alliance-planned Fiesta Bowl matchup between No. 1 and No. 2.

an no satisfied with the offense," he said. "My job is to get us in the end zone. I didn't do my job today." One reason was that Nebraska's fluid, aggressive defense did its job, sacking Banks four times and hurrying him on numerous other occasions. At the same time, the Huskers were developing respect for MSU's offensive front "Their offensive line did a pret But the big question here involves psychology and how to handle a physically and emotionally battered team. Is it better to soothe and protect the players or to confront and challenge their pride in public? Perles would always parrot Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney and recall a line about Chuck Noll and a one-win first season, "He lost the games, but he never lost his team." With Saban, there was no safe not Total yards Time of possession Nebraska MSU Fumbles-Iost 4-2 6-2 Punts Penalties-yards 5-55 11-91 Rushing leaders Nebraska Att.

Yds. MSU Att. Yds. I Phillips 22 206 Greene, S. 8 34 "Childs 8 83 Crenshaw 3 17 tSims 1 80 Renaud 7 10 Green 4 74 Patrick 5 3 Je 1 38 8 -13 MARGIE GARRISONLansing State Journal Saban prowls sideline: MSU coach Nick Saban and his assistants search for answers Saturday.

IT Continued FROM 1 James Sims, stormed 80 yards for the final score of the game. Nebraska's spectacular final tally was 666 net yards, 552 of it rushing, and 9.3 yards per play. Both the total offense and rushing figures are the highest ever yielded by a Michigan State team. And both came as a shock to Cornhusker coach Tom Osborne. "To win it relatively easily came as a surprise," he said.

"I honestly thought it would go into the fourth quarter." Nonetheless, Osborne seemed sincerely impressed by MSU. "I don't think Michigan State has a bad football team," he said. "They're a team that can win five, six or, if everything goes really well for them, seven games. "They do a lot of things pretty well. They couldn't run on us, but we're a pretty tough team to run against.

And I'm sure it made a difference that it was the second game for us (the No. 2 Huskers romped at Oklahoma State last week, 64-21), and the first for them." Saban doesn't really think all is completely dark in Spartanland, either. "I think we have a chance to be pretty good on offense," he said. At least one Spartan was pretty good on Saturday. With the ground game limited to 45 net yards, 1.1 EMMg: Continued FROM 1 may have been the fastest turnover a new coach ever has endured.

"When we got behind early, some guys started looking for an excuse," said Spartan middle linebacker Reggie Garnett. "A lot of us didn't put out as much as we should have." A few players put out more effort than any coach could have expected, though quarterback Tony Banks was lucky to avoid hospitalization from a horrendous and senseless Passing leaders Nebraska A I Berringer 6 11 106 Fra'zier 1 2 8 6 Turman 0 1.00 Receiving leaders tolerated per rush, quarterback Tony Banks was forced to be the offense. He responded by connecting on 21 of 35 passes for 290 yards, including a 16-yard first-quarter touchdown strike to Muhsin Muhammad, the former Lansing Wa-verly star. Banks was, however, not at all impressed with himself. "Any time you put 10 points on the board, I don't think you can be XXX XXX fourth-quarter pounding.

5 If Banks had been seriously hurt, MSU would have been staring at a 3-8 season with no guarantee of those three. With comparisons to the past staff inevitable, let's start with the basic concept of protecting the team's most important player advantage Perles. Then, there's the idea of college football as entertainment and calling plays that can keep an already-flat crowd from dozing off by the second quarter advantage Saban. Nebraska Rec. Yds.

MSU Rec. Yds. Gilman 2 13 Muhammad 4 85 Holbein 2 ,10 Greene, S. 4 75 I Bau 1 51 Mason 4 55 Vedral 1 30 Bencie 3 30 Childs 1 10 Outlaw 2 24 Tackles Nebraska A MSU A Minter 6,17. Wright 9 211 Ellis 5 6 1 7 Shurelds 8 2 10 Terwiliiger 5 1 6 Martin 6 2 8 Peter, Ch.

4 0 4 Garnett 4 4 8 Peter, J. 2 2 4 Threats 5 2 7 "MSU's got a good football team. I don't think they'll win the Big Ten, but I think they'll be good." Tom Osborne Nebraska coach "I got such great blocking. All I had to do was run the ball. It was really that simple.

We made a few mistakes, but I think we'll be OK." Lawrence PhlUips Nebraska tailback.