Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 9

Journal Star .4 fca ii--1 'V .1 Sunday, October 26, 1997 n7 Hi A 1 TED KIRKLincoti Journal Stir A swarm of Black Shirts, including Brian Shaw (46) and Chad Kelsey (57) bring down Kansas running back Mitch Bowles for a 2-yard loss in the third quarter Saturday at Lawrence, Kan. The Black Shirts held the Jayhawks to 48 total yards on 48 plays, the fifth-best defensive performance in NU history and the best in Tom Osborne's 25 years as Husker head coach. Woritmanlike Huskers rule as kings of the hill Huskers Mid in 35-0 win BY KEN HAMBLETON Lincoln Journal Star LAWRENCE, Kan. Honest It was a dark and stormy night And to add to the cliche, Nebraska notched a 35-0 victory against Kansas Saturday night before 42,000 rain-soaked, wind-blown fans at KU's Memorial Stadium. The No.

1-ranked Huskers posted their 29th straight win and ninth shutout against Kansas since 1968. When Nebraska punches the time-clock for playing Kansas, the result almost seems inevitable. The Huskers' seventh win of the season: I Guaranteed another in Nebraska's string of 36 consecutive winning seasons; Gave Coach Tom Osborne his 249th victory; r- Extended Nebraska's conference regular-season winning streak to 35 games; and Marked the 19th time in NU history under Osborne that Nebraska is 4-d in the conference and 10th time in 25 years his team is 7-0. Those items are repeated often enough and often at the doorstep of the Kansas football team. i For many, it would be a resume of gallant achievement.

For Nebraska, just another day, another win and another week at No. 1 in the polls. "It was not spectacular but solid," said Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne. "Is 35-0 enough to stay No. I know.

I'll never understand the polls." Osborne was defensive about his offense, saying, "This was not an easy night to play offense, and we figured that our defense should stop their offense. "All together, that's a good wia But like I said, nothing spectacular." Nebraska earned its second consecutive shutout (NU defeated Texas Tech 29-0 last week) without ever backing into its half of the field on defense. Kansas finished with just 48 yards in offense only 15 more yards than Nebraska quarterback Scott Frost threw for with just four completions. Nebraska's Grant Wistrom and Jason Peter hit Kansas quarterback Zac Wegner for five tackles behind the line for losses of 29 yards. Nebraska nose guard Steve Warren, playing in place of suspended Jason Wiltz, tacked on another quarterback sack and the Huskers finished the game with 11 tackles for 47 yards in losses.

Kansas had a few brief moments that were better than the final statistics showed. The Jayhawks, 4-4 and previously unbeaten at home this year, stymied the Nebraska offense throughout the third quarter, blocked a punt in the first quarter and held Frost to his lowest passing output of the season. i The problem, for the Jayhawks, who have been felled 29 times in a row by Nebraska by an average score of 46-7, was that the third-quarter defensive stand was sandwiched by Nebraska's 21-point burst to start the game and a 14-point flurry in the fourth quarter. The blocked punt was scooped up by Nebraska fullback Joel Mako-vicka and returned 38 yards for a Nebraska first down. And as for holding Frost to 33 passing, the Huskers countered with 382 yards rushing, 123 by Ahman Green, 121 from Frost and 82 from Makovicka.

After taking a 21-0 lead, Nebraska's offense was sent from the game three downs and out four times in a row, and stopped on a fifth possession on fourth-and-3. "Some of that is Kansas' defense, lining up nine guys and knowing this was not a night to pass," said Frost "Passing was all we could have done it) some of those cases, but it just wasn't in the plan with the weather the way it was. "I also missed on some options, made a mistake here and there and got a little frustrated," he said. "We knew we should move the ball better than that." The Huskers, who lead the NCAA hi total offense, snapped out of the slump with a 48-yard, geven-play flrive that ended with Frost scoring on a 14-yard bootleg run around the left end to pad the lead to 28-0 with 13:42 left Green then scored to end a 1 10-yard drive with 9:42 left for the fi nal score. Steve I Sipple I i Nebraska's best defensive games Yds, Nebraska's opponent (Score) 31 South Dakota State, Sept.

21, 1963 (Nebraska 58-7) 34 North Dakota, Sept. 23, 1 961 (Nebraska 33-0) 36 Kansas State, Oct. 17, 1964 (Nebraska 28-6) 47 Kansas State, Oct. 5, 1 946 (Nebraska 31-0) 48 at Kansas, Oct 25, 1 997 (Nebraska 35-0) 51 at Colorado, Oct. 24, 1964 (Nebraska 21-3) 53 at Iowa State, Nov.

3, 1984 (Nebraska 44-0) 56 Kansas, Oct. 16, 1971 (Nebraska 55-0) 63 at Kansas, Oct. 21. 1972 (Nebraska 56-0) 64 Minnesota, Oct. 5, 1974 (Nebraska 54-0) find motivation to gear up for the creampuf fs that fill most of the rest of the schedule.

The Cornhuskers should realize that to remain No. simply winning isn't enough. They must win big. No weeks off. No onfr; point victories.

The rules have beeri established, like it or not Nebraska ruled impressively as I the new king of the hill Saturday The Cornhuskers toiled long and hard in the rain. They didn't complain. They made their boss fairly happy. More importantly, however, the voters who crowned them king should be satisfied. At least for now.

knows?" Osborne asked. "It was solid it was not spectacular." It was more than solid in a lot of ways. The Black Shirts, for one, came through mightily. A shutout always looks impressive on college football scoreboard shows. Voters devour goose eggs for breakfast.

Voters should also note Kansas managed only four first downs. These low-flying Jayhawks never had a chance. The Nebraska offense, meantime, sputtered at times after a strong start. The two banks of lighting malfunctioned temporarily with 9:36 left in the second quarter. From that point until the end of the third quarter, the Huskers managed only 38 yards of total offense and two first downs.

They led 21-0. But somehow I don't think voters would have been overly impressed by a three-touchdown margin. Nebraska, however, thumped its chest and declared it is still king of -the hill with two fourth-quarter TDs. In the final of tensive analysis, it is hard to downgrade Nebraska for 415 total yards (including 382 on the ground), particularly when you consider Kansas hangs its hat on its defense. -r-K'.

I ii The Jayhawks of fense is another story. Consider that KU junior Dan Dercher, with about a week of experience as an offensive tackle, was asked to handle NU rush end Grant Wistrom, a leading candidate for the Lombardi Award. No wonder Kansas entered ranked 111th out of 112 teams in total offense. And no wonder Wistrom had three tackles for losses, including two sacks. Yes, fans, this was Kansas, and Nebraska did what it is supposed to do against teams like Kansas.

Had Penn State which, by the way, had Saturday off done the same against Minnesota, the Lions would still be kings. Nebraska need not look hard to LAWRENCE, Kan. Well, what did you expect? The Kansas football team would have needed a pregame power outage anything that might have forced cancellation to avoid taking a beating from top-ranked Nebraska Saturday night in Memorial Stadium. As it was, two of the four banks of lights went dark for a few minutes during the second quarter, making for less-than-ideal passing conditions. As if it really mattered to Cornhusker Coach Tom Osborne created his team's pulverizing running attack for cold, windy and wet nights like this.

Heck, bring on a little darkness. As long as Scott Frost can see his running backs well enough to hand it off Like any good band of blue-collar workers, Nebraska ignored the faulty equipment and kept pounding and plodding and pushing around the poor boys in blue. The Cornhuskers strapped on their waterproof work boots, rolled up the sleeves of their flannel shirts, put on their Big Red hard helmets, punched the time clock and then punched out the Jayhawks 35-0. Nebraska 7 14 0 14 35 Kansas 0 0 0 00 NU Joel Makovicka 5 run (Kris Brown kick) NU Scott Frost 27 run (K. Brown kick) NU Joel Makovicka 18 run (K.

Brown kick) NU Scott Frost 1 4 run (K. Brown kick) NU Ahman Green 2 run (K. Brown kick) A 42,000 NU KU First downs 22 4 Rushes-yards 65-382 31-21 Passing yards 33 .27 Total yards 415 48 Passing 4-10-0 6-17-0 Return yards 35 10 Fumbtes-lost 4-0 4-1 Penalties-yards 6-53 10-78 Time of possession 34:20 25:40 Third-down conv 6-15 1-13 Fourth-down conv. 2-4 0-0 Makovicka atones for mistake. 2B Huskers' Peter takes bite out of KU.

2D Nebraska looked good doing it The Cornhuskers actually make work duds and rain gear seem rather stylish. And as we all know by now, style points are important in college football Just ask Penn State. Nebraska took over the No. 1 spot in the two major national polls after the Nittany Lions stumbled past lowly regarded Minnesota 16-15 last Saturday. A clear message was sent: Don't win by one point against an inferior opponent if you expect to stay No.

1. So, did Nebraska earn enough style points against Kansas to remain No. You'd think so. If there wasn't enough style, there was more than enough substance to make up for it "Is 35-0 good enough? Who Wi -i 1' Nebra3a's Ahman Green struggles The jurjior now has rushed for more iff i li s. fjt 1 NORTH DIVISION Conf All game Nebraska 4-0 7-0 Kansas State 3-1 6-1 Missouri 3-2 5-3 Colorado 2-2 4-a Kansas 2-3 4-4 Iowa State 1-3 SOUTH DIVISION Oklahoma State 3-1 6-1 Texas Tech 3-1 4-3 Texas 2-2 5-2 Texas 1-3 3-4 Oklahoma 1-3 3-5 Baylor 0-4 1-6 Saturday's results I Nebraska 35, Kansas 0 Missouri 51, Oklahoma St.

50, 20T Colorado 47, Texas 30 Kansas St. 26, Oklahoma 7 Iowa St. 24, Baylor 17 Texas Tech 16, Texas 13 1 tO KIHKLicoin Journal for some of his 123 yards Saturday against Kansas at Lawrence, Kan. than 1 00 vards in six straight games and has j(3 yards this season. Ma3 on NU, Page 2B.