Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 26

A Lincoln Journal Star HUSKER EXTRA Sunday, September 15, 2002 Mttany lions' offense crosses up BlacksfaMs touchdown Nebraska drove 84 yards in 8 plays, scoring on Judd Davies' 2-yard run Coach Frank Solich's crew went three-and-out after the Nittany Lions' field goal gave them a 10-7 lead. That meant little rest for the Blackshirts, who had just withstood a 13-play drive. Penn State took advantage, putting another long series together 10 plays. But again, the Nebraska defense didn't break after Penn State drove from its own 34 to the NU 16. The Nittany Lions had to settle for a 33-yard field goal from Gould.

Penn State's initial drive of the second half actually covered 90 yards after a holding penalty on its first play. But Mills kept the ball after a fake handoff for a gain of 8, and then hit Bryant Johnson for a 21-yard gain. Johnson also had receptions of 12 and 14 yards in the drive to help set up Robinson's touchdown run. Things really unraveled for the Blackshirts when the Nittany Lions needed just three plays to score a touchdown from their 45 late in the third quarter. The back-breaker was Larry Johnson's 35-yard run on a first-down draw play.

"We need to take our hats off to Penn State," Bohl said, "They were strong, physical, and they broke a lot of our tackles. We're going to need to work on some fundamentals with our tackling. We had men in position at times and did not wrap up well enough." Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenttial6joumalstar.com. had a great scheme. They deserved to win.

Kelsay said he'd need to review game film before saying exactly what mistakes the Huskers made. "But I'm sure there's plenty of them," he said. "We were out of position a few times, and they just caught us in some bad coverages." Penn State began the game with a little finesse, using swing passes, reverses and options. Mills also found wide-open receivers over the middle, particularly Bryant Johnson, who had five grabs for 100 yards by halftime. The only thing that kept the game in reach in the first half was Penn State having to settle for two field goals after driving deep into Nebraska territory.

Ironically, it was Penn State's inability to generate a push and shove the ball up the middle that hurt its chances of scoring a touchdown on the Nittany Lions' fourth drive. Penn State advanced to the Nebraska 1-yard line in the second quarter, but instead of trying to push the ball over the goal line, went to the air. Mills threw an in-completion, and after a procedure penalty on the next play pushed PSU back five yards, Mills threw another incomplete pass. Yet another pass on third down netted just 3 yards, meaning the Nittany Lions had to settle for a 20-yard field goal by Robbie Gould. The Nittany Lions averaged 6.9 yards per play in the first half and managed scoring drives that covered 80, 78 and 50 yards.

Penn State 1 X. TED KIRKLincoln Journal Star Penn State's LeMar Stewart (right) gets a fistful of jersey, just enough to stop NU l-back Dahrran Diedrick (30) in his tracks in the fourth quarter. had punted on its first two possessions, but didn't go three-and-out on either drive. As a matter of fact, Penn State didn't have a three-and-out possession until the fourth quarter, when the Nittany Lions punted on fourth-and-inches from their own 16. "Every defense will obviously have a weak spot, and they exploited all of them," Bland said.

"I mean, 147 yards. "Mills was in a rhythm, and we had a hard time getting him out of a rhythm," Bohl said. We did get some hits on him, but he played well tonight and 1 thought their line protected well, also." In the second half, Larry Johnson got untracked on the ground, running for 86 of his 123 yards. It was his first career game of rushing for more than 100 yards. "They were able to open up their running game," Bohl said, "and they were able to do that because they had established a passing game, which allowed our pad level and some of the run fits inside to get a little bit skewed." After punting on its first two possessions, Penn State scored the next five times it touched the ball.

Perhaps the biggest drive came to begin the second half. Mills led the Nittany Lions on a 16-play journey that covered 90 yards a holding penalty backed Penn State to its own 10 and ended with an 8-yard touchdown run by Michael Robinson. The drive ate up half of the third-quarter clock. "They had our number tonight, basically the whole game, not just that first series of the second half," Nebraska rush end Chris Kelsay said. (But) that really kind of took the wind out of our sails, I think.

They took advantage of all of our mistakes tonight, and they were the better team tonight. My hat's off to them. They played great ball and How Nebraska's 2C02 opponents fared BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL Lincoln Journal Star STATE COLLEGE, Pa. Early on, it wasn't exactly the smash-mouth, up-the-gut sort of game the Nebraska defense expected from Penn State. Instead, the Nittany Lions at times resembled a team from the Pac-10 rather than the BigTen.

"We came out and thought they were going to run the ball," Nebraska safety Philip Bland said, "and they threw for 200 yards in the first Penn State quarterback Zack Mills hit open receivers over the middle, rolled out, threw on the run, dumped off screen passes everything but toss a Hail Mary. He had 205 yards through the air byhalftime. "That did take us by surprise, by how much they were Nebraska defensive coordinator Craig Bohl said. But just to show they hadn't gone entirely West Coast, the Nittany Lions ran the ball in the second half, too. Their pass-run combination proved too lethal forthe Blackshirts.

Penn State racked up 476 yards of total offense and ran away with a 40-7 victory against No. 8 Nebraska on Saturday night. "If you watched the game, just about everything didn't go right for us," Bland said. "It seemed like they were doing everything right." Mills completed 19 of 31 passes for 259 yards, with Bryant Johnson catching eight of those passes for IVIabiy Continued from Page 1C interceptions, including a back-breaker that Rich Gardner returned for a third-quarter touchdown. What the Huskers will need to see more of in the future is what Lord showed on the aforementioned second-quarter march.

His first throw on the drive, a 16-yarder to Ross Pilkington, was a little low, but then he was brilliant He took off on a 27-yard run that Eric Crouch would have been proud of, then threw a perfect pass through traffic to Aaron Golliday for 16 yards. Lord threw a swing pass to Josh Davis for 9 yards and a couple of Judd Davies runs later, the game was tied. That was all she wrote for the Husker offense, which is yet to impress for more than a few plays atatime. Lord was off-target on several throws and he and his mates couldn't find a rhythm. After the touchdown, NU's next six drives lasted a grand total of 10 minutes.

Whether it was the crowd (Lord says that wasn't a problem) or ABC or the Nittany Valley air, Lord and the offense just weren't able to give the Husker defense a much- needed break. The good news is that Lord now has two weeks to think abfmt what he did wrong. The bad news? That Lord now has two weeks to think about what he did wrong. "He doesn't have much choice but to bounce backsaid head coach Frank Solich. "He's an athlete and a very competitive person.

He's certainly a better quarterback than he displayed today. We're certainly a better team than we displayed today." Solich was too kind. He called a BY BLAIR KERKH0FF The Kansas City Star Penn State made Nebraska look ordinary in its 40-7 victory Saturday. Not the high-level style of bland-ness that marked the Cornhuskers' dominance over the past decade. No, this was alarmingly ordinary.

Middle-of-the-pack average. Bowling in Shreveport, fire-the-coach, take-my-rickets mediocre that Nebraska hasn't experienced in a generation or two. The kind of average that Penn State suffered through over the past two losing seasons and may have been left behind with Saturday's overwhelming performance. The short-term damage for the eighth-ranked Huskers will be a plummet from the top 10 for the first time since 1999. What lies beyond is a bigger issue.

"This is a reality check for us," Nebraska Coach Frank Solich said. "We need to start again." If only Nebraska could reconstruct Saturday. Then again, it may not have mattered. Penn State, with an off-week to prepare, came out slinging and caught the Huskers off guard. BY RAY FITTIPALD0 Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gazette They're back.

The Penn State Nittany Lions craved a game in the national spotlight to regain their national stature after two embarrassing seasons with more losses than victories. Last night, the unranked Lions came through with an impressive 40-7 victory against No. 8 Nebraska before a record crowd of 1 10,753 in raucous Beaver Stadium. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Husker running back DeAntae Grixby (6) consoles junior quarterback Jam-mal Lord as the final seconds of the game tick off Saturday night we threw zone, we blitzed a little bit it's almost like they knew what was coming every single time. They were hitting the weak spots every single time.

"Give them credit They outplayed us. Their quarterback was making money throws, and their running back was running hard." While the Husker offense quickly answered Penn State's initial This week Beat San Diego State 39-28 Beat Southern Utah 40-15 Beat Idaho State 38-33 Beat Nebraska 40-7 Beat Iowa 36-31 Beat Louisiana-Monroe 70 Lost to Bowling Green 51-28 Lost to UCLA 38-24 Did not play Beat North Carolina 52-21 Beat SW Missouri St. 44-24 eat Eastern Illinois 63-13 Lost to Southern Cal403 Next weeli Does not play at Iowa State at Iowa vs. Louisiana Tech vs. Troy State Does not play Does not play vs.

Southern Methodist vs. Virginia Tech vs. Houston vs. Bowling Green vs. Southern Cal at UCLA season.

Penn State tacked on a final touchdown on Larry Johnson's 2-yard run with 6:20 remaining in the contest. "You're never as good as you think you are when you win like that, and they're not as bad," Paterno said of the Huskers. By early in the second quarter, it was clear Mills had begun to solve Nebraska's defense, as he, picked apart the secondary with a variety of passes and mixed in the option game nicely. The Ijamsville, native had 205 passing yards by halftime. 7enn State opened the scoring, driving 80 yards in eight plays, with Larry Johnson capping the march with a 7-yard run with 12:45 left in the second quarter.

During the drive, receiver Tony Johnson beat right cornerback Dejuan Grace for a 19-yard reception on third-and-5, and Bryant Johnson beat left corner Pat Ricketts for a 24-yard gain. Nebraska roared back to tie it at 7-7, marching 84 yards in eight plays. Lord, settling into a rhythm after a rocky start, completed passes of 16, 16 and 9 yards and also ripped off a 27-yard run. Fullback Judd Davies powered it in from the 2 with 10 minutes left in the quarter. Penn State went up 10-7 on Robbie Gould's 20-yard field goal, capping a 13-play, 78-yard drive that reached Nebraska's 1.

A false start penalty gave the Huskers some breathing room. The Lions went up 13-7 on Gould's 33-yard field goal, which capped a 10-play, 50-yard march. The drive stalled when Mills threw incomplete on third-and-3 from NU's 16. Although neither team scored in the first quarter, Mills racked up 90 passing yards. Penn State faced a third-and-5 at Nebraska's 35-yard line late in the period, but the Huskers thwarted the march when rush end Chris Kelsas pressure on Mills forced the quarterback into an incompletion.

Lord seemed nervous early, fumbling twice on Nebraska's opening drive. Freshman split end Ross Pilkington picked up 1 1 yards on a reverse, and Diedrick exploded up the middle for 11 yards. After the Huskers' first drive stalled at the 50, Larson bailed them out with a 47-yard punt that pinned the Lions at their 3. On Nebraska's second possession, Lord overthrew Diedrick on a screen play that appeared set up for big yardage. Nebraska crossed midfield for the first time on its third possession.

But on third-and-3, Lord was tackled for a 1-yard loss, and Larson punted from the 50. Lord finished with a career-high 1 1 1 rushing yards on 14 carries. The crowd was the largest to witness a Nebraska football game, topping the 93,781 on hand for last season's Rose Bowl. Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or Mippleejoumalstar.com.

rl Lord said. "They had a great scheme and stopped us. Our offense was out of rhythm. If I don't get better, it's going to be a long year. But good teams bounce back, and good players bounce back." Reach John Mabry at 473-7320 or jmabryjoumalstar.com.

many as four to eight police officers manned each intersection. BY RAY PARRILLO The Philadelphia Inquirer Joe Paterno warned that one big victory, even one against a team consistently ranked in the top 10, wouldn't mean his Penn State football team had righted all the wrongs from the last two disastrous years. The way the Nittany Lions manhandled No. 8 Nebraska before a record crowd at Beaver Stadium, you have to wonder. Playing with supreme precision on offense, and with a nasty edge on defense that was missing during back-to-back losing seasons, Penn State erupted for three touchdowns in the third quarter and ran away from the Cornhuskers.

"I thought we had a chance to win," Paterno said. "But anyone who thought we'd win by this much is nuts. Everything went our way." For Penn State, it was a night for the quarterbacks. The starter, red-shirt sophomore Zack Mills, used his arm and sleight of hand to amass 291 yards, completing 19 of 31 passes for 259 of them. His remarkable execution of the option left Nebraska wondering what might come next as the Nittany Lions exploded for 476 yards The backup quarterback, red-shirt freshman Michael Robinson, is too talented an athlete to keep on the sideline.

"Michael can do a lot of things," Paterno said. "He's an awfully strong runner, and he's ready to play quarterback. I'm smart enough to know that when you have a guy as gifted as Robinson, you get him in." Date Aug. 24 Aug. 31 Sept 7 Sept 14 Sept 28 Oct5 Oct 12 Oct 19 Oct 26 Nov.

2 Nov. 9 Nov. 16 Nov. 29 Opponent Arizona State (3-1) Troy State l-2) Utah State (1-2) Penn State (2-0) Iowa State (3-1) McNeese State (30) Missouri (2-1) Oklahoma State (1-2) Texas (20) Texas (2-0) Kansas (1-2). Kansas State (30) Colorado (1-2) vs.

NU NU 48-10 NU 31-16 NU 44-13 PSU 40-7 Huskers Continued from Page 1C ing the Huskers to 328. "Obviously, there is a lot of work we need to do," Nebraska defensive coordinator Craig Bohl said. "I think our guys, and we as coaches, have to look at the mistakes we made. There are correctible mistakes, but obviously we weren't able to make Penn State one-dimensional." Now, the Huskers must prepare to face the naysayers who think the program is headed for decline in the wake of last season's losses to Colorado (62-36) and Miami (37-14). With Saturday's defeat, Solich dropped to 1-7 against ranked teams on the road.

"It feels just the same," said Diedrick, referring to the Miami and Colorado losses. "We got whupped. There's not much good I can say about what we did." This game looked like it might be a low-scoring affair as the teams combined to punt five times in a scoreless first quarter. But both offenses got rolling during the second quarter, though Penn State obviously had the lion's share of momentum during the period, producing points on all three of its possessions to take a 13-7 lead at the half. The Nittany Lions' 13 first-half points matched the total Nebraska had allowed during the first half of its first three games combined.

Penn State, in fact, rolled up 184 yards in the second quarter, 115 through the air and 69 on the ground. The Nittany Lions might have taken control of the game had they not had to settle for field goals on their final two possessions. As it turned out, the missed chances for touchdowns only delayed the inevitable. Penn State opened the third quarter with a 16-play, 80-yard touchdown march that consumed 7 minutes and pushed the lead to 19-7. Johnson, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior and the team's leading receiver last season, made receptions of21, 12 and Michael Robinson scored from the 8 on an end-around.

Robinson, a redshirt freshman who is listed as a quarterback, was a secret weapon of sorts. "I'm not the smartest guy in the world," Paterno said. "But I'm smart enough to know that when you have a guy as gifted as Michael Robinson, you get him in the game." After Robinson's first score, disaster struck for Nebraska. Facing third-and-6, quarterback Jammal Lord overthrew wingback Ben Cor-nelsen. Cornerback Rich Gardner picked off the pass and streaked 42 yards for a touchdown.

It was one of Lord's three interceptions on the night Penn State's margin grew to 33-7 on Robinson's 11 -yard touchdown run with 2:15 left in the third quarter, capping a three-play, 55-yard drive. At this point, Penn State was moving the ball almost at will, reminiscent of the way Colorado and Miami throttled the Huskers last noise Husker fans react to Saturday's 40-7 loss to Penn State. TODD WHITMAN, Harrlsburg, "The secondary (was a problem). Zack Mills was passing too easy. They're going to face a lot of teams with a better passing game than Penn State." MAYNARD OCHS, York: "We got spanked.

We had no imagination. We didn't even try anything. It's all emotion on defense. If we could have gotten something going (on offense). Our offense wasn't on trie field for more than three minutes.

The defense just couldnt get anything emotionally PAUL STANOSHECK, Beatrice: "I give Nebraska an for their play tonight. Once again, they were out-coached and outplayed. I'm getting really tired of that happening on national TV." MIAMI, FLA. (3-0) Saturday: Beat Temple 44-21. Next Sept 21 vs.

Boston College. 2. OKLAHOMA (40) Saturday: Beat Texas-El Paso 680. Next Sept 28 vs. South Florida.

3. TEXAS (2-0) Saturday: Beat North Carolina 52-21. Next Sept 21 vs. Houston. 4.

TENNESSEE (2-0) Saturday: Did not play. Next Sept. 21 vs. Florida. S.

FLORIDA STATE (3-0) Saturday: Beat Maryland 37-10. Next Sept 21 vs. Duke. 6. OHIO STATE (3-0) Saturday: Beat No.

10 Washington State 25-7. Next Sept 21 at Cincinnati. 7. MICHIGAN (2-1) Saturday: Lost to No. 20 Notre Dame 25-23.

Next Sept. 21 vs. Utah. 8. NEBRASKA (3-1) Saturday: Lost to Penn State 40-7.

Next Sept 28 at Iowa State. 9. GEORGIA (2-0) Saturday: Beat South Carolina 13-7. Next Setp. 21 vs.

Northwestern State, La. 10. WASHINGTON STATE (2-1) Saturday Lost to No. 6 Ohio State 25-7. Next: Sept.

21 vs. Montana State. 11. VIRGINIA TECH (30) Thursday: Beat No. 16 Marshall 47-21.

Next Sept 21 at Texas 12. FLORIDA (2-1) Saturday. Beat Ohio 346. Next Sept. 21 at 13.

OREGON (30) Saturday: Beat Idaho 5821. Next Sept 21 vs. Portland State. 14. WASHINGTON (1-1) Saturday: Did not play.

Next Sept 21 vs. Wyoming. 15. MICHIGAN STATE (2-1) Saturday: Lost to California 46-22. Next Sept.

21 vs. Notre Dame. 16. MARSHALL (1-1) Thursday: Lost to No. 11 Virginia Tech 47-21.

Next Sept. 20 vs. Central Florida. 17. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 24) Saturday: Beat No.

18 Colorado 40-3. Next Sept. 21 at Kansas State. 18. COLORADO (1-2) Saturday.

Lost to No. 17 Southern California 40-3. Next Sept. 21 at UCLA. 19.

NORTH CAROLINA STATE (44) Saturday Beat Wake Forest 32-13. Next Sept. 21 at Texas Tech. 20. NOTRE DAME (30) Saturday Beat No.

7 Michigan 25-23. Next Sept 21 at Michigan State. 21. TEXAS (2-0) Saturday Did not play. Next Sept.

21 vs. Virginia Tech. 22. WISCONSIN (4-0) Saturday. Beat Northern Illinois 24-21.

Next Sept 21 vs. Arizona. 23. UCLA (2-0) Saturday Beat Oklahoma State 38-24. Next Sept 21 vs.

Colorado. 24. COLORADO STATE (1-1) Saturday Did not play. Next Sept 28 vs. Louisville.

25. LOUISIANA STATE (2-1) Saturday Beat Miami, Ohio 33-7. Next Sept 28 vs. Mississippi State. pretty good game from the sideline, but it fell apart somewhere between his headset and the snap.

Now it's off to Iowa State. No picnic place. Lord will have to improve. Everyone will have to improve. "I say kudos to Penn State," the wires It was Penn State's first victory against a top-10 team in almost three seasons.

The Lions used a diversified offense, with quarterback Zack Mills throwing and running for big plays, and a big-play defense to turn back the Huskers. If Nebraska thought it was going to get smash-mouth football from the Lions, they were badly mistaken. Mills was 15 for 25 for 205 yards in the first half and passed the Lions to a 13-7 halftime Nebraska didn't play power football, either. Lord passed the Cornhuskers down field on their only scoring drive of the first half. He completed 5 of 8 passes for 55 yards in the first half and also led the team in rushing with 64 yards on nine carries, 27 of those yards coming on one big chunk in the touchdown drive that was capped off by a Judd Davies 2-yard run.

BY CHIP MINEMYER The Centre Daily (Pa.) Times On a night when Penn State honored its 1982 national title squad, the 2002 team served notice that a return to glory could be in the works. Nittany Lions sophomore quarterback Zack Mills passed for 259 yards, and backup quarterback Michael Robinson ran for two touchdowns as Penn State shocked Nebraska. After the game ended, thousands of celebrating fans clogged streets in State College, where state and local police were out in force. Helicopters swirled overhead, and police on horseback and on foot patrolled the Beaver Canyon area. As SCANNING.