Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 34

4E 2008 HUSKER EXTRA Lincoln Journal Star Sunday, September 7, Behind enemy lines on mm Who's saying what about the game Fan rant Scanning the wires San Jose State outplayed Nebraska for 45 minutes Saturday but unraveled in the final quarter. In the span of a few seconds, the Comhuskers returned a kick-off 85 yards for a touchdown and knocked SJSU quarterback Kyle Reed out of the game with a concussion. The sequence enabled Nebraska to turn a 14-12 lead into a 35-12 victory and quash the Spartans' upset bid. A underdog, the Spartans scored on their opening drive and kept the pressure on. Instead of trying to overpower Nebraska, they used their spread offense (i.e., four-receiver sets) to take advantage of their speed.

With Reed hitting his short- and middledistance targets and with SJSU running just enough to keep the HUskers honest SJSU gained 221 yards in the first half. Its first drive was clinically efficient: 59 yards in five plays for a touchdown. Reed made one mistake in the half, and it was costly. Attempting to drop the ball over charging defensive linemen, his pass was deflected and then intercepted by Ndamukong Suh, who chugged 49 yards for a touchdown to give the Comhuskers a 146 lead. San Jose Mercury News "Well Just two short comments.

One, Is the ability to make adjustments at halftime, especially on defense, and two, being the better team In the fourth quarter. In the last four years, the second half, especially the fourth quarter has been a downfall." "If It wasnt for (Niles) Paul, I wonder what we would have done to turn It around A great win but oh so close to an embarrassing loss." "A 23iolnt win Is not "oh so close to an embarassing toss." Now CU today well that's another story. We are 2-0 and that Is all that matters." "Maybe we should put Nebraska Wesleyan and UNKon our schedule next year. Then we can get our backups some playing time maybe," "I thought Pierre Allen played well at DE in (Barry) Turner's place. Now he will really have to step up." "Scrappy little team that we played today.

They were a lot better than a lot of people gave them credit for." Coach Dick Totney had some philosophical words for his San Jose State team after Saturday's loss to Nebraska. "I told them you need to feel good about the effort, but feel empty because we came here to win and we didnl If it hurts you enough, you won't lose much. And if you can accept it too easily, you'll lose a lot. You can appreciate your teammates and the effort we made, for a time, but we still have to feel empty inside. "That's the great thing about football.

It leaves you with an empty feeling when you dont win, regardless of the effort. It leaves you with a good feeling when you win. It becomes a matter of how much you are willing to do to be better." GET YOUR KICKS: Last year, the Spartans recovered eight of the 13 onside kicks they attempted. Tomey said he didn't consider an onside kick after San Jose State cut Nebraska's lead to 14-12 in the fourth quarter. "Their guys weren't retreating at all.

We will onside kick, but trailing 14-12, that's not necessarily the time to do that. We just needed to cover the damn kickoff. Because we covered kickoffs great and then they gashed us. I have no idea what happened. Other than that, we played very well in the coverage part of the kicking game, not thp fieldgoal kicking part." Huskers luclcy to get 'special' delivery OHIO STATE 26, OHIO 14: The Buckeyes were feeling "pathetic," according to wide receiver Brian Hartline after needing to overcome an eight-point, second-half deficit against Frank Solich's team.

Was this just the dreaded "trap" game that nearly tripped them up? Or is Jim Tressel's club that different without running back Chns "Beanie" Wells? A trip to Tinsel Town to take on USC could provide the answer, BRIGHAM YOUNG 28, WASHINGTON 27: The Huskies aren't a 4 threat to win the Pac-10. Their unsportsmanlike-conduct penally that forced a 35-yard extra-point kick attempt that was blocked in the final seconds gave the Cougars more hope of running the table and crashing the BCS party in January. If BYU gets past UCLA at home next week, talk about the regular-season finale against Utah will kick into high gear. EAST CAROLINA 24, WEST VIRGINIA 3: Yes, Nebraska fans, a win against Virginia Tech on Sept 27 would still be big. The Pirates proved that last Saturday's upset of the Hokies was no fluke, as they dominated the Mountaineers to earn their third straight victory against a ranked opponent.

That's bad news for any team from one of the BCS conferences that might be looking for one of the two aUarge bids for a BCS bowl. Johnson's 41-yard field-goal attempt missed wide-right. Exhibit No. 3: On the final play of the first half, Johnson's replacement Jared Strubeck, clanged a 32-yard attempt off the right upright And, finally, there was Paul's return, aided by two smart blocks by true freshman Alfonzo Den-nard, who was making his first appearance as a Husker. "If Niles didn't score that touchdown, what would the score have been?" asked Armando Murillo, who was nearly as busy being the 'gunner" on punt coverage and a corner man on punt returns as he was playing left cornerback.

"It would've been like a real close game toward the end. "So (special teams are) just as important as defense or offense. Or more important" Somebody cue up The Church Lady. Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeeverjournalstar.com. What was that catch phrase The Church Lady on "Saturday Night Live" would use whenever she called out her celebrity guests on 'Church Chat' for their, um, alleged sins? No, not the "Could it be SATAN?" line.

Oh, yeah, wasn't it, "Well, isn't that special?" Well, somebody at HuskerVi-sion needs to grab a copy of one of those Dana Carvey skits and use it when the highlights of Saturday's 35-12 win against San Jose State are shown next week. A game that Bo Pelini fans would deem not so special as NU struggled to put the Spartans away early in the fourth quarter turned out OK in the end, primarily because of how the Huskers and Spartans executed on special teams. I bet not many of the 84,146 fans at Memorial Stadium could tell you how many of the special teams Niles Paul plays on. (For the record, it's punt coverage, In addition, for the second straight week, the Huskers failed to generate a consistent ground attack. They also had 12 penalties.

But they still came away looking a lot more 'special' than their punt return, kick coverage and kick return.) But I know all eyes were fixed on the former Omaha North star when he sped 85 yards with a kickoff to extend NU's precarious 14-12 lead to a two-possession advantage that must have seemed awfully daunting to the game Spartans. "Those are the kind of plays that take the wind out of your sails," San Jose State coach Dick Tomey said. Indeed, his team spent the rest of the game paddling upstream. Whether it was coincidence or not, the next time the Spartans got the ball, Nebraska's defense forced its first three-and-out of the game. And then the Husker offense scored its first points since answering San Jose State's initial tal- iy- Before that sequence, "Everything that went wrong, went wrong," said offensive guard Matt turn for a touchdown are plays that take the wind out of your sails.

"The ball is going one way and all of a sudden it's going the other way and it's a touchdown." Zach Potter had a hand in both of the Huskers' interceptions. The defensive end swatted a screen pass in the first quarter, which Ndamukong Suh gathered in and raced 49 yards for a score. And in the fourth quarter, with the Huskers leading 28-12, Potter's interception and 1 1-yard return ended the Spartans' hopes. Until San Jose State fared better than the Huskers, with 351 yards of offense to Nebraska's 230. The final numbers were 353 yards for San Jose State and 315 for the Huskers.

Kyle Reed passed for 161 yards and rushed for 32 before he was sacked and knocked out of the game with a concussion In the fourth quarter. Senior running back Yonus Davis rushed for 58 yards and had one reception for 9 yards. "I thought we moved the 1 V.r.X; opponent. Exhibit No. 1: After San Jose State marched 59 yards for an opening-possession touchdown, Will Johnson bonked his extra-point kick off the right upright Exhibit No.

2: Two series later, Sipple Continued from Page IE seem as if Nebraska waltzed into the late afternoon like those Tom Osborne and Bob Devaney teams so often did back in the day. "I think it's more of a reality check because we came out slow and almost lost that game," said Paul, a budding Husker star whose return pushed the Huskers' lead to 21-12 with 12 minutes left in the game. Yes, the game was a reality check for Nebraska and its fans in a number of ways. It showed that the Huskers probably face a long climb back into the nation's elite. A change in coaching staffs caused a significant bump in expectations for the program.

The idea was maybe the magic of Bo Pelini would propel NU into the nation's Top 25 by the end of September. The thing is, Big Red still has a good shot to be 4-0 after the nonconference season. New Mexico State's program has really hit the skids. Virginia Tech was underwhelming again Saturday. Playing Missouri? Well, let's just say Nebraska isn't quite ready for prime time.

Make no mistake, the Huskers aren't a Top 25-level outfit At least they didrl't play like it Saturday. Not even close. Reality check: Nebraska's five procedure penalties were unsightly. The Huskers had three straight false starts during one second-quarter series, matching the total the Big Red offensive line had in all of 1995. "That's coaching," said Pelini, admirable in taking the blame for the mental gaffes.

"We have to fix it, and we will." Nebraska struck me as being an ordinary team at times during the course of last week's 47-24 win against Western Michigan. The Huskers were consistency ordinary Saturday, although their halftime adjustments on defense and strong finish overall were encouraging signs. "They wanted it a little bit more than we did in the first '4 CURT McKEEVER Journal Star Staff Writer Slauson. "At that point, it's like 'This (struggle) is never-ending. After (Niles' return), it's, 'OK, the table is set for us.

Now we need to go put the nail in the To that end, the Huskers deserve credit for closing the deal. But for anyone who thought this game was supposed to be smooth sailing for Pelini's crew, the fact that the Spartans out-yarded Nebraska 353-3 15 is glaring and a bit alarming. ball pretty well until we got to the money zone, which is what we call the red zone," said Spartan receiver Kevin Ju-rovich, who caught four passes for 84 yards. "We just didn't convert That's a credit to Nebraska and their defense. The offensive line gave Kyle a lot more time this week.

And Yonus was running through tackles." The Spartans sent an early message of their intent when Carl Ihenacho and Adonis Davis each sacked NU quarterback Joe Ganz on the Huskers' first series of the game. "We needed to make a lot more plays. But those key ones started us off right," said Ihenacho, who finished with seven tackles. "We were just trying to be physical. But we had a lot of mental busts.

Later on down the line, Nebraska just outexecuted us." The early defensive effort got the Spartans off to a quick start. "When the defense held to start off, we fed off that," Ju-rovich said. The defense made play after play after play. I was proud watching those half," said Nebraska strong safety Major Culbert, who started the second half in place of Larry As-ante. Culbert's words are telling, and evidence shows he's accurate.

San Jose State was the aggressor in the opening minutes. The Spartans sacked Joe Ganz twice during the game's first series. DickTomey's crew then rattled off big gain after big gain in driving 59 yards for a 6-0 lead and a heaping dose of Big Red reality. Nobody's saying Nebraska overlooked San Jose State, although that might have been understandable considering the Spartans needed a touchdown pass in the final seconds last week to defeat UC-Davis 13-10, which was coming off a losing season. The thing is, many Nebraska fans still labor under the illusion that the Huskers can just show up and steamroll WAC opponents (Big Red did improve to 19-1 against the WAC).

In these parts, we're almost conditioned to think that way. But those days might be over for good, with scholarship limits spreading talent throughout the nation and coaching ability improving at all levels of the game. Sometimes it seems Nebraska fans still think parity in college football is something for other traditional powers to worry about, as if the Huskers are somehow immune. Many Nebraska fans still have images of Big Red offensive lines operating with precision and power. Those awe-inspiring lines would take control of games and flat-out dominate outclassed foes to the point where you'd almost cringe because of the level of the mismatch.

"I 'm not ready to say our offensive line isn't a strength of our football team," said Nebraska coach Barney Cotton. I'm not ready to say that, either. But after only two games, I'm seriously wondering. Now there's another twist I didn't see coming. Reach Steven M.

Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipplejournalstar.com. 1 1 ERIC GREGORYLincoln Journal Star San Jose quarterback Kyle Reed get a pass off before Nebraska's Eric Hags can make the sack in the second quarter. Reed finished with 161 passing yards and 32 more on the ground before leaving in the fourth quarter because of a concussion. Ibmey: NU dominated in the fourth quarter BY RYLY JANE HAMBLETON Lincoln Journal Star For three quarters, Dick Tomey and his San Jose State Spartans were sailing along. A strong performance by quarterback Kyle Reed and a stirring defensive effort had the Spartans right where they wanted to be.

San Jose State's Jared Strubeck kicked a 27-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to cut Nebraska's lead to 1 4-12. "That's what we practice for that we can be in the hunt in the fourth quarter with a chance to wia And we were right there," Tomey said. "But Nebraska shut the door on us, made some plays and dominated me fourth quarter. That's what you have to do to win." The first big play the Huskers made was Niles Paul's 85-vard return of the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown. Nebraska tacked on twr more scores en route to a 35-12 victory.

"Obviously, the kickoff and the play down on the goal line, the interception, were huge," Tomey said. "The kickoff return and the interception re guys fly around." Tomey said that gave the Spartans the opportunity they wanted. "We felt we' could stop them, we just couldnt stop them enough," he said. "We stopped the run and when they threvv the ball, we let them have too high a percentage. We held them under 100 yards rushing, barely, but that's what we were trying to do.

We just gave up too much at the end." Tomey said there are bright spots for the Spartans, who will play host to San Diego State next week. "Kyle Reed suffered a slight concussion, but I think he'll be OK," he said. "Myles (Eden) came in and threw a couple of deep balls that couldn't have been more perfect. One was dropped and one was caught We just felt we could run the football and we were a little more patient than we were a week ago. "We just weren't quite good enough to get it done or well-coached enough to get it done." Reach Ryly Jane Hambleton at 473-7314 or rhambletonejoumalstar.com.

WILLIAM LAUERLincoln Journal Star Nebraska's Nate Swift (87) is swarmed by ttw San Jose defense after a catch early in the first quarter. Swift led the team with six catches..