The Lincoln Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 48

HUSKERS 4E SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1994 LINCOLN JOURNAL-STAR Ifctake tarste Cowboys9 balloon v. -fa IB "A I 0 1. 0 tsSiJ iV, TED KIRKUNCOLN JOURNAL-STAR Wyoming freshman quarterback Jeremy Dombek (11) is caught between Black Shirts Donta Jones (84) and Terry Connealy (99) as Dombek releases a pass in the third quarter. KU-WYCMIK3 KOTES TED KIRKLINCOLN-JOURNAL STAR Nebraska defenders Tony Veland (9) and Doug Colman (46) hem in Wyoming running back Ryan Christop-herson early in the fourth quarter. Christopherson, who entered the game with the nation's fifth-best per game rushing average at 1 52 yards, was held to 0 yards on 1 2 carries.

Defensive tackle Terry Connealy, who had three solo tackles Including one for a loss, said Nebraska's defense got half of its game plan right. "Their running game was something we worked on stopping. We did. We made them pass. Maybe that wasn't the best thing that happened for us all day." NU Coach Tom Osborne caught himself during his postgame press conference.

"The mistakes took the steam out of our sails. I mean wind out of our sails. I'm starting to sound more like Casey Stengel." Linebacker Ed Stewart on Wyoming's success with a "pick-play pass" that opened receivers often: "It was a little bit illegal. Not really Illegal. But that pass has gotten to us a couple of times.

We're going to have to drill It more. What happens is one guy covers a receiver and another receiver comes by and blocks the cover guy, leaving the receiver open." Husker linebacker Troy Dumas: "It was like any other halftime, we just had to pick it up. We're not playing up to our potential, and I have to say I'm a little frustrated. We got some good hits and we had some big misses, too." Receiver Reggie Baul: "You don't want to win like that. This game was good for the team.

We have to concentrate every game if we want to win every game." Junior Tommie Frazier did not start at qaurterback for the first time in 23 games. He joined the team on the sideline and later in the lockerroom. He declined any Cornerback Barron Miles, who had two blocked punts last week, bounced back from an injured knee and sore ribs to intercept two passes. "I looked forward to them getting the ball one last time because I think we would have gotten another Interception," he said. Wyoming Coach Joe Tiller on the hit the sent quarterback Jeremy Dombek to the sidelines: "He took a heckuva shot.

I've been coaching for longer than I care to admit and I've never seen one where the facemask was bent up, kind of like a rainbow. But I think he'll be fine. He's a gutsy, competitive kid that I think has a future with us." The Wyoming running game wasn't very effective 36 yards on 21 attempts but Tiller said It was enough. "We had to run a bit or we would have no opportunity to throw our play-action passes. If you don't run at all, they lay back forever." This was the first time in his career Ryan Christopherson was held In check.

After gaining 608 yards In the Cowboys' first four games he had zero yards on 12 carries against Nebraska. Cowboy Marcus Harris had a career day receiving, catching eight passes for 149 yards, and said Dombek deserved all the credit. "I was surprised how open it was most of the time. And when we punched it into the end zone, we thought, 'hey, we can play with this Jeremy (Dombek) did a great job for his first start. When he got hit, we just talked about the play about to be called.

That was a goss hit he took. We were just happy to see him get up." BV RYLY JANE HAM BUTTON Lincoln Journal-Star The expectations were high on the Wyoming sideline late in Saturday's football game against Nebraska, but one mistake popped the Cowboys' lAfter Wyoming cut Nebraska's lead to 35-32 midway through the fourth quarter, Coach Joe Tiller said the situation was just what his team wanted. The Wyoming defense stiffened, stopped Nebraska at its 48-yard line and forced a punt But Je'Ney Jackson fumbled the punt, Nebraska's Damon Benning pounced on it, and four seconds later, the Comhuskers had a 42-32 lead, some breathing room and ultimately, the victory. "On the sideline, our guys were thinking we've got a chance if we can get a shutdown here," Tiller said. "Of course, we did, and then we had the mishandled punt, and I think that's what drove the nail home.

Jackson is just a redstart freshman, and he's been mostly good on returns. "It was a decision drop he couldn't decide whether to field it and run or fair catch it Sometimes you suffer paralysis through analysis." The Cowboys had Nebraskans squirming most of the first half, taking leads of 144 and 21-7 before leading 21-14 at halftime. A 344-yard passing effort by Jeremy Dombek and John Gustin severely tested the Cora-husker defense, but turnovers proved to be the difference. "When we matched them on turnovers in the first half, it boded well for our team. When we turned it over, they scored, and when they turned it over, we scored," said Tiller.

"In the second half, we weren't able to match, them on turnovers." The Cowboys' second touchdown came after Brent Schieffer, a defensive end from Papillion, recovered an Abdul Muhammad fumble. Dombek, a redshirted freshman making his first collegiate start, connected with Eddie Pratt for a 56-yard gain, then found tight end Jeremy Gilstrap for a 6-yard touchdown. Dombek left the game early in the fourth quarter with a head injury after he was tackled by Donta Jones and Troy Dumas, and said his recollection of the game was a bit fuzzy. "I remember the first quarter pretty well," said Dombek. "I don't remember all of the plays from the game, but we did move the balL It is always important who can put some paints on the board first "That is one drive I do remember.

The rest is kind of blurry." pombek was injured with the Cowboys facing third-and-8 from their 16. Senior Gustin, who was the Wyoming starter until this week, was sacked on his first play, but a Nebraska penalty gave him another chance. He made of the opportunity, driving the; Cowboys 84 yards in 13 plays before hitting Gilstrap with a 2-yard touchdown pass. The conversion pass to wide-open Gilstrap cut the Nebraska lead to 35-32. "I was thinking I wanted to come down on my good shoulder, but I was sacked, and I decided I couldn't be worring about that" said Gustin.

'The defense did a heck of a job, and the offense moved the ball We realized we can compete with what we think is the; No. 1 team in America. We had a chance to get the ball back and drive it and win the game." .1 tRV: The Cowboys' success in the first half was the result of several factors, according to Tiller. "Quite frankly, I thought Nebraska was flat to start the game, and our guys executed well, and it was the combination of the two things," he said. "We put in a couple of things we thought we could take advantage of, just like we do every week.

"Most of you that watch us know that every week it almost looks like a new offense. We feel like we have to do that at Wyoming because physically, often times we don't match up." That serves to keep teams off-balance, he said. "We like to put in some things they haven't seen on film and have to adjust to on the run," he said. "We had some success with it, but to their credit, they adj usted to it "We tried what we call follow routes. If they blitz and are man-toman, we try to snag the ball behind them.

If they were in zone, we'd go underneath. Everybody in America runs crossing patterns where one receiver turns in and the other goes out Everybody broke in for us. We had no idea what we would do would work, but we had some early success, so we stayed with it" The underdog role Wyoming was assigned wasn't shared by the Cowboys. "Our kids came over here off the plains of Wyoming to play a football game. I told them no one has a monopoly on playing hard," Tiller said.

"Playing well on the first series helped us. I would be lying if I said our players were cool calm and collected walking in here. But the way we played dispelled any thoughts our team had that they couldn't play with these guys." SCORING SUMMARY Time left How acored NU-WU FIRST QUARTER Marcus Harris 39 pat from Jeremy Dombek Drive: 69 yards 3 plays. Highlighted by Dombek 35 pass to Harris. Conversion: Taylor Sorenson kick.

Jeremy Gilstrap pass from Dombek Drive: 62 yards in 2 plays. Set up by Brent Schieffer recovery of Abdul Muhammad fumble. Highlighted by Dombek 56 pass to Eddie Pratt Conversion: Sorenson kick. if I 8:30 0:25 5:25 SECOND QUARTER Phillips 1 run Drive: 34 yards in 4 plays. Set up by Barron Miles Interception of Dombeck If I Ss 0-7 0-14 7-14 7-21 14-21 21-21 28-21 35-21 35-24 35-32 42-32 1 TEO KIRKUNCOLN JOURNAL-STAR Wyoming Coach Joe Tiller argues a second-quarter illegal substitution penalty with an official.

pass at Wyoming 34. Highlighted by Phillips 4, 4 runs, Wyoming substitution penalty. Brook Berringer 20 pass to Mark Gilman. Conversion: Tom Sieler kick Terry Hendricks 1 run 2:12 Drive: 1 1 yards in 2 plays. Set up by Lee Vaughn Interception of Berringer pass, return to 22, NU personal foul penalty.

Aided by NU pass Interference penalty, NU offsides penalty. Conversion: Sorensen kick. Brook Berringer 5 run 0:12 Drive: 64 yards in 8 plays. Highlighted by Berringer 9, 9 passes to Phillips, 11, 7 passes to Muhammad, 6 pass to Clester Johnson, 1 1 pass to Brendan Holbein, 6 pass to Reggie Baul. Conversion: Sieler kick.

THIRD QUARTER Berringer 24 run 12:05 Drive: 57 yards in 4 plays. Set up by Tyrone WilKams Interception of Dombek pass. Highlighted by Phillips 2, 6 runs, Berringer 25 run. Conversion: Sieler Phillips 40 run 11:38 Drive: 40 yards In 1 play. Set up by Barron Miles interception of Dombek pass.

Conversion: Sieler kick. Berringer 11 run 8:11 Drive: 43 yards in 9 plays. Highlighted by Phillips 12, 4, 7 runs, Berringer 8 pass to Clester Johnson. Conversion: Sieler kick. Sorenson 40 field goal 0:31 Drive: 52 yards in 7 plays.

Highlighted by Dombek 16 pass to Harris, Dombek 6 pass to Greg Kuhn, Dombek 10,4,1 passes to Pratt. FOURTH QUARTER Gilstrap 2 pass from John Gustin 9:09 Drive: 86 yards in 13 plays. Highlighted by Gustin 3. 6 runs. Gustin 6 pass to Richard Peace.

Gustin 23, 13 passes to Harris, Gustin 18 pass to Pratt, Gustin 10 pass to Christopherson. Conversion: Gilstrap pass fror,) Gustin. Phillips 8 run 5:28 Drive: 80 yards In 10 plays. Set up by Damon Benning recovery of Je'Nay Jackson fumble on punt Conversion: Sieler kick. NUHusker offense shines in time Huskers' McBride says it basketball on grass SCHEDULE BY CURT MCKEEVER Lincoln Journal-Star Nebraska (5-0) Aug.

28 Nebraska 31 West Virginia 0 Sept 8 Nebraska 42. Texas Tech 16 Sept 17 Nebraska 49, UCLA 21 Sept. 24 Nebraska 70, Pacific 21 Saturday Nebraska 42, Wyoming 32 Oct Oklahoma State at Nebraska Oct 15 Nebraska at Kansas State Oct 22 Nebraska at Missouri Oct 29 Colorado at Nebraska Nov. Kansas at Nebraska Nov. 1 2 Nebraska at Iowa State Nov.

25 Nebraska at Oklahoma INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Ave. 62 62 7.7 48 30 10 3.0 PI 1 Yds. 48 30 22 14 11 Wyoming Offense Rushing No. Yds. Terry 4 34 John Gustin 2 9 Ryan 12 0 Jeremy Dombek 3 -7 Passing No.

Co. Yds Jeremy Dombek 35 17 264 JohnGunsbn 11 8 80 Receiving No. Marcus Harris 8 Eddie Pratt 8 Jeremy Gilstrap 3 Richard Peace 2 2 Brent Tinman 1 Greg Kuhn 1 Punting NO. Yds. Brian Gragert 7 291 Kickoff returns No.

Brent 3 Punt returns No. Je'Ney Jackson 3 Interception returns No. lee Vaughn 1 Nebraska Offense Rushing No. Yds. Lawrence 27 168 Brook 12 74 Damon Benning 6 48 Jeff 4 19 Clinton ChUds 3 9 Cory Schlesinger.

3 3 Abdul Muhammad 1 3 Passing No. Co. Yds Brook 22 15 131 Receiving No. Mark GHman. 4 Abdul Muhammad 4 Lawrence Phillips.

3 Clester Johnson 2 Brendan Holbein 1 Reggie Baul 1 Punting No. Yds. Darin 8 339 Kickoff returns No. Clinton ChUds 3 Damon 1 Cory Schlesinger 1 Punt returns No. KareemMoss 4 Interception returns No.

Barron Miles 2 Ave. 85 4.5 00 PI 3 0 Yds. 149 126 25 15 14 9 6 Ave. 41.6 Yds. 60 Yds.

-5 Yds. 10 Continued from page IE "It's fun to compete, and that's why we're here," said Berringer, who ran for three touchdowns and 74 yards and passed for another 131 yards. Berringer said he enjoyed the afternoon. "We just know we can play better," he said. "But 42 points.

We must have done something right" Osborne said Nebraska had better improve, or a long season is in store for his team. "I'm not saying we can't win a bunch of games," he said, "but well have to play better, probably, to win a whole lot of our games." Nebraska couldn't have played better than it did on a drive at the end of the first half that ended with Berringer throwing for 59 yards on seven straight completions and running the final 5 yards on a keeper around the right end. The touchdown with 12 seconds left in the first half cut the Wyoming lead to 21-14, marking the first time Nebraska had been behind at halftime this year. "It's hard to appreciate how that drive went at the time," Berringer said. "But everybody was into football completely on that drive, and it seemed to give us a lot of momentum for the second half." Apparently, it was the tonic Ne-, braska's offense needed.

On Wyoming's first drive of the second half, cornerback Tyrone Williams intercepted a pass and returned it to the NU 43-yard line. The Corhuskers needed just four plays to score. Berringer picked up 25 yards on an option run to the right and scored on another 24-yard option to the right behind the blocks of Cory Schlesinger and Matt Shaw. Twenty seconds later, Nebraska cornerback Barron Miles grabbed his second interception of the game to give the Comhuskers the ball at the Cowboys' 40. Phillips, who scored three touchdowns and ran for 168 yards, took the first play around the left end, shook "I've never seen so many guys falling down and tripping, zigging and Zagging." Charlie McBride "They picked you all day, but it was legal" McBride admitted that Nebraska's defense had trouble with that type of attack because it played strictly man-to-man coverage.

"We probably made a mistake cutting a lot of things out" he said. "It was a little disadvantage that we did nt have more variety to throw at them. "We didn't blitz them that much. We didn't play zone. We just squeezed the pocket (because) we didn't know what kind of agility that guy (Cowboys' quarterback Jeremy Dombek) had." The Comhuskers also didn't mix up their defensive scheme more because McBride didnt want to create more confusion by playing what hadnt been practiced.

"Our kids just weren't ready for this kind of thing yet" he said. But "heat needs to be put on them. And they better get after it or we're going to get our ass beat "I feel a little bit like we're going backwards. We've got a long, long way to go. Not a long two longs." In the same breath, McBride credited NlTs defense for holding Wyoming's running game to 36 yards.

The Cowboys Ryan Christopherson, who came into the game with the fifth-best rushing average in the nation, had zero yards on 12 attempts. "Had they been able to move the ball running, 'we would've gotten beat" McBride said. This is a good game, if you can win it to learn a heck of a lot" Charlie McBride felt more like a basketball coach than a football defensive coordinator during Nebraska's 42-32 victory against Wyoming Saturday afternoon. jThe Cowboys' receivers were having so much success setting picks on the NU defensive backs that McBride may have even thought about seeking some advice from Cornhusker Coach Dallny Nee basketball coach Danny Neerl never seen so many guys falling down and tripping, zigging and zagging. if that wasnt basketball on grass, I don't know what is," MfcBride said.

Sometimes Nebraska was able to stop the fast break. Sometimes it gave up an easy layup. Wyoming threw for 344 yards and three touchdowns. I. can't say we were flat but we weren't sharp.

Sometimes that shows up' more defensively because you pljr with emotion," Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said. "It just seemed like we couldn't handle thfir I (slant-in) patterns. They couldnt run the ball on us (36 yards) and when you can't run the ball you ought to be able to shut down the passing game better than we did." 3The Comhuskers did come up with three Interceptions all of which led to touchdowns. perhaps that's why McBride was saving he's not yet ready to hit the panic buttoa That's the kind of offense they have," he said, sounding as if he half expected Wyoming to put up some goJd passing totals. "I talk to (Wyo-iuiilg assistant and former Nebraska player Dave) Butterfield all the time.

Ht says "Man, you're going to have a good time with us. They're all over the Ave. 42.4 77 32 16 Yds. 24 Yds. 1 28 off two tacklers and scored to give Nebraska its first lead of the game, 28-21, with less than four minutes elapsed in the second half.

In just 29 seconds, Nebraska's defense forced Wyoming to punt and the Comhuskers drove 43 yards in nine plays to set up another Berringer option touchdown run with 8:11 left in the third quarter. "Our line knocked some more people down, and we were moving the ball the way we've come to expect" Berringer said. "But we got into the fourth quarter, and we had a fumble we recovered. I tripped on somebody, overthrew a pass, and we stalled at midfield and had to make that punt they fumbled." Phillips said part of Nebraska's third-quarter success was because.of a change in the Wyoming defense. They were keying on me, and Brook picked that up right away," Phillips said.

"Brook started to get that option going and hitting the holes, and our receivers were making some key blocks, too. "I know Brook talked to Tommie Frazier at halftime, and I'm not sure what they said to each other, but Brook was getting a lot of yards on the options when he kept the ball after halftime." Still, Osborne was wary of the overall performance of the offense "I find no fault with Brook, but when we needed some scores in the fourth quarter, we did not respond," he said. i Tyrone WiUiams 1' Defense Tackles AT UT 9 Ed Stewart 1 KareemMoas 5 Pr Ellis 2 Doug Colman 2 TT 7 6 6 4 4 4 4 3 3 2 Barron Miles 4 Tyrone 4 Troy Oumaa 1 Eric Stokes 1 Dwavne Harris 1 Grant Watrom 0 Tony Veland 1 Leonard Alexander 1 Defense Tackles UT Lee Vaughn 4 John Burrough. 5 JimTalich 4 Joe Cummlngs 2 Chuck 2 Mark Brook 1 Brent Leu 2 Bobby Cole 1 Tyrone Williams 2 Jason Hoianda 2 Brian Lee 2 Waymon Levtngston. 2 Brent Schietfer 2 Aaron Wilson 1 Monti 0 Ken Boris 1 Steve Hendrlx.

1 Hasan Mrfwnmed 1 handy Kanmer. 0 Greg van Leer 1 Jay Jenkina 1 Brent TUman 1 Marcus Harris. 1 TT 13 10 10 8 7 7 5 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 AT 8 1 3 3 0 0 3 3 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ctnt Brown 1 Donta Jones 1 Aaron Penland 1 JoelWNks 1 Damon Bemng. 0 Terrv Crmneary 0 Darin Erstad 0 Christian 0 Larry Townaend 0 Ryan Terwger. 1 1.