Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 32

SFPTFMBER 27. 1987 SUNDAY JOURNAL-STAR ASU coach thought-three would win it li'l-Sf ifiiiiiiiiif ill mi, ing game, the feeling is that the defense lost it But we win as a team and we lose as a team. We can coach better, and our kids can play better on both sides of the balL" Cooper said his team will have to improve to repeat as Pacific-10 Conference champions. "This team is not as good as. lasj year's team," Cooper said "We wer hurt in the first half by allowing braska quarterback Steve) Taylor to run loose.

Taylor is a great player." Ford had 'average game' By the same token, Cooper didf hot think Daniel Ford, the ASU quarterback! played up to his capability. "He had a very average gatte, Cooper said. "He has got to do a better job of picking out his scondary receivers. We had people open, especially in the first half, and he didn't get the ball to, them. If you're going to throw the ban; you've got to get the ball to them." Cooper insisted he was not down dn his team, just disappointed in not winning.

"But, when you play the Big Red and have the score tied with five minutes left, you're doing something," Copper, said. "We just didn't play well enough By Virgil Parker TEMPE, Ariz. Arizona State Coach John Cooper felt that if his Sun Devils could score three touchdowns against Nebraska, they could beat the Cornhusk-crs. Instead, the Sun Devils tallied four TDs and lost "If you had told me we were going to score 28 points on Nebraska and still lose, I'd have thought you were crazy," Cooper said after the 35-28 loss. Cooper was equally amazed that such a thing could happen to his team at home.

"I thought the crowd was really into the game and was a big help to us," Cooper said. "If you had told me the score was going to be tied with five minutes left, and we're kicking off in Sun Devil Stadium, I expect us to win, I don't care who we are playing. We've got to win that sort of game. "But," Cooper added, "Nebraska plays in front of a big crowd every game. They didn't panic.

They knew what they had to do and they did it We kicked off to them with five minutes left and they went down and scored to win the game. You've got to give them credit." Defense let him down Cooper said his team just didn't play well enough on defense. "When we put our defense into a posi- -tion to win a game, I expect them to win it," he said. "When you lose a high-scor down the final stretch. "We could have played better.

But! dont see anybody beating Nebraska on down the road. They play Oklahoma in Lincoln this year. I think Nebraska will go unbeaten the rest of the way." Nebraska defensive tackle Ray Valladao (75) takes the high road and teammate Lee Jones the low road while sacking Arizona State quarterback Daniel Ford for a 7-yard loss to the ASU 32-yard line in the third quarter. Defense From p91P ASU notes, quotes where the linebackers were coming back and the corners and safeties were coming up. "When that area didn't close quick enough, they got the passes in there and moved the ball," Blazek said.

"I know we had the answer with some changes in the second half, but we didn't get much of a chance to show that "They scored after we had fumbles deep in our territory (at the NU 15 and 13) and it's hard to stop a good team from there in," Blazek said. The two late ASU touchdowns and a late Nebraska touchdown, plus the interceptions, were all too similar to a game last year, Smith said. "It was like South Carolina (an NU 27-24 win last year) all over again. Hot place, lot of points and the sweet interceptions at the end I dont need them to be that close "he said. all out "We needed five sacks and we didn't get to them.

It's hard to fight off two and three guys. But in the end we got the plays." "They have a good offense, but I know we didn't do our best and we can do better on defense," he said. "We need to go in and practice on that You have to get better and not give up so many points if you expect to win all the time." Nebraska safety Mark Blazek, who intercepted an ASU pass in the end zone in the first quarter, reached the same conclusion. "We did a lot of things to hurt ourselves defensively," he said. "Personally, some open-field tackling and breaking to the ball quicker would have helped.

"But they exploited a lot of our vulnerabilities. They found the hole in our coverage about 15-20 yards downfield better when Brian (Washington) got that last interception," he said. Smith, who missed the first two plays of the final ASU drive, came back in after the Sun Devils drove to midfield on back-to-back completions by Ford. "When they got to the 50 (actually the ASU 48), I had to go in and take control," Smith said. The senior sacked Ford and knocked the ball loose on the first play, but ASU halfback Channing Williams recovered.

Smith tipped a pass away on the next play and knocked down a pass on the following play. Then, Washington picked off the last-gasp pass. The drama was almost too much for Smith. "My heart was hurting and I wanted to get out of this game and onto the next game," Smith said. "They couldnt do much to cool us off a fan, some wet towels.

We had to keep ourselves going, and the heat made us feel like letting it too much of the time. We also missed too many tackles," Zumwalt said Defensive tackle Shawn Patterson agreed the Sun Devil defense must accept the responsibility for the loss. "It was our fault," he said "I want to apologize to our offense. I felt we'd be a second-half team. We didn't tire.

But they didn't, either. The Nebraska players never showed they were. tireA They ran on and off the field every We should have gone out there-ami kicked their butts in the second half, but we didn't We're used to that heat" Patterson said the ASU defense put more pressure on Taylor in the second half. "But he's an excellent athlete-and give him credit" Patterson was not as complimentaS about Nebraska's offensive line. V'Z "They are big and quick, but dont have very good lateral movement.

We started using some stunts on them to the second half." Arizona State quarterback Daniel Ford was near tears after the game. "It's my job to see that we win, but we lost," he said "I missed some short passes when the guys were open. I had great protection. I think we controlled the line of scrimmage. The offensive line played more consistently than I did" Ford said the pressure of playing No.

2-ranked Nebraska did not affect his performance. "This is the kind of game you look forward to. But I looked forward to winning it. We didn't, and I have to live with that." ABC-TV named offensive guard Randall McDaniel as ASU's outstanding player of the game. ASU defensive end Rick Zumwalt said Nebraska quarterback Steve Taylor, who was awarded the outstanding player honor for Nebraska, made the differeence in the outcome.

"We just let the quarterback run loose i end Broderick NU defensive Thomas cools off near a fan. Statistics, scoring Fumble that NU-ASU How scored Time left wasn't Nebraska defensive back Lorenzo Hicks climbs onto the back of Arizona State receiver Aaron Cox (upper photo) and rides him to the turf, as the ball pops loose (lower photo). No fumble was called on the fourth-quarter play, and ASU got a first down at midfield on the 19-yard pass from quarterback Daniel Ford to Cox. Arizona State was not able to score on the possession, however. The Sun Devils were forced to punt four plays later.

NU linebacker LeRoy Etienne (47, below) watches the play unfold. Ave. 8.5 6.4 3.9 9.0 6.3 4.5 4.0 7.0 PI 1 0 Yds. 62 14 12 7 Ave. 41.5 Yds.

10 0 Yds. 90 Yds. 0 0 1 SECOND QUARTER 7-0 Taylor 1 run 13:10 Drive: 80 yards In 11 plays. Highlighted by three Taylor runs of 32, 12, 12 yards. Conversion: Drennan kick.

7-3 Zendeias 36 field goal 7:15 Drive: 62 yards in 13 plavs. Highlighted by Ford 11 pass to Johnson, Ford 11 run, Williams 11 run. 14-3 Heibel 1 run 2:19 Drive: 85 yards In 12 plays. Highlighted by Clark 17 run, Taylor 10 pass to Brinson, 24 pass to Mllllkan. Conversion: Drennan kick.

144 Zendeias 28 field goal 0:00 Drive: 38 yards in 6 plays. Set up by Jones Interception of Taylor pass. Highlighted by Ford 18 pass to Cox. THIRD QUARTER 14-14 Ford 2 pass to Garrett 10:50 Drive: 80 yards in 8 plavs. Highlighted by Ford 32 pass to Cox.

Aided by pass interference penalty. Conversion: Ford pass to Williams. 21-14 Jones 1 run 9:49 Drive: 70 yards in 8 plays. Highlighted by Jones 19 run. Set up by pass on fake field goal from Blakeman to Millikan to ASU 1-yard line.

Conversion: Drennan kick. 21-21 Harris 4 run 2:45 Drive: 15 yards in 4 plays. Set up by Taylor fumble. Conversion: Zendeias kick. FOURTH QUARTER 28-21 Taylor 12 past to R.Smith 11:22 Drive: 70 yards in 8 plays.

Highlighted by Tavlor 12 pass to Mllllkan, Taylor 24 run. Conversion: Drennan kick. 28-28 Harris 1 run 4:55 Drive: 13 yards in 5 plays. Set up by Taylor fumble. Conversion: Zendeias kick.

35-28 Taylor 3 run 3:37 Drive: 82 yards in 4 plays. Highlighted by K. Jones 62 run. Conversion: Drennan kick. rzi fes Nebraska Offense Rushing No.

Yds. K. Jones 17 145 Taylor 19 122 Heibel 7 27 Clark 3 27 Knox 3 19 Carpenter 2 9 Brlnson 2 8 Hawkins 1 7 Passing No. Co. Yds Taylor 16 6 69 Blakeman 1 1 26 Receiving No.

Mllllkan 3 Brinson 2 R. Smith 1 Hawkins 1 Punting No. Yds. Kroeker 4 166 Punt returns No. R.

Smith 1 Clark 1 Klckoff returns No. Brinson 4 i I nterception returns No. Blazek 1 Forch 1 Washington 1 Defense Tackles UT AT Thomas 6 2 Forch 4 3 N. Smith 4 1 Washington 3 2 Etienne 2 2 Hicks 3 1 Jamrog 2 2 Pete 3 1 Blazek 3 0 Rother 1 2 Tomiack 2 1 Frvar 1 1 Jobman 1 1 Murray 2 0 Welniak 2 0 L. Jones 2 0 Marco 1 0 Walker 1 0 Mills 0 1 Cooper 1 0 Arizona State Offense Rushing Photos by Randy Hampton Interception returns No.

Yds. Jones 18 TT 8 7 5 5 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 Ted Kirk Robert Becker i 'i WyrfWWiyif ffffm IM" '1PSWWWW minimi lllpfilllillli y' rj mm mmmwssmm 4 yiVrr-, Williams 9 42 4.7 Wendorf 2 15 7.5 Cahoon 1 3 3.0 Ford 6 7 1.1 Passing No. Co. Yds PI Ford 34 15 200 3 Receiving No. Yds.

Cox 5 109 T.Johnson 3 58 Garrett 3 16 Harris 2 6 Knudson 1 7 Wendorf 1 4 Punting No. Yds. Ave. Schuh 5 196 39.2 Punt returns No. Yds.

Parker 2 10 Klckoff returns No. Yds. Parker 2 49 Defense Tackles UT AT TT Parker 6 2 8 Patterson 4 4 8 Clark 5 3 8 Harvey 5 2 7 Allen 4 2 6 Jones 3 3 6 Armstrong 14 5 Metcalf Taylor 3 2 5 Boyd 2 1 3 LaDuke 3 0 3 Zumwalt 0 3 3 Sapoly 2 0 2 Fields 2 0 2 0 2 2 J.Johnson 1 1 2 No. Yds. Ave.

....26 110 4.2 Harris. From Parker- i Itfci i Wi-v-i Columbia loses again; 33rd in row for Lions EASTON, Pa. (UPI) Frank Baur passed for 234 yards and three touchdowns Saturday to enable Lafayette to hand Columbia its 33rd straight loss, a 38-7 rout of the Lions. The major college record for consecutive losses is 34 by Northwestern (1979-82). Columbia last won on Oct 15, 1983 when its defeated Yale 21-18.

the nation by the wire service polls, was No. 4 on the Sporting News list And the Sun Devils gave the Huskers a tougher afternoon that UCLA, a team which is favored over ASU for the Pac-10 title thisfalL Though hard-fought a win is a win is a win. Nobody is going to argue over the closeness of the score. The Huskers are 3-0, and the dream continues. Nebraska defensive play up front was obviously hurt by the ineffectiveness of tackle Lee Jones, who still is slowed by a badly sprained ankle he suffered nearly three weeks ago.

A bruised shoulder also slowed Broderick Thomas, although he did return to the game after the injury. And against a good passing team, Nebraska's defense against the pass is still lacking. Ford was seldom hurried Arizona State, although ranked 12th in.