Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 11

Saturday, November 24, 1973 Lincoln, Neb. Journal 11 Sooners Roll In Own Bowl 1 Af V'' Vf-rr: i 1 i out of bounds (4) but continued the run and gained several more yards. The run, however, was called back to the Oklahoma 42yard line where he stepped out of bounds. Oklahoma's Joe Washington (24) displayed his shiftiness on this punt return in the first quarter. Washington gets the ball (1) as Ron Waters (35) appears to clip Nebraska's Don Westbrook (21) and then takes off to the right (2) eluding Nebraska's Stan Hegener (64) and Dan Anderson (67), who makes a diving try (3).

Washington then steps Continued From Page 9 Oklahoma upped the bulge to 20-0 after defensive end Gary Baccus tipped a Humm pass and linebacker David Smith intercepted at the Nebraska 26. Nine plays later, after a lineman recovered a fumble by halfback Tim Welch and the Huskers were penalized for piling on, Davis sneaked in for another TD. Switzer, obviously hoping to impress the nationwide TV audience, didn't insert his subs until the final 15 seconds of the game. In the final two minutes of action the Sooners pulled out all the stops out to score again. Davis found still another sophomore split end Tinker Owens, who showed Nebraska such a bad time last fall with a 41-yard pass to the Husker eight.

Davis tallied his third touchdown on the next play to produce the final count. "What can you say?" most of the Nebraska players answered as they fumbled for words of explanation in the dressing room. "Oklahoma is not just a good team, they're a REALLY good team," Nebraska's Davis declared. "I couldn't believe the pursuit of the linebackers." Osborne agreed. "Lots of times a play looked like it was going to gain five yards and their linebackers would rush in and hold it to two." Nil fullback Maury Dainkroger echoed the same sentiments.

"TheSelmons (middle linemen brothers Lucious, Dewey and LeRoy) have gotten all the publicity," Damkroger notes. "They're good. They are strong enough to hold things up at the line. But then it's the linebackers (Rod Shoate, the Big 8 sophomore of the year last fall, and senior David Smith), who come in to make the tackles. If that's not the best team in the nation." Damkroger added, "I'd sure as heck hate to play anybody who is better." Frosty Anderson said it was "a totally helpless feeling to be stymied like that.

Our problems didn't come from a lack of effort, though. We just couldn't get anything going." Humm was in complete agreement that the OU linebackers were the key, but was not as liberal in his praise of the Sooner defense. "We contributed to it by mis-sing a lot of blocking assignments and having some dropped passes." he said. Humm considers the defeat a challenge "A loss always makes you want to try harder." he insists, "The seniors on our team certainly don't want to close out their fine careers at Nebraska on a sour note. So it's up to all of us to see that we get them a win in the Cotton Bowl against Texas." I N-Borg 1 13? 'J Oklahoma's defense seemed to be everywhere and on punts it was more of the same.

Here Randy Borg (19) is corralled by Sooners Bob Berg (20) and Bill Brooks (82). A frustrated Monte Kiffin, NU's defensive coordinator, and co-captain John Dutton (90) talk things over. Defensive Strategy While Nebraska was plagued with numerous errors, Oklahoma suffered only one turnover this pass interception by NU linebacker Tom Ruud (45) who is tackled by Oklahoma's Tinker Owens (11) and Waymon Clark (33). This interception completed a back-to-back interception series. On the previous play OU's Tony Peters had stolen a Dave Humm toss.

Ml sSfegJ -Dgvis til Photos By Web Ray Bob Corham Ilarald Dreimanis Randy Hampton As Nebraska's John Dutton (90) walks away, Oklahoma quarterback Steve Davis (5) cheers from the ground after scoring the Sooners' third touchdown of the game and his second of the afternoon. .1 ill i.