The Daily Oklahoman from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma • 41

Novombor 24. 1985 TOE SUNDAY OKLAUOMAN Soctlon Huskers Always Just a Step, Or Three, Slower Than OU By Voloey Meece NORMAN "The big plays they had were plays that it they were playing against the Chicago Bears could have Quarterback McCathorn Clayton said OU had the toughest defense Nebraska has faced, adding, "We haven't played against a team with the overall speed they had. "Their great speed kept us from getting outside and they kind of beat us off the ball inside. They were playing with a high intensity and just took eveything away from us. "Everything was going right for their Certainly nothing happened today to change my mind.

I think they (the Sooners) have maybe as good a defense as they've ever bad, and that even goes back to the days when they had the Selmon brothers, Rod Shoate and some of those people. "I think with a little good fortune, we might have been able to score a little bit more than we did, 14 points or whatever and maybe made a game out of It. "But they just outplayed us badly!" Osborne said a key factor was OU's speed on offense. "It seemed like there were a lot of times we were just a step away and sometimes three steps away. "Of course, the tight end (OU's Jackson) was the dominant player in the game.

The tight end reverse hurt us badly on two occasions (Jackson reversed 19 as OU was heading for its last TD). For a big guy, he's a tremendous player. He can really move. They've got a lot of great athletes. "On the other hand, I would say this about our team: I think we got a lot out ol our players if you look at the whole I'm not too proud of today but I think our players really tried hard.

think they were a little uptight at the start. They wanted to do well badly. Maybe didn't do as good a job preparing them as I should have. We tried to keep them loose. "I think their tight end reverse earlj and our not moving the ball well early jusi kind of took us out of the game.

But I don'i think they ever quit. I think they playet the best they could." Osborne said, "Oklahoma's got a grea defense. We can't take anything away from them. They're a great team." Parsons said of Holieway, "He's a great athlete. You can't take that away from him.

Personally, I don't take time to sit around and think how good the guy is across from me. I'm more concerned with myself. But you can't deny he's a great player. He does a good job of running the ball." Rathman, a senior, said Nebraska, which won nine in a row after losing to Florida State opening day, still had a successful season. He added, "It seems like Nebraska has a shot at the national championship every year but ever since I've been here we've fallen one game short.

That's a shame." How does Rathman rate Saturday's loss by No. 2 Nebraska with last year's 17-7 loss to the Sooners when the Huskers were No. 'Last year I thought we physically abused them," he said. "This year I thought we were hitting them pretty good in the first half but things just weren't going right. "As far as comparing to last year, the almost shut us out today.

We have a better offense than that. But, then again, they have a great defense. We really didn't get too many breaks today." One of the few was a consolation prize, an invitation to the Fiesta Bowl to play Michigan on New Year's Day. After the oeen Dig plays." Nebraska linebacker Kevin Parsons was talking about the 88-yard Keith Jackson tight end reverse and 43-yard Jamelle Ho-lleway jaunt that gave Oklahoma's Sooners a 14-0 first-quarter Jump on a 27-7 runaway in the Big Eight and Orange Bowl showdown here Saturday afternoon. "I didn't feel like we weren't doing anything right," Parsons said of the NU defense, victimized by the long scoring strikes.

"Sometimes you just overpursue and they run a reverse. Sometimes on those plays you get dropped for 20 yards and sometimes you go 80 on 'em. "You really can't prepare your defense entirely around plays like that, especially if you've never seen them. To my. knowledge, we'd never seen that tight end reverse." Parsons noted the Sooners' quickness and repeated, "Sometimes you overpursue.

We played the plays too well sometimes if you can do that." Parsons said this wasn't necessarily the best offense he's faced, explaining, "I think there are inherent qualities in the wishbone that make it explosive. "There could be a series where they don't gain a yard, then there could be a series where they'll break one for 80 yards. We saw that today. "Not to take anything away from their players because they're great players. It's just the scheme of their offense." Fullback Tom Rathman, who netted 29.

of the Huskers' 161 rushing yards, admitted, "I thought we'd be able to come right out and possibly run the ball down the field on 'em. We had a couple of first downs right away. thought if we won this game we would have had a real good chance to win the national championship. It goes back to the fact Oklahoma has a really fine defense and we really didn't get anything accomplished. "We knew they had a fine defense coming into the game.

Their defensive line-does a fine job of keeping the linebackers free. The linebackers made a lot of plays today." Staff Photo by Jim Argo Keith Jackson (88) and Spencer Tillman enjoy a No. 1 kind of day. football team; We congratulate them They're Big Eight champions. We wish 'en well in the Orange Bowl.

I know they'l represent us very well." Osborne said although NU trailed, 17-0 at half time, "I thought we had a chance When you're playing a defense like tha and you're down 17-0 it's pretty tough ti figure you've got a great chance to com' back and win it. But I thought we couli and I think our players thought we coulc However, we didn't get anything going that first drive of the second half and the; went down and kicked a field goal. "I'm not saying we gave up or didn' think we could win it at that point, but i just got tough." bid was formally tendered and Osborne accepted at the start of his post-game interview he looked at the swarm of newsmen and sighed, "That was the easy part." He declared, "We just got a good kicking today. We've got to give a lot of credit where credit is due. I thought coming into the game Oklahoma a great team.

Tom Osborne tries to draw up some offense tor the Huskers. 27-7? The Lopsided Win Wasn't a Surprise to OU -Staff Photo by Doug Ht Jamelle Holieway (4) provides a tow job for Nebraska comerback Brian Davis. can outshine the miniature Cali-f ornian, who has played above and beyond expectations in every game. The Cornhuskers tried to confuse Holieway in the first quarter by' playing a stack defense. It didn't work, as the Sooners plundered them for 169 yards on three-plays, 208 total yards and a 14-0 jump on the scoreboard.

Nebraska then adjusted, returning to its more traditional wishbone defense, but the Sooners scorched that, too. Holieway was the torch man. "I wouldn't have dreamedwe could make over 400 yards against Nebraska," the freshman said. "But when our line blocks and our backs run, nobody can stop us." The victory very much keeps the Sooners on course for the national championship. They have football to play before they get to the Orange but they believe they have the team to defeat a Murderer's Row of Nebraska, Oklahoma State, SMU and Penn State.

"We blew it (the national title) in the Orange Bowl last year. But we're not going to blow it this year," promised Bosworth. And at the end of the cold afternoon, OU fans descended upon the field and took the goal post down. The celebration was the kind you expect when one team beats a powerful foe by an unexpectedly large score. Those fans, quite obviously, didn't know what the Sooners knew.

man," he giggled. And if he had gotten, off that pass, he might have'gotten some votes and a law passed outlawing him. The the first OU has run this season, were put in the game plan this week. Normally, a split end gets the assignment, but the Sooners picked Jackson because of his speed and big-play ability. Then they showed how much disdain they had for Nebraska's defense by calling it on their own 12-yard line.

"The play would have worked any place on the field," said Kevin Murphy, the All-America defensive end. "They worked against us every time in practice. "The key is to get everybody going the wrong way," said Jackson. "I thought it might go for a first down, but I didn't think I'd would score a touchdown. Then I got to the 50 and I still didn't think I'd score.

I was tired." Want more proof of how sure the Sooners were? They were so sure, they turned quarterback Jamelle Holieway loose on the option more than at any time this season. His reported in with 25 carries, most yet, for 110 yards. Rarely could the Huskers knock the 5-9 rookie down. They certainly couldn't knock him out. "Every since this guy started playing," linebacker Brian Bos-worth said as he looked at Holieway, "I can't get my name in the paper." In truth, none of the Sooners From Page 1C ''Our defense deserved a shutout and we were disappointed we didn't get it," sighed Barry Switz-er, showing the kind of irritation one feels when he strikes oil in his backyard but has to call in a landscape artist to repair the damage.

Otherwise, everything went peachy perfect on the gray, dead-of-winterrlike afternoon. The offense made yards punishing Nebraska's No. 3 defense with 423 yards while the defense limited the Nebraska of fense, No. .1 in the country, to 224 yards. It's probably been a long while since the Sooners entered such a big game so sure of themselves.

How sure, you ask, were they? They were so sure they ignored the 18-mph wind when they lost the toss of the coin and chose not cto defend, but to play offense. They wanted the pumpkin. They were so sure that they unleashed a 241-pound tight end as their main weapon. And Keith Jackson turned into a triple-threat wizard, a distant memory from the leather helmet days. Jackson ran the ball.

Jackson caught the ball. And he would have thrown it, too, if his receiv-. er could have sneaked past that last'defender. You may never see this again, Jackson was OU's leading rusher, with 136 yards on three 'reverses, and also their leading receiver, with one catch for 38 yards. "I think I ought to get the Heis- Orange Bowl Bid Goes to Sooners NORMAN The Orange Bowl Selection Committee went into a quick huddle after the Oklahoma Sooners defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 27-7, Saturday and decided the Sooners will be invited to Miami even though they have a Big Conference game to play.

"We were impressed by Oklahoma," said imcom-ing president Stan Marks. "We want them." The Sooners have the chance next week against Oklahoma State to win the Big Eight title outright. But if the Cowboys, who dropped out of Big Eight championship contention by losing to Iowa State on Saturday, defeat the Sooners, OU and Nebraska would end up tied for the title at 6-1. "That game doesn't matter to the Orange Bowl. Oklahoma defeated Nebraska and Oklahoma's coming to play Penn State and we're glad to have them," said Marks.

Marks was asked if he still has hopes a No. 1 will play a No. 2 on New Year's night. "I hope we'll have it Tuesday (when this week's poll comes out). But if Oklahoma defeats Oklahoma State and SMU, I think they would certainly deserve to be No.

2. Maybe No. 1." St Photo by Jim Aryo then enjoys a game that's all wrapped up..