Very, very disappointing.

Well I went to watch my beloved Cornhuskers play at Memorial Stadium here in Lincoln last night against the #1 team in the country, the USC Trojans. Let me tell you it ended up not being much fun at all. I waited to write anything about this game until I had slept on it because it wouldn’t have been very productive to write anything last night when it was more fresh in my mind. I would have said that we were completely dominated on both sides of the ball for the entire game but you know what? It’s not true. The crowd was in the game and we were playing toe to toe with them for a while there. I can tell you the exact second that we lost that game. It was over with 8 minutes and 51 seconds seconds left in the second quarter right after the Trojans returned a fumble to their 45 yard line and their returner who fumbled it got hurt and was on the field for 10 or 15 minutes. That long break from play completely took the crowd out of the game and it was all downhill from there. It’s like we all got to sit and think about how they just made a huge play and it almost felt like there was a “Oh no, here we go again” thought that went through the collective crowd mentality. We were winning 10-7 at that point but honestly… it was over. I don’t understand Callahan’s gameplan at that point before the half but to all of us he went into the Frank Solich “prevent” offense going 1, 2, 3 runs up the middle then punt instead of doing what was keeping us in the game until that point. That pretty much finished off any enthusiasm that the crowd had left and we went into the half losing 21-10.

The second half wasn’t even close. We were completely dominated in every aspect of the game. I was in the south end zone and they were opening 10 yard wide holes right up the middle and running free into the secondary every… single… time. I have no idea where the linebackers were, there didn’t seem to be any. It was 21-10, 28-10, 35-10, 42-10. It honestly felt like they were completely unstoppable and we were completely inept at everything. I was wanting them to go for it on the multiple 4th downs we had because punting the ball only seemed to slow them down long enough to run a couple extra plays and tack on some more yardage to their stats before they scored again.

At that point the stadium was completely dead, and I mean dead. I’ve got to give Kurt credit though, he was putting his best effort into getting everyone back into the game. It helped that he snuck in some Crown Royal so he had his team spirit lubricated up quite a bit, not to mention that he’s married and has a kid now so he doesn’t drink that much anymore. His best line of the night was when he stood up and turned to our section and said “REMEMBER BARRON VON RICTENBERG, A POOR NEBRASKA FARM KID THAT LOST HIS ARM IN A COMBINE ACCIDENT IN 1969 AND WENT ON TO WRESTLE FOR NEBRASKA WITH A CLAW FOR AN ARM AND WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP! BARRON VON RICTENBERG NEVER GAVE UP AND NEITHER CAN WE! LETS GIVE EM… THE CLAAWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!! It made no sense whatsoever but I gotta admit, it lightened the mood a little. Shannon was in the team spirit before the game because she can’t hold her liquor but tapped out by the end of the 1st quarter. She was funny though before the game when she kept screaming GO BIG RED! in the faces of USC fans and then laughing hysterically while saying “I’m talking smack! This is fun!” She would then promptly hit me in the stomach for no reason. Shannon isn’t allowed to drink anymore…

We left this one after the Trojans went up 49-17. Kasey and Shannon had already left a little earlier, Shannon looked sick. Kurt and I stayed as long as we could but Kurt kept making the throw up face. Everyone knows what that is. You stop being loud and obnoxious and get real quiet and start doing this burping like motion and close your eyes. After we left the Huskers scored 2 touchdowns which really only kept it looking a little more respectable but wasn’t even that close. Final score 49-31, USC.

Looking back now it’s easy to see why they are #1. The athletes they have are ridiculous. Sometimes you forget that they have had the #1 recruiting class for 5 years straight but it showed. Last night also showed that we can play with someone like that if we play with emotion. I think that is sometimes tough for us because of the last 5 or 6 years. As soon as something goes bad everyone immediately thinks “Ohhh Nooooooo! Not again!”, and we lose that killer instinct and the feeling we can dominate and win. By we I mean the people watching on tv, the crowd in the stadium, the coaches, and the players. Everyone. It’s tough to get that back again once it’s lost. In my head I knew we would get killed in this game but in my heart I wanted it to happen so bad and I wanted to be a part of it. Enough to pay $250 for a ticket in the south stadium nosebleeds. I’m done for this year with going to games, I was going to the Kansas game but I think I’ll watch it on TV. It’s way cheaper and at least I don’t have to piss in a trough that way.

Check out the pictures from the game with the picture link below. (Some mine, the overhead ones I blatantly stole from Hoop’s site courtesy of our friends at the Nebraska State Patrol.) You can also read about the celebritys that came through for the game with Hoop’s account of the event from work at the airport HERE.

All I can say to end this post is this… At least we aren’t Notre Dame.