Nebraska's Forthcoming

Some of the wonderful things about this year in college football are Thursday and Friday night football games. This year there have been many great match-ups outside of the normal Saturday games:

#14 Boise St. vs. #16 Oregon,

#15 Georgia Tech vs. Clemson,

#20 Miami vs. #14 Georgia Tech,

South Carolina vs. #4 Mississippi,

and last night's #21 Nebraska vs. #24 Missouri

Nebraska needed a win last night, and they pulled one out with a stunning 4th quarter rain of Touchdowns. Nebraska's big defense played very well all night, giving up 10 points with only 134 passing yards and 91 rushing yards (Missouri also scored two points on a Nebraska Safety). The offense, however, struggled for the first three quarters with nothing to show. I'm not sure what went down on Nebraska's sideline after the 3rd quarter, Nebraska being down 12-0, but something clicked in the 4th quarter and they scored 3 touchdowns in 3 1/2 minutes. Much of the credit goes to the great defense that came up with 2 interceptions, leaving Nebraska's offence in great field position; but interceptions don't always translate into offensive touchdowns. Nebraska stepped up in a big way Thursday night with a 27-12 win over Missouri.

Nebraska receiver #24 Niles Paul celebrates after

1 of his 2 4th quarter TD receptions Thursday night

The Big XII is up for grabs this season. Oklahoma has already been hurt with the absence of reigning Heisman trophy winner Sam Bradford, and Texas Tech has simply not played as well as last year. Texas has an easier schedule than Florida, and will likely win the South; but the North is a different story, and Nebraska has already toughened out half the battle. Even if they lose to Oklahoma, they need only to beat Kansas to reach the Big XII Championship (that is if they can hold off any surprising upsets). They still can't look past teams like Texas Tech and Kansas State, but they should win those games. The defense, led by All-American Ndamukong Suh, needs to be the consistent anchor that can shut down good offenses like Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas; if the offense can become a strong enough threat, look for Nebraska to strongly contend for the Big XII Championship this year.