Purify comes through at the end
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BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Maurice Purify knew the pass was coming. He knew his role was pretty simple. Outjump the defender, and catch the football.
Still, on this day, nothing seemed simple. Not even for Nebraska’s flashy, big-play receiver.
“It’s my worst game,” Purify said, “and the biggest catch of my life.”
That the two occurred on the same day mattered little to Purify.
The 6-foot-4 junior college transfer outjumped 5-10 cornerback Jordan Peterson, snagged Zac Taylor’s fade pass in the end zone and set off a wild celebration on the Nebraska sideline.
Purify’s 9-yard TD reception, with 21 seconds remaining Saturday, did more than give Nebraska a remarkable 28-27 victory against No. 24 Texas A&M. It ended a frustrating day in which the normally sure-handed receiver had a case of the dropsies.
“All the players can tell you I was frustrated, because it was unusual,” Purify said. “I couldn’t track the ball that good. I couldn’t tell you why. I just dropped the ball.”
The early drops, obviously, did little to affect Taylor’s opinion of the receiver. The senior quarterback requested that he throw to Purify on the game’s biggest play.
In fact, he’d gone to Purify the previous play — an incompletion from the 17-yard line that was wiped away because of a roughing- the-passer call, giving a NU first-and-goal.
“He’s so big,” Taylor said of Purify. “When you’re down there on the 10-, 15-yard line, it’s an automatic mismatch. The other team has to hope their corner can jump with him, and I’m pretty sure nobody can do that.”
There were heroes other than Purify — some unlikely ones — on the final drive that began at the Nebraska 25-yard line with 1 minutes, 57 seconds remaining, following Barry Turner’s block of an A&M field goal.
Todd Peterson, who entered Saturday with only 10 catches, had a 22-yard reception on fourth-and-3, a play after he’d dropped a pass. The conversion gave Nebraska new life at the A&M 46.
“We work the two-minute drill every Thursday,” said Peterson, who led the Huskers with seven receptions for 82 yards and scored a first-half touchdown. “It’s like second nature to us.”
Dan Erickson, primarily a blocking receiver who’d had only one catch this season, had a 16-yard reception that gave Nebraska a first down at the A&M 30 with 52 seconds left.
“It’s just kind of a mirrored route,” Erickson said. “The quarterback drops back and picks a side. He saw that I came open. I was real happy he threw it to me, too.
“When we get in that two-minute, Zac is so calm and so into leading the game. He does such a great job at it. The guy’s great when we get into the clutch situations.”
Another completion to Peterson — this one for 13 yards — gave Nebraska a first down at the A&M 17. Taylor followed with a spike to stop the clock with 39 seconds. An incompletion, intended for Peterson, made it third down — the play in which Taylor was roughed.
That set up the game-winning toss to Purify.
“He’s just a special, special player,” Nebraska offensive coordinator Jay Norvell said of Purify. “In times of crisis, you think players, not plays, and that was certainly one of those.”
Taylor threw for 267 yards and broke Dave Humm’s career passing mark with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Peterson for a 21-7 lead in the second quarter. On the same play, he broke Vince Ferragamo’s single-season touchdown mark (20).
The second half, though, was a different story for the offense. Before Taylor’s heroic drive, the Huskers had run 25 plays for 76 yards — 3 yards per play — in the second half.
Poor field position, coaches said, was one factor.
“We didn’t make plays,” Norvell said. “We didn’t run the ball effectively. We had opportunities to make throws on third down, and we didn’t complete them. We just didn’t do a good enough job.”
Not until the end, anyway. That’s when Taylor, who’d been sacked four times and was well-battered and bruised, gave Nebraska an exhilarating ride.
“I just knew I had to bounce back,” Taylor said. “That last drive, my offensive line did a great job of giving me plenty of time.
“That’s when I feel most comfortable, when I know I’m throwing the ball on every play. That’s what a quarterback loves to do.”
He left little doubt in the minds of his teammates, both those on and off the field for that final drive.
“I knew we were going to win it,” linebacker Stewart Bradley said. “We go against our two-minute drill every day in practice, and they’re fricking amazing at it.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
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