Curt McKeever: Huskers know they have a chance if they play well
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Give me 30 guys who think like Carl Nicks and I’d feel good about Nebraska’s chances at Missouri.
Ability aside, the senior offensive tackle truly believes the Huskers will come out on top — which in any recipe book is the main ingredient to a team playing in a manner that would deliver such a result.
Nicks is not being naive, either. He fully understands the Tigers have a quick-kill offense, one that can pounce and take large chunks of flesh from defenses that possess a much greater fight than what NU’s has shown.
So be it. If Missouri runs the Blackshirts in circles, it’s up to Sam Keller and Co. to do the same to a Tiger defense that has its own long laundry list of shortcomings.
Or, who’s to say Bo Ruud and his gang can’t find something to throw off Missouri’s remarkable quarterback, Chase Daniel?
If no one thought that was possible, what would be the point of traveling to Columbia, Mo.?
That’s kind of what Nicks hinted at earlier this week when some TV guy ‘informed’ him that Missouri had the best team in the Big 12 North.
“Who says they’re the best?” he responded.
Indeed. Maybe they are. Maybe they aren’t. Probably all that will be decided on Faurot Field will be who’s the better between the Tigers and Huskers.
At the least, Nebraska needs to be thinking it’s every bit as good.
Bill Callahan’s bunch isn’t playing to erase the abysmal performances of 2005 and 2003, when NU lost by identical 41-24 scores. Who cares about that now? What matters is where the Huskers are headed, and tonight it’s time for them to finally provide a clear answer.
We’re not talking about going to Los Angeles or Baton Rouge to show the world they’re ready for all comers. They’re not.
But there’s no excuse for being anything less than competitive on the road against another team from your league that’s never held a piece of what you currently own — the North Division title.
It would make sense that Nebraska will have to be at its best — and cause Missouri to be otherwise — if it’s to win. I can’t help but wonder, though, if Nicks has enough warriors around him who believe those things will occur.
There was a day when thoughts of defeat would have been considered treasonous. Times have changed, but not enough for Nebraska to abandon its winning attitude.
Sure, for the better part of four games, Missouri has looked efficiently robotic while positioning itself to start 5-0 in back-to-back seasons for the first time in school history. The average time of the Tigers’ 24 scoring drives has been two minutes, five seconds.
Because of that, the Tigers have their highest national ranking (No. 17) since 1998.
More pertinent tonight — and this is a big one — they also have the nation’s best rate on third-down conversions.
Do you know, though, that as a ranked team, they’ve also lost their last 11 games when the opponent also was ranked?
And, surely, you haven’t forgotten that after last year’s 6-0 start, Mizzou limped in with a 8-5 record.
As high-flying as Gary Pinkel has his squad, the folks in Columbia always remain on guard for one of those out-of-the-blue losses — because they always happen to a Pinkel-coached team.
Such an occurrence in Columbia would qualify for that category only because the prevailing thought is Nebraska has no chance. But therein lies the beauty of athletic competition. Just when you think you know who’s good and who’s not, Kansas State goes to Texas and punches the Longhorns squarely in the nose. Or Colorado, refusing to believe it can’t make up a 17-point, second-half deficit, scores 20 straight to upend Oklahoma.
“You know the phrase, ‘Any given Sunday.’ It’s becoming any given Saturday,” Bill Callahan noted Tuesday.
That’s a tough one to swallow for Nebraska fans who long to see the days when the Huskers rolled replace the ones that have led to a couple of close calls in a 4-1 campaign.
“People are going to find little holes to try to pick on us and justify why they think we’re not as good as our record says,” Nicks said. “We’ve had a couple games real close, but we won. At the end of the day, that’s what you’re trying to do.”
Of course, Nicks would prefer to see the Huskers tighten their act. The offense could protect the ball better. The defense could be a lot more swarming.
“As far as progressing, we could be a lot farther than we are — no question,” Nicks said. “But we’re 4-1, so ... we’re real happy with that. We know we have a lot better football in us.”
In Nicks’ mind, the Huskers will get to a point where they can lean on their running game as much as Keller’s right arm and fleet of sure-handed receivers.
The defense will start pressuring quarterbacks with regularity.
Cortney Grixby will tear some team’s heart out by taking a kick the distance.
Rickey Thenarse will put a ball-separating hit on an opposing kickoff man and the Huskers will get a quick six.
Any night.
Tonight.
“Everybody is entitled to their opinion,” Nicks said, expanding on the TV guy’s premise. ” We’ve just got to show people that we can win, and this is what we’re going to do.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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