BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Sunday, October 10, 2004 7:00 pm
In some places, you can get away with getting your teeth kicked in and not talking about it.
If you are a football coach with an office at Memorial Stadium, you are never so fortunate.
Nebraska defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove dutifully showed up Sunday afternoon a day after an embarrassing 70-10 loss at Texas Tech to talk to the media. And somewhere in the middle of discussing the worst loss in Husker history, he made a promise.
"Believe me when I say this guys," Cosgrove said. "Everything can be corrected. It's not like it's broken and it can't be fixed. It will be fixed."
The Husker defense gave up 523 yards of total offense to the Red Raiders on Saturday. It allowed 47 of 61 passes to be completed for 451 yards, tackled poorly and rarely put pressure on Tech quarterback Sonny Cumbie. When the Texas dust had settled, the Blackshirts had given up more points than any Nebraska defense before them.
No one even saw it coming from a unit that had given up only three touchdowns in four games and was ranked in the top 10 in many defensive categories. Now, they're 28th (309 yards) in total defense, 69th in scoring defense (26.6 points) and suddenly have allowed 13 touchdowns.
"The one thing you have to do is put it behind," Cosgrove said. "I know that's an old cliche. But there's nothing you can do about it. The kids, everybody, hurts. The coaches hurt. The players hurt. The fans hurt. Hell, (the reporters) hurt. We all hurt. But we also know what we can do is correct what went wrong, show the (players) why things happened and move on."
So exactly what did happen against the Red Raiders?
"Like I said early (last) week, They're going to move the ball. They move it on everybody. They're the No. 1 offense (514.8 yards/game) in the country. But we can't give them big plays,'" Cosgrove said.
"Right before the half we gave them that big play and that's something that can't happen. You try to keep everything in front of you. That's why we rushed three (in the first half). We tried to play a combination of coverages to try to confuse the quarterback (Sonny Cumbie), and he's pretty good."
The big play Cosgrove referenced was an 80-yard pass from Cumbie to Jarret Hicks who was working on cornerback Fabian Washington that made the score 21-3 late in the second quarter. It was the longest play of the season given up by the Nebraska defense.
Cosgrove said he had an elaborate plan for his unit going into the game, which would bank mostly on zone defenses in the second half in hopes of "having more eyes on the ball" to intercept passes. But the Huskers only picked off one pass in the game, and whatever scheme Nebraska used rarely worked.
The Husker defense always looked a step slower than its foe and had to try to overcome seven turnovers from an offense in limbo.
"There wasn't really nothing the coach didn't prepare us for," said Nebraska junior defensive tackle Titus Adams. "I think we just didn't go out there and execute our game plan. And they had a heckuva game. It was like everything was there for them, like everything they called was working."
Nebraska, which went back to a four-man front in the second half, failed to stop Tech from scoring a touchdown on seven straight possessions. Two of those Red Raiders drives lasted only one play. They also had to travel a total of only 26 yards for their last three scores thanks to Husker turnovers.
On a 6-yard touchdown run that made it 63-10, the Red Raiders actually fumbled the football before Johnnie Mack picked it up and made a swooping run to the corner of the end zone that might have scored in flag football.
Adams said the 3-2 Huskers had trouble adjusting to Tech's speed. The Red Raiders were clearly the fastest team Nebraska had played all year.
When the Blackshirts did have chances to tackle Tech backs and receivers, it often took the third or fourth try to bring the ballcarrier down.
"We always want to see definition of the techniques we coach on the field," Cosgrove said. "So we really have to work harder than we have so we see the definition of a technique.
"If you're a seam player, play the proper seam, take the proper pursuit angle to tackle the ball … You want to see what's coached."
When asked if he would have a different game plan if given another shot at the Red Raiders, Cosgrove said: "Against Tech? Now that I know them better? There'd be a lot of the things that I'd keep the same. Execution would have to be better. But you go and look back and there's some things we would have done different."
The defensive coordinator, however, had no opinion on the plight of Beau Davis, who was brought into the game late in the third quarter to replace starting quarterback Joe Dailey. Davis promptly threw four interceptions on eight passes.
"I didn't even get a chance to see them on offense. I don't know exactly what happened," Cosgrove said. "I have enough problems on my side of the ball."
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7438 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.