Crouch Ensures Nebraska Stands Tall

Nebraska’s close game wasn’t supposed to come until next week.

The third-ranked Cornhuskers had to rally from a surprising halftime tie to hold off Texas Tech, 41-31, Saturday night and keep next weekend’s showdown with No. 2 Oklahoma a battle of unbeatens.

“Any time you’re involved a game like that it’s probably draining on everybody,” Nebraska Coach Frank Solich said. “But we’re excited about being 8-0. We’re excited about being tested and responding.”

Eric Crouch passed for three touchdowns and ran for another on Nebraska’s first drive of the second half as the Huskers regained the lead for good after going into halftime tied at 28.

He also directed the Huskers on a 43-yard drive in their second possession of the third quarter that led to Josh Brown’s 33-yard field goal and gave the Huskers a 10-point lead.

“Being tied, 28-28, is motivation enough for us to come out and play a physical second half,” said Crouch, 10 of 22 for 196 yards with two interceptions.

Crouch also had 21 carries for 105 yards, the fourth consecutive game he topped 100 yards.

It was not the kind of performance Nebraska (8-0, 4-0 Big 12) was looking for with Oklahoma looming.

“I think we did need this test to see how we’d respond,” Crouch said. “We overcame adversity again. That says a lot about the character of this team. That’s what a great team has to do.”

The Red Raiders (3-3, 1-3) finished with 440 yards, 75 more than any team had gained against Nebraska this season, and gave the Huskers their biggest scare since a 21-7 victory over Texas Christian in the opener.

“I would not say it’s a moral victory,” said Ricky Williams, who ran for a touchdown. “We came here to win and we did not get it done.”

Nebraska didn’t put the game away until the fourth quarter by holding off Tech on two fourth-down plays. The Huskers forced Kliff Kingsbury’s incompletion on fourth and six from the 34, and sacked him on fourth and eight with less than a minute left.

The Huskers broke the halftime tie on Crouch’s seven-yard touchdown run and Brown’s 33-yard field goal in Nebraska’s first two possessions of the second half.

Brown added a 36-yard field goal with 3:25 left for the final points.

The defense made the lead hold up by limiting Texas Tech to Robert Treece’s 31-yard field goal in the third quarter, his third field goal of the game.

“I thought we played well,” Tech Coach Mike Leach said. “We are not going to go back and feel like there are a lot of things that we should have done different and improve on.”

Kingsbury was 33 of 63 for 353 yards and a touchdown, and Wes Welker returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown.

“I was shaky early,” Kingsbury said. “I came out too fired up and Nebraska had a bend but don’t break philosophy.”

Nebraska played a sloppy first half with seven penalties, a turnover, a punt return for a touchdown and another that would have been a touchdown if Tech had not been offside.