SECOND HALF:
In front of the largest home crowd in Husker history
NU starts the second half with a 79 yard drive for a TD including a long Lord run. Huff had a nice defensive stop on the series, but Lord threw for a TD to the TE in the corner.
UT answers with a long drive mixing passes to Roy and a long run by Ivan on a dumpoff pass where he managed to stay in bounds. A precise 16 yard TD pass to Roy. Texas leads 13-10.
NU has a KO return to near midfield tackled by Edorian McCullough. The NU drive stalls due to help by Derrick Johnson on a TFL on Lord.
NU punt pins UT to their own 3. Thus begins one of the best executed Texas drives you will ever see. 97 yards and 8 minutes consumed mixing Benson, Roy catches, a Simms run, a clutch first down gain by Brett Robin, an 80mph fastball to BJ Johnson, and more.
Simms dislocated his finger (on his throwing hand) on the drive and had it popped back into place by the trainer. Then throws a bullet on the very next play, a bootleg to BJ to the 3. The bootleg worked very well throughout the game as play action to pass to Roy et al.
Finally a 3 yard TD to Roy, another NFL bullet. Texas leads 20-10.
NU counters quickly with a Lord run and then a 60yard TD pass to the TE over the middle. UT only had 10 defenders on the play. Texas still leads 20-17.
UT keeps fighting with another Roy catch then a deflected pass to Brock Edwards who does his best Mark Bavaro and rumbles deep inside NU territory. [b] A deep pass over the middle to the TE by Greg Davis! [/b] . Simms is sacked so the drive ends and UT punts.
Lord has a nice run but they punt. UT counters with Benson, Roy and a defensive PI with Roy as the target. Simms' mechanics were perfect this game, highly accurate powerful bullets with a quick trigger. Brock Edwards again bulldozes his way into NU territory, great game. Cedric gets a TD.
Texas leads 27-17 with 3:24 left in the game.
UT's 2002 offense had more talent than anything in the 2008-2010 period. Perhaps more talent (O and D) than any team in the country including 2002 Miami and Ohio State.
NU has a pitch run and a PI call getting the ball inside the redzone. Another PI and NU gets a pitch run TD.
Texas still leads 27-27 with 2:34 left.
NU does not onside kick and UT has to punt after Roy gets an offensive PI, despite the drive starting with a great Vasher KO return.
NU returns to punt to the UT 16, with no timeouts and 34 seconds left. Redding stops Lord who then spikes it, bringing up 3rd and 10 from the 16 with only 16 seconds left.
Solich decides to try for a TD instead of a FG on 3rd down, going for the win, given the trouble he has had with the kicking game. Tragically for the Huskers, Lord gets picked by Nathan Vasher on an athletic play. UT runs out the clock for a great win.
Chris Simms threw for 419 yards and 2 TDs
Roy Williams had 13 catches for 161 yards and 2 TDs
Cedric Benson had 28 rushes for 86 yards and 1 TD
Ivan Williams had 6 catches for 111 yards
Jammal Lord finished with 234 yards rushing on 23 attempts, a rushing record for an NU QB that stood for 8 years until T.Martinez broke it on October 7, 2010 vs. KSU. Lord also had 98 yards passing with a passing TD.