Tulsa World: OU, Nebraska Point Production Surprised Both Gibbs, Osborne

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OU, Nebraska Point Production Surprised Both Gibbs, Osborne

By Randy Krehbiel
Published: 11/19/1989
Last Modified: 4/12/2008 6:38 AM

LINCOLN, Neb. - A lot of unusual things have happened in
Oklahoma-Nebraska football games, but few were more unexpected than the 67
points the two teams hung on the scoreboard Saturday.
"I was surprised," said Oklahoma Coach Gary Gibbs. "The
last four or five have been fairly low-scoring."
Last year's 7-3 Nebraska victory, in fact, represented the
fewest total points in the series since 1942. This year's
total was second only to the 84 scored in OU's 49-35 victory
in 1950.
"In my wildest dreams," said NU Coach Tom Osborne, "I
didn't think we'd be able to score 42 points on them."
Nebraska had done so on the Sooners only three times before,
the last time in 1969. It was able to break out this time
because of the passing of senior quarterback Gerry Gdowski,
and Oklahoma's inexperienced secondary.
"Obviously," said Gibbs, "Gdowski was the difference
in the game."
OU's defensive backs, Gibbs said, "haven't seen this kind
of an attack. You can simulate it in practice, but until
you face it you don't know what it's like."
"He's really a reflection of their offensive system,"
said safety Terry Ray."Their play-calling kept us off-balance.
They just did what people have tried to do against us all
year."
"He did a good job of executing for Nebraska," said defensive
tackle Scott Evans. "On their first play we stopped them
for one yard, then he passes for 11. That's the way it was
the whole game."
Gdowski finished 12-of-15 for a career-high 225 yards and
four touchdowns. His passing efficiency rating of 177.3
shattered Jeff Quinn's school record, and is better than
Jim McMahon's NCAA mark. Gdowski, however, does not have
enough attempts to qualify for the record.
"He's played as well as any quarterback I've ever had here,"
said Osborne. "He does a great job at making decisions
and managing the football team. We've been very proud of
him."
Gdowski's performance eclipsed the efforts of an Oklahoma
offense that rushed for 266 yards, more than Colorado's
total offense against the Huskers, and scored more points
than it has in five of its last six victories over the Huskers.
Dewell Brewer, with 137, became the first back to rush for
100 yards on NU this season.
"Our offense did a good job of coming back," said Gibbs.
"As long as we could stay in our offense, we were knocking
them off the ball and moving it. At the end, we had to try
a few things to catch up and it didn't work out."
One failure was Oklahoma's passing game. The Sooners hit
an 82-yard bomb to Artie Guess in the first quarter, but
otherwise were 1-for-9 with two interceptions. Most of the
attempts were replays of the first completion to Guess -
only covered.
"When teams incorporate the free safety into their rush
defense like teams do us, you have to try to hit some over
the top," said Gibbs.
"We knew we had the personnel to move the ball and score
points if we executed," said quarterback Steve Collins.
"It's not an accomplishment to do what we did. If we'd
won, that would've been an accomplishment."
The Sooners tried to use two special plays in the game -
the fumblerooski and a tight end reverse. Guard Mike Sawatzky
set up two touchdowns with runs from the former, while the
latter play had only modest success and resulted in a knee
injury for end Adrian Cooper.
"We work on those kind of things all year," said Gibbs.
"We just thought we had a chance to be successful with
them today. We were saving them."
By Randy Krehbiel

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