Notes: Poor clock management burns Huskers

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Facing a third down-and-seven with under a minute to play and Illinois out of timeouts, most everyone inside Memorial Stadium and thousands of others watching on television expected Nebraska to continue to grind down the clock and run the football.

So when quarterback Tommy Armstrong rolled right and threw an incomplete pass intended for freshman running back Devine Ozigbo and stopped the clock with 55 seconds still remaining, hardly anyone could fathom what had just played out, even the man who called the play from the sideline.

Offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf said after the Huskers' crushing 14-13 defeat to the Fighting Illini on Saturday that the original play call was not a designed pass at all, but a quarterback sweep intended almost solely to keep the clock moving. As it turned out, though, Langsdorf said some variables during the play "surprised" Armstrong and led to him trying to improvise and throwing the ball.

By leaving an additional 40 seconds, Illinois was able to drive 73 yards down the field and score the game-winning touchdown with 10 seconds to play.

"We had a quarterback sweep - it's a designed run," Langsdorf said. "We didn't get the tight end motioned for whatever reason across to kind of set the edge, and I think the pressure off the edge that should have been blocked just surprised him, I guess, because that was a designed run. It was to run the clock down, hopefully get a first down, but if we didn't we were at least going to have a lot of clock spent and then be able to run the ball on fourth down or kick the field goal or punt, wherever we were on the field.

"I think he got surprised by a guy off the edge, I believe, but we were trying to run the clock down."

Langsdorf even said that before the play he instructed Armstrong - who declined interviews after the game - specifically not to throw the ball, adding that there weren't even any route combinations included in the play.

Along with being a costly mistake that dropped NU 2-3 overall and 0-1 in Big Ten play, it was an especially disappointing finish for a player in Armstrong who had been one of the Huskers' only consistent playmakers all season long. Langsdorf said he spoke with Armstrong in the locker room after the game and told him to keep his head up. Moving forward, he said the key would be continuing to teach Armstrong what to do in those types of crucial situations.

"We have to practice it and continue to hit it, talk about it situationally," Langsdorf said. "I've got to stay with him, we've got to do it multiple times a week. He just can't have that, because it's costly. It just gives them too much time. We didn't want to sue the clock like that all. We wanted to take it all the way down."

- Robin Washut

Brown believes he could have made final field goal

After the bizarre incompletion on third down with 55 seconds left, the Nebraska coaches had three choices: punt, go for it or kick a field goal. Drew Brown wishes they would have opted for the final option.

 

With the ball at the 27-yard line, Brown would have been attempting a 44-yard kick into the wind. Had the sophomore connected, Nebraska would have gone up 16-7, essentially putting the game on ice.

 

It would have been far from an easy kick, but Brown (who had already connected on boots of 39 and 28 yards earlier), believes he could have made it.

 

"They went with what they thought was the smartest play and it didn't work out for us," Brown said. "I would have liked to have been out there. Those are the kind of situations I want to be in, but my name wasn't called and they went about it the best they thought.

 

"There's nothing I can do about it. I'm just on the sideline when my name is called and that's all I can do."

- Dan Hoppen   

Janovich's role continues to grow

After warming the hearts of Nebraska fans last week with some throwback big plays from a fullback, senior Andy Janovich saw his role in the Huskers' offense reach its highest point yet against Illinois.

The former walk-on from Gretna, Neb., ended up carrying the ball a team-high 11 times for 43 yards, with the bulk of that workload coming in the fourth quarter.

"We had a couple designed runs for him, and those runs that we was the runner on were pretty good," Langsdorf said. "So we kept with it a little bit more. He wasn't going to be the every-down runner, but the fact that the plays that we had dialed up for him, he was pretty good on them and we had some success with that, so we stayed with it."

It may have been another career game for Janovich individually, but personal statistics all seemed meaningless to him when they didn't come in a victory for his team.

"I felt great about it, but in the end I just didn't do enough," Janovich said.

- Robin Washut

Coaches get creative with Collins

Maliek Collins came into this season with more hype than anyone on the team, but was mostly quiet through the first four games. He entered Saturday with just seven tackles, none of which went for loss, as he dealt with constant double-teams and elaborate blocking schemes. 

The coaching staff wanted to free the all-conference tackle up so they cooked up some new schemes for this weekend. The Huskers used Collins as both a stand-up linebacker and defensive end on certain plays, mostly on third down.

"We're trying to generate more pass rush out of a four-man rush," defensive coordinator Mark Banker said. "We were trying to get a guy like Maliek, who's a hell of a talent, freed up a little bit more. (Defensive line) coach (Hank) Hughes came up with it and we played around with it a little bit and put some teeth into it. 

"Hopefully it did work and gave people some things to think about. We'll continue to move that package around a little bit and see what we can do."

- Dan Hoppen

Quick hits

***Head coach Mike Riley said the staff didn't really need much explanation over the confusing miscues by the officials early in the third quarter, where Illinois was almost given a fifth down after failing to convert on a play that was called a third down by the down markers but was actually a fourth down.

"We knew what had happened - they had lost track (of the downs)," Riley said. "That was a fifth down play, and we knew that. I was asking them that and questioned it, and then it was confirmed. We knew it before they had to explain it."

***Langsdorf was asked if in retrospect he wishes he would have stuck more with the running game.

"I think we had almost 200 yards rushing - I think we did that," Langsdorf said. "But it's hard to go convert those three runs in a row. The third down runs are tough when you're third and medium, and we did not convert there. That was really a bad situation for us."

***Riley said Nebraska's defense was in quarters coverage on the 50-yard pass to Malik Turner on Illinois' final drive that set up the game-winning touchdown, and that he was surprised Turner was able to get behind the secondary the way he did.

***Nebraska's 14-13 loss marked its third loss of the season on the opponent's final play of the game. The Huskers' first two losses came on the final play of the game, before Illinois scored the game-winning touchdown and extra point on its final offensive play with 10 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Nebraska had won three consecutive Big Ten Conference openers, including the past two seasons vs. Illinois.

 

***Armstrong Jr. passed for 105 yards in today's game, giving him 5,032 career passing yards. He is the fifth player in school history to pass for more than 5,000 yards. Armstrong's 105 passing yards also today snapped his streak of seven straight 200-yard passing games, which was three shy of the school record of 10 games.

 

***Armstrong accounted for 143 yards of total offense, pushing his career total to 6,095 yards. Armstrong is the third player to surpass 6,000 career total offense yards, joining Taylor Martinez (10,233 yards) and Eric Crouch (7,915 yards).

   

***Linebacker Chris Weber recorded a team-high 17 tackles, including four tackles for loss. Weber reached double figures in tackles for the second straight week after recording 12 stops against Southern Miss last week. Linebacker Dedrick Young joined Weber with double-figure tackles against the Illini, recording a career-high 11 tackles.

   

***Jordan Westerkamp caught one pass, increasing his career total to 91 and moving him into the top 10 on the Nebraska career receptions list. Westerkamp was held without a touchdown, ending a streak of five straight games with a touchdown catch, one shy of Johnny Rodgers' school record streak.

  

***Armstrong saw his streak snapped at 10 consecutive games throwing a touchdown pass. He fell one shy of tying the school record of 11 consecutive games with a touchdown pass.

 

***Nebraska scored one touchdown in today's game, ending a streak of 18 straight games with at least three touchdowns. That streak was tied for the second-longest in school history.

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