SAN ANTONIO - The way Texas coach Mack Brown saw it, Nebraska's Blackshirts defense simply lined up and physically whipped the Longhorns, 22-6, in the Big 12 Championship.
"The game plan was to be balanced, running and throwing," said Brown. "They whipped us at both. And when you're not executing and blocking, the plan goes out the window. The plan died."
The Texas offense, arguably the best in the league until the last two games, hit season lows for points (6), rushing yards (9) and total offense (173). And with its only points coming on a fumble return by the defense, Texas, which had been averaging 36.5 points a game, has gone six consecutive quarters without its offense scoring.
On Saturday, the Longhorns crossed midfield only three times. They got to the Nebraska 22 in the second quarter but were driven back, then missed a field goal. They got to the Nebraska 23 in the third quarter, but quarterback Major Applewhite threw an interception. They got to the Nebraska 27 late in the fourth quarter, but another Applewhite pass was picked off in the end zone.
A number of factors conspired to silence the Texas offense. The biggest, of course, was a fired up Blackshirts defense.
But Applewhite, harassed all day and sacked seven times, played his most ineffective game since he became a starter in the third game of the 1998 season. He completed only 15 of 42 passes for 164 yards and didn't seem nearly as sharp as he had been before a stomach virus two weeks ago caused him to lose 12 pounds.
"It was a combination of things," said Applewhite, who denied any lingering effects of his illness. "Sometimes there were miscommunications. Sometimes they were just in my face, and I had to get rid of the ball, put it where they couldn't get it or where no one could get it."
Applewhite's receivers didn't help much. While the game was still on the line, Kwame Cavil, Montrell Flowers and Ryan Nunez all dropped catchable passes.
Penalties hurt also. False starts caused the Longhorns to start two possessions with first and 15 to go.
Field position didn't favor the Longhorns either. Texas started two drives inside its 10-yard line and two more inside the 15. The Longhorns' average starting point for 17 possessions was their own 21. Nebraska, on average, started at its 42.
Brown said that coming into the game he thought Texas would have to get 100 rushing yards from Hodges Mitchell and protect Applewhite from the rush to win the game.
Neither happened. Mitchell, who had run for 100 or more yards in seven of the last nine games, got only 17 yards on the ground.
Instead of being a two-dimensional offense, Brown said, "We were no dimensional."
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