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Published Saturday, November 24, 2001

Game 12: Colorado 62 Nebraska 36

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BOULDER, Colo. -- There's no Rose Bowl in Nebraska's future.

There's not even a Big 12 Championship. What about a Bowl Championship Series berth? Doubtful.

No. 2 Nebraska's dream season ended in a 5,334-foot Folsom Field nightmare. No. 14 Colorado enacted revenge for five previous losses to the Huskers by a combined 15 points with an impressive 62-36 victory before 53,790 people Friday.

"I still can't believe it," Nebraska junior I-back Thunder Collins said. "It feels like a bad dream."

It was a Rocky Mountain horror picture show for Nebraska's sixth-ranked defense.

The Buffaloes clinched the Big 12 North Division title behind a 582-yard offensive showcase that produced the most points Nebraska has ever allowed. Colorado will face Oklahoma or Texas next Saturday night in Irving, Texas, for the conference crown and automatic BCS berth.

Colorado (9-2 overall, 7-1 in the Big 12) raced to a 35-3 lead, withstood a comeback, then closed with a scoring flurry to end Nebraska's (11-1, 7-1) nine-game series winning streak.

"This is a very difficult loss," Nebraska coach Frank Solich said. "It came because of a combination of things both offensively and defensively. Both sides of the ball needed to do things better."

Nebraska's season was diminished to a game -- possibly the Holiday Bowl in San Diego -- because it got smashed by Colorado's running game.

The Buffaloes, who piled up 15 plays of 10 yards or more in the first half, racked up an incredible 380 rushing yards. That barrage was led by a Brownout.

Sophomore Chris Brown rushed for 198 yards and a school-record six touchdowns. Fellow sophomore tailback Bobby Purify racked up 154 rushing yards and a score as Colorado averaged 7.3 yards a carry against the nation's 13th-best rushing defense.

"We felt like there would be a chance to move the ball, not obviously to the tune of what we did," Colorado coach Gary Barnett said. "It was one of those nights."

Colorado scored the most points ever allowed by Nebraska in a half with 42 before intermission. The Buffaloes kept scoring and scoring and scoring in the fourth quarter.

Nebraska's previous school record for points allowed was 61 by Minnesota in a 1945 game at Lincoln. Oklahoma was the last team to top 55 points against the Blackshirts. The Sooners did it during a 1954 home victory.

"It was like a fairy tale," Nebraska cornerback Keyuo Craver said. "Everything CU did was right. There is nothing I can say to discourage CU. It is always a crazy game that comes down to the end."

Not this time.

For practical purposes, Nebraska's run for the roses ended with 6 minutes, 25 seconds left in the first quarter.

Down 14-0, the Huskers faced a fourth down-and-1 from the Colorado 49. Nebraska Heisman Trophy hopeful quarterback Eric Crouch ran right on an option play, but slipped and lost a yard.

Colorado senior tight end Daniel Graham, who had a team-high four catches for 112 yards, hauled in a 49-yard sideline pass from red-hot quarterback Bobby Pesavento on the next play.

Then Pesavento, who accounted for 224 total yards (including 202 on 9 of 16 passing) scored on a 1-yard sneak two plays later to push Colorado's lead to 21-0 with 5:35 left.

The Buffaloes, who scored their most points since putting up 64 on Kansas State during their 1990 national championship season, built that early bulge behind a Bobby Purify 39-yard touchdown run and Daniel Graham's 21-yard scoring reception from Pesavento. Colorado needed only 12 plays to seize control.

"Nebraska hasn't played a team as physical as we are," Purify said. "It's good we scored a lot of points today because it shows how our offense can produce when it's clicking."

Nebraska got on the board with a 27-yard Josh Brown field goal at 3:23 remaining. Chris Brown answered with a 12-yard run to cap a Rocky Mountain high first quarter for a 28-3 Colorado lead.

Colorado's stellar start tied a school record for the most points Nebraska has allowed in the first quarter. UCLA scored four touchdowns in a 41-28 home win Sept. 10, 1988.

"We didn't do a good job of keeping them from moving the ball and putting points on the board," Solich said. "We didn't do a good job of getting players where (they) need to be to make stops, and we didn't do a good job of tackling. You put those two things together, and it's going to be too much to overcome."

It appeared Colorado clinched the Big 12 North after Chris Brown's 1-yard run made it 35-3 with 12:21 left in the first half.

But this is Nebraska-Colorado. This is a roller coaster ride waiting to happen because there's always a comeback.

Nebraska dug itself out of a blizzard with three rushing touchdowns in the first half's final 9:37.

Nebraska freshman fullback Steve Kriewald busted up the middle for a 24-yard scoring run. The North Loup-Scotia graduate's first career touchdown made it 35-10.

Dahrran Diedrick scored twice before intermission. The junior broke loose for a 32-yard fake reverse touchdown with 5:56 left.

Diedrick answered Chris Brown's 36-yard scoring run with a 2-yard TD run to cut Colorado's cushion to 42-23 with 3:19 left before halftime.

Then, things really got interesting.

Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch scored on a 6-yard option run to cut Colorado's advantage to 42-30 with 4:17 left in the third. Crouch rolled up 360 total yards (198 passing, 162 rushing) to become the 13th player in NCAA Division I-A history to rush (1,095) and pass (1,237) for 1,000 yards in a season.

"I thought there was a period of time in the second half where we kept whittling away," Solich said. "The kids got us back to within 12 points. I thought we had a chance to win the football game without a question."

Nebraska's chances would have been enhanced had it not come up a yard short on its opening second-half drive and turned the ball over three times after halftime.

Diedrick, who concluded the regular season with 1,299 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns after a 94-yard day, fumbled after a hit from Colorado defensive back Donald Strickland while trying to dive over the line from the 1. DeAndre Fluellen recovered the second Diedrick fumble in the game.

"I just tried to get the ball over the top," Diedrick said. "Someone hit me up there and his helmet hit the ball. It was clean. The ball came out. It was clearly a fumble."

Diedrick's disaster ended a 12-play, 71-yard drive. Then, Colorado took the rosy smell from Nebraska's sideline.

The Buffaloes drove 93 yards in nine plays to nail down their first Big 12 Championship berth.

Chris Brown ran for the hat trick in the fourth quarter. He scored from 1 yard out to push Colorado's lead to 49-30 with 12:50 remaining.

Chris Brown's 13-yard score came after a Crouch interception by Michael Lewis. Joey Johnson's pick set up Chris Brown's 8-yard run and a 62-30 Buffalo stampede with 9:41 to go.

"It was easy. That's all I have to say," Chris Brown said about his monster day. "When you have guys up front like we do, who make dominating blocks and open those gaping holes, it makes it very easy for us tailbacks. All I had to do was run through and get to the end zone."

Crouch's 7-yard run, set up by his 70-yard run, capped the scoring at 7:14.

"We shocked the world today. I'll tell you that much," Pesavento said. "But I guarantee -- we didn't shock anyone around here."

Colorado sure shook up the bowl picture. Now, Nebraska may play before the calendar turns to 2002.

"I think our chance to get in a BCS bowl are really diminished," said Nebraska athletic director Bill Byrne, who strongly hinted at a Holiday Bowl berth. "We're going to find out a little more on Monday."

That's much earlier than Nebraska planned to know its bowl status.

"I know this team. We have great unity," Collins said. "We'll try to come together and win a bowl game."

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