USM victim of Murphy's Law
By By Shawn Wansley / EMG sports writer
Sept. 26, 2003
HATTIESBURG The University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles had a case of Murphy's Law at the start of both the game and the second half here Thursday night versus the 15th-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
Nebraska scored 17 points in the first 7:40 of the game and 14 points in the first 6:01 of the second half en route to a 38-14 victory over the Golden Eagles before a record crowd of 36,125.
On Southern Miss' first possession, Eagle starting quarterback Dustin Almond fumbled a snap and Nebraska's Ryon Bingham recovered at the Eagle 29. Four plays later, Cornhusker quarterback Jammal Lord scored from 6 yards out with 11:40 showing.
Next, Nebraska took advantage of a 13-yard punt by Eagle kicker Luke Johnson, which gave the Cornhuskers the ball at the Southern Miss 47. Six
plays later, David Dyches booted a 40-yard field goal to make it 10-0 with
8:33 left in the first quarter.
On the next Eagle possession, Almond was picked off by Josh Bullocks after the ball went off the hands of Southern Miss' Anthony Harris at the Eagle 45. He returned it to the 4-yard line. David Horne scored three plays later with 7:20 left in the first quarter.
At that point, Nebraska led 17-0 and only had 57 yards of offense.
The Eagles cut the lead to 17-7 with just 1:57 left in the first half when
Mize's Timmy Blackwell scored from a yard out.
But the start of the second half was another nightmare for the Eagles.
The Cornhuskers, not known for their passing attack, got consecutive scoring strikes of 44 and 43 yards from Lord to Ross Pilkington and Isaiah Fluellen, respectively, to go up 31-7 at the 7:59 mark of the third quarter. The two touchdowns came less than two minutes apart.
Each team added a score late.
Southern Miss redshirt freshman quarterback Damion Carter led the Eagles downfield and tossed a 6-yard touchdown pass to Caleb Hendrix with 2:43 left in the game.
But Nebraska's Robin Miller raced 47 yards with 1:48 left in the game to end the scoring.
