And there we have it...

I knew it. I just freaking knew it. I didn't even want to post last week because I just freaking knew it. I mean, really? Were our red goggles just too crimson to see that the writing was on the wall right in front of our faces?

Rewind to Saturday morning. Husker nation was celebrating the Redout Around the World. This is the first mistake. Historically, when a team makes a big hoopla focusing on a single opponent, they are just setting themselves up for a huge disappointment. And for those of you who say that this was not a "revenge" event for what happened in the Big XII title game last year, did you see the original Redout Around The World video put out by the University? The end of the video stated "Wear Red, Be Loud, Beat Texas." That was until Dr. Tom had the video edited and the "Beat Texas" removed. Right there, Nebraska was setting itself up to be embarrassed. Not to mention, could they have produced any greater locker room bulletin material for Texas? Well, I'm glad Nebraska called the attention of the world to witness this disappointment. Lets not even get started on the "REDemption" t-shirts that were made up for this game. These things are about as worthless as the National Championship shirts made up before the big game for the losing team that end up getting donated to starving children in Africa. If I see one person wearing one of these shirts in the future I'm going to punch them in the face for reminding me about this game.

On Friday night before the game, I went to Downtown Lincoln with some friends and my beautiful wife (who I have to thank for putting up with this blog). After seeing "Social Network" (which i highly recommend, even though it makes the founder of Facebook look like a complete asshole) we went to Woodys for a good discussion. During this discussion, i predicted a 28-10 win for the huskers, but reminded people at the table, that the longhorns have made a career out of embarrassing Nebraska in the cruelest of ways. No matter what the circumstances, Texas always find a way to win, but not before giving the husker faithful just a glimmer of hope before dashing those dreams. I just reminded my friends of a tidbit of information I had picked up at some point during the week. That tidbit was that in 1998, Texas was unranked and had two losses, one of them being to UCLA when they came into Lincoln. Nebraska at that time was ranked #7 and was a heavy favorite to win that game. The final score of that game was 20-16, Texas. There was just too many similarities to that game and this one to write it off as just a pointless statistic. I also pointed out that in the first year of the Big XII, underdog Texas beat Nebraska in the conference championship game dashing the hopes of a Nebraska National title. How fitting would it be for Nebraska to go out the way it entered the conference? I told my friends "Let's just hope history doesn't repeat itself." Looks like I forgot to knock on wood...

This final thought really had me thinking that night and when I woke up the next morning, I posted that random tidbit on Facebook (Thank you Mark Zuckerberg for making that possible, even though you are kind of an asshole). Thinking I was going to get a lot of hate responses from the Husker fan(atics)s, I was surprised when it hardly showed up as a blip on the radar. I guess more people were on to this than me.

I did go down and tailgate before the game, but came back home to watch the game in the safety of my own basement. If I was safe from the fall out anywhere, it would be there. From the opening series, i had a bad feeling. Maybe it was the DeLeon's I had the night before. I think the likely suspect though might have been the Helu Fumble that set up the Texas touchdown. That was the first domino that set off a chain reaction of Husker shortcomings, that are just becoming common place in the NU-Texas matchups...

Where did we go wrong? Maybe it was the 5 fumbles we had. These are getting ridiculous. Hang on to the damn ball.

maybe it was the 8 dropped passes? I'm tired of Niles Paul. I could care less if he steps foot on the field again. Think back, what exactly has he done that we couldn't live without?

Maybe it was that we couldn't contain Garret Gilbert who ran for 70 yards against the Huskers, when he had only rushed for 14 all season prior to this game. Looks like Crick and Company AREN'T better without Suh like Pelini said at the start of the season. We didn't really believe it anyways did we? Oh,...we did? Shame on us. Looks like Crick definitely benefited from having Suh on the line with him.

Maybe it's the attitude of this team. I have a feeling that they think they are a lot better than they actually are. They actually believed that they were good and Texas was bad and that the game was over before the opening kickoff. This is why the games aren't played on paper.

Maybe it was the fact that we hadn't trailed all year, and for once this team found themselves behind and didn't know what to do.

Maybe it was the fact we couldn't figure out how to return a rugby punt, and instead let the ball roll forever.

Maybe it was onside kicking with three minutes left. When your Defense is "better than last years" who was ranked #1 in the nation, you kick the ball and pin them deep, working for the stop and a change in field position. That onside kick was an admission that we were desperate.

The only good thing from the game was the 95 yard punt return, but even that comes with a grain of salt. Remember what I said about Nebraska getting a glimmer of hope, before their hearts are smashed? Well that return was the obligatory glimmer. Its almost like those burnt orange pricks are messing with our heads.

Maybe its a combination of all these things. The glaring thing is, that all these things point towards the coaching. It just seems like the coaches didn't have these players focused and ready to play.

I don't know what it was for sure, but there are a few things I am sure of. 1) This loss will hurt a lot, and for a long time. 2) We are officially Texas' bitch. They have every reason to accuse us of running to the Big Ten and hiding from them. 3)What hurts even more, is that, they are probably correct.

This may be the start of a long road for the Huskers. Next week they travel to OSU for a game against the undefeated cowboys, then the following week is a game against the currently undefeated Mizzou Tigers. IF and only IF Nebraska can right the ship, they may eventually meet up with the current #1 team in the Nation in Oklahoma. My my how the outlook on this season has shifted. No prediction from me at this point. We will see how the team rebounds against a good OSU team next week before I start to ring the emergency bell. All I know is that right now I'm sick to my stomach, and this time, I can't blame it on the DeLeons.