The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1907-11-08
MOST EXCITING GAME YET
NEBRASKA UNIVERSITY BEAT
AMES BY LUCK.
AS SEEN BY DAILY NEWS MAN
Nebraska Field at Lincoln Never Yet
Has Witnessed so Thrilling or so
Dramatic a Football Game as That
Saturday With Ames.

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Dramatic a Football Game as That
Saturday With Ames.
Lincoln, Neb., Nov. 4-From a statf
correspondent: Never in the history
OF Nebraska football has the Lincoln
field been the scene of more thrill
ing or dramatic contest than on Satur.
day when Nebraska won from Ames
ten to nine. Never on Nebraska field
has game been so marked by shift
ing fortunes or won by so narrow a
margin.
1t was Nebraska's game by a single
point. And in the nerve straining sec
ond half certain victory was not reg
istered until the final whistle.
The best team won but 1t did not
win because It was the best team.
Luck was after all the ruling keynote
of the game. The first half was
story of fumbles and inopportune mis-
haps that denied to Nebraska winning
scores. The first twenty minutes of
the second half was a story of blocked
or poorly directed goal tries that
turned attempt after attempt at field
goals to naught for Ames. Two points
on safety by an Ames man, needless
ly and carelessly made, was a simple
gift to Nebraska. Ames' single touch
down was a fluke.
1t was a dramatic battle between
the old football and the new. Ne
braska, schooled in old line football,
had line that could not be penetrat-
ed by Ames and an offense that gained
327 yards on straight football to TWEEN
ty-eight yards negotiated by Ames
through Nebraska. On punts and in
the field of the boot Weller was head
and shoulders above Ames. But in the
use Of the forward pass and in run
ming back punts Ames was as far
ahead of Nebraska as the state uni
versity was ahead of the Iowa Aggies
on straight football.
Nebraska has neither mastered nor
solved the forward pass, the great fea-
ture of the new game of football. Ne.
braska essayed the pass but on three
instances. 1t was Ames' single win
ming card Without it the Aggies
would have been swamped. With two
men perfect in the use of the pass
Ames fought Nebraska to a standstill
and lost the game only for want of a
dependable goal kicker.
Saturdays game was played wholly
in the second half. In the first Ne
braska scored a field goal early and
so clearly outclassed in the old line
scrimmage that the contest promised
to be one sided and wholly unevent-
full. In the second half Ames drew
the ball early and unwound the for
ward pass swept all before them for
twenty minutes but was able to real
ize a single goal from place kick
only after six successive tries, some
blocked and others misdirected. Then
a touchdown, a fuke scored as the re-
suit of an Ames tumble on place
kick giving the Aggies a chance for
an unopposed dash to the goal line,
sent the score high in Ames' favor. |
Never has there been a spell more |
tense or nerve racking in the fifteen |
minutes that Nebraska battled out a |
victory. Fortune favored Nebraska |
when Willette of Ames blindly turned |
the initial kickoff into a safety. Then
after straight football had twice all |
but made the coveted touchdown We'll
lers' boot sent the ball squarely be-
tween the posts. In the last stirring
moments of play Ames' use Of the
forward pass kept the game in doubt.
Not since the Nebraska victory over
in 1902 were the Nebraska
students so jubilant.
The Ames game out of the balance
Nebraska looks to Kansas and st.
Louis, the remaining games that af-
ford Nebraska the chance of regaining
the lost championship of the Missouri
valley. Next Saturday at Lawrence,
Nebraska will probably beat Kansas
much as she beat Ames but different
team will have to go to st. Louis on
The Nebraska team
that beats st. Louis will have to mas
ter the offensive and defensive side of
the forward pass.
But pass or no pass Nebraska has
a great team this year, and the pros
poets for greater one next year with
the additional material all in sight on
the university campus. And Coach
Coles name, If the wind blows right,
is going to be linked with Nebraska's
as only Booths has been.
Saturdays game was between the
old football and the new. and it proved
to be about the new game that the
contest revolved. And in most of the
plays that counted the ball was in the
air.
The game more than any other
brought opinion to focus on ire
formed" football. And there were
two minds.
1T isn't the game it used to be-"
mourned football follower of years
standing.