Now that all the Big Ten road trips are done, I’d rank them this way in terms of desirability: 1) Wisconsin, 2) Michigan, 3) Minnesota (a narrow loss to the other UM), 4) Penn State. I’ll explain precisely why at a later date.
National Anthem
Nebraska has had troubling home losses under Pelini before, but none of the previous five had come this late in the season. A crippling loss? Perhaps. Lot of Husker fans rooting for Hawkeyes this week. What is the world coming to?
Last stand?
The 11 a.m. kickoff begat chili and cinnamon rolls. With apologies to the Runza – or all the various homemade iterations of the same (my grandma called them cabbage burgers) – I’m nominating the seemingly odd combination as the official foodstuff of Nebraska. As for the football, it essentially went like this: Nebraska’s season could have ended on Saturday. Instead it begins.
Chili & Cinnamon Roll at Memorial Stadium
This is a road trip that Nebraska fans should be very happy to make every two years. Minneapolis has a very good sense of itself culturally and that’s really all I ever ask of a city.
Homecoming
The season was, for all intents and purposes, over. With seven minutes left in the third quarter Nebraska was trailing Ohio State 27-6. Then Lavonte David strips the Buckeye’s QB Braxton Miller. Touchdown Martinez. Then Miller hurts his ankle. Touchdown pass Martinez. Ohio State decides to throw the ball after pounding Nebraska on the ground for the entire first half. Martinez scrambles, finds RB Rex Burkhead in the flat, he makes the move of his career. Tie game. Then converted WR Stanley Jean-Baptiste – making his debut at corner in a seven point, must-win game – makes an interception. Touchdown Burkhead. Season, and a state’s sanity, saved.
In an effort to use the increasing number of photos populating my Flickr stream let’s start something new: the Photo Essay of the Moment. We’ll call this one “Football Season” and give it a semi-permanent home here until the mood strikes to do another one.
This is where I work. Cool, right? It’s all manly and gritty and worn and warm. Great things could come from that desk.
Problem is it doesn’t actually look that way. It’s manly and gritty and worn and warm thanks to Instagram. One click, a few swipes and out comes a photo with feeling.
It’s all fake and I’m okay with that. For a while I resisted the whole hi-tech phone/lo-fi photos craze under the rationalization that anyone could do it and too many people were already doing it. My 2011 phone-photo-a-day project was going to be real. No faux fading for me.
