It won’t go down in sports lore like the day that Doug Flutie cemented his Heisman Trophy win by outdueling the defending National Champion Miami Hurricanes and completed the most famous Hail Mary pass play in college football history:

It probably won’t even get the cover of Sports Illustrated like the Kordell Stewart to Michael Westbrook Hail Mary that led the Colorado Buffaloes to a shocking win over the Michigan Wolverines in the Big House.

But the Nebraska Cornhuskers completed a Hail Mary to defeat the Northwestern Wildcats yesterday.  It won’t have the same cache as the other two mentioned because it wasn’t as important of a game.  Nebraska is a shell of their former selves.  It isn’t the 1970s, 1980s or 1990s anymore.  Nebraska has become an afterthought in college football.  It is a shame really because Nebraska should be good in college football.  They should be dominating the Big Ten and battling Ohio State and Michigan for the title every single season.  But times change.  What hasn’t changed however is the excruciating ways that Northwestern finds to lose football games.  If Northwestern could get the rules of football changed to only playing three and a half quarters instead of four, they would be national championship contenders.  Earlier this season, Northwestern was 4-0 and had a huge 4th quarter lead against the Ohio State Buckeyes.  They had their totally predictable and inevitable collapse that allowed Ohio State to come back and win the game.  Northwestern has not won a game since.  Yesterday marked their fifth straight loss.  Having seen the Wildcats blow many games in fascinating fashion, I could believe that yesterday would come down to a Hail Mary pass play as time expired but what I can not believe is that they would let a Nebraska wide receiver stand all alone BEHIND everyone else and be wide open in the end zone.  Everyone in the building and watching at home knows what play is coming.  It isn’t a surprise.  Everyone that has every played football knows that you don’t let anyone get behind you when you are playing prevent defense.  Northwestern is supposed to be a team full of highly intelligent kids that meet the strict and rigid academic standards of the “Ivy League of the Midwest” school.  Yet, they let this happen:

The Cornhuskers move to a 6-2 record but it’s an unimpressive 6-2 since they haven’t beaten anyone even close to being ranked.  They have 4 tough games coming up.  If they can finish 10-2 or even 9-3, they might save their coach’s job and finish the season ranked and go to a decent bowl game.  I’m guessing they finish 8-4 or worse unless the ending yesterday carries over and was the nudge they needed to get back to the next level.