The Week

MIDWEST

With two seconds remaining and Notre Dame leading Missouri 16-14 in Columbia, Tiger kicker Brad Burditt essayed a 39-yard field goal. "I didn't hit it properly," said Burditt. "I knew it was going to be questionable." The kick fell short, but Burditt wasn't the only goat. Missouri had blown two attempts at two-point conversions.

UCLA's John Lee may have forgotten what it feels like to miss. In the Bruins' 33-16 victory at Colorado, he booted field goals of 51, 49, 39 and 36 yards. For the season he's made good on 14 of 14; for his career he's 45 for 53. That's a career conversion percentage of 84.9. The NCAA record is 81.9%, by Chuck Nelson of Washington in 1980-82.

After Oklahoma State's all-conference tailback, Shawn Jones, fumbled three times against San Diego State two weeks ago, coach Pat Jones said, "I will not play a fumbler. I will give them all fair warning." Though Jones the runner kept dropping the ball all week during practice, Jones the coach decided at the last minute to give him a chance. Shawn responded with 174 yards and two touchdowns—and no fumbles—in the Cowboys' 31-7 win at Tulsa. "He took a lot of abuse last week, a lot of it from me," said Jones the coach. "But he played awfully hard and awfully well."

EAST

Syracuse's momentous upset of Nebraska in the Carrier Dome wasn't the product of fluke or gimmick. The Orange defense held the Huskers to 154 yards on the ground, 249 fewer than their average, while the offense controlled the ball for almost 37 minutes. "They were just more physical up front, on offense and defense," said Nebraska coach Tom Osborne, whose team suffered two sacks, lost two fumbles and had three crucial fourth-down lapses.

The first came when the Huskers, leading 7-3 in the third quarter and facing fourth-and-one on the Syracuse 41, chose not to punt. Syracuse tackle Jeff Knauff stuffed the play for a one-yard loss. Two series later Orange quarterback Todd Norley threw a 40-yard pass to Mike Siano, who outjumped two defenders at the goal line for a TD that put Syracuse up 10-7. "They'd been playing me to the outside most of the first half," said Siano, "and I told Todd I thought I could get behind them."

Midway through the fourth quarter, the Orangemen were stopped on their own 25 and punted. However, a 12th Cornhusker had run onto the field just before the snap, and Syracuse was back in business. Six plays later, Norley threw 21 yards to sophomore wide receiver Scott Schwedes on the Nebraska 26. (Schwedes's father, Gerhard, a halfback with Ernie Davis on Syracuse's 1959 national championship team, was in the stands with 29 other members of that team.) Six plays after that, Harold Gayden, with a key block from guard Steve Villanti, took it in from the one.

The Huskers' final fourth-down flub came with 1:09 on the clock. Trailing 17-7 and nine yards shy of a first down on their 21, Nebraska punted. Had Osborne given up? "The first time, I thought we could make the yardage, and it didn't turn out that way," he said later. "In the late seconds we needed two quick scores, and I figured our kicker would boot it deep, where we might get a nervous fumble. Obviously, neither decision proved right." An intentional safety by punter Jim Fox made the final score 17-9.

After the gun the fans, including the 1959 alums, swarmed onto the field, where they cheered for an hour. They were joined by many of the Syracuse players. "Do I believe it?" asked Gayden, who had fumbled three times in a 19-0 loss to Rutgers the week before. "Hey, I don't know. I guess I believe it because I look up at the scoreboard and it says 17-9. Yeah, I guess I really do believe it."