Sometimes numbers speak louder than words. But it's not every day they scream from the rooftops.

So here we go — pay attention, the pace will be quick:

Forty-four times in the last month, Nebraska's offense has started a drive in Husker territory.

Not one of those drives produced a touchdown.

Zero for 44.

Only three times in those 44 possessions has NU even scored a field goal. So when the Huskers have had to cross midfield with the football, they have scored nine points in 44 opportunities.

No, it's not a statistic the NCAA or the Big 12 tracks. But traditional measures like points and total yards don't tell the whole story with this Husker offense. And the ability to move long distances and finish drives (via the big play or the slow grind) is a pretty darn good indicator of offensive firepower.

Against BCS teams, Nebraska has done it twice all season.

Remember the Zac Lee to Niles Paul 56-yard touchdown pass at Missouri? Remember the eight-play, 68-yard drive that finished off the Tigers in the waning minutes?

Those two possessions represent NU's only two touchdown drives of 50 yards or more against BCS teams.

Two touchdowns, 68 opportunities.

Alarmed? If not, consider the following:

• Every other major-conference school — all 64 of them — has at least five TD drives of 50-plus yards against their BCS peers.

Louisville? Syracuse? Mississippi State? Maryland? All have seven or more. Baylor has 10, Colorado has 11, Iowa State has 13.

Washington State may be the worst major-conference team in years, but the Cougars still have six lengthy touchdown drives against BCS schools. Lowly Vanderbilt, facing all those SEC defenses, is second-to-last with five. More than twice as many as Nebraska.

How far are the Huskers off the pace? In six games against BCS foes, Cincinnati has taken the ball from its own territory and scored a touchdown 27 times.

That didn't open your eyes? Try this one:

Forget Nebraska's conference games for a moment. To this point, 26 other Big 12 games have been contested.

In all 26, both teams had at least one touchdown drive of 50 yards or more. Every single team, every single game.

Yes, Baylor was bad at Iowa State. Yes, Iowa State was bad against Oklahoma State. Yes, Colorado was bad at Kansas State.

But each of those offenses mounted a successful long drive.

Thus, not one Big 12 defense has prevented a conference foe from crossing midfield and scoring six.

Except for the Blackshirts.

Bo Pelini's D held Missouri without a long touchdown drive, then Baylor, then OU.

Think about that: No Big 12 defense has accomplished what the Blackshirts have done three times — unless that Big 12 defense was facing Nebraska's offense.

By the way, three of the four defenses that shut down the Huskers aren't exactly stingy. In scoring defense, Texas Tech is 55th nationally, Iowa State 48th, Baylor 66th.

• OK, now a little history.

From 2004-08, Nebraska played 51 games against BCS conference foes. In just four games (never more than once in a season) did the Huskers go without a touchdown drive of 50-plus yards.

Four total in five years. Now they've gone four straight games.

Against 10 BCS foes in 2008, the offense began 110 drives on its side of the 50. Joe Ganz and Co. scored a TD 35 times.

That's a 32 percent clip, compared with 3 percent this year.

Was 2008 unusual? Not really.

In '07, NU started in its own territory 120 times and scored 33 touchdowns; that's 28 percent.

In '06, it was 30 of 126 (24 percent).

Unfortunately, the laundry lists of ugly statistics don't end with touchdown drives of 50-plus yards:

• Nebraska ranks 71st in the nation in scoring. Not terrible, right? But 142 of its 231 points (61 percent) came against the Sun Belt.

• The Huskers have 63 first downs in five Big 12 games. That's not only last in the league, it's 19 fewer than 11th-place Baylor. Texas A&M leads the Big 12 with 130 first downs.

• No Big 12 team has turned the ball over more in the red zone during conference play. The Huskers have as many turnovers (seven) as touchdowns.

Let's end on a good number: 87.

That's the number of offensive plays Oklahoma ran Saturday night in Lincoln. That's an unusually high number.

In fact, no Nebraska opponent has run 87 plays or more since Nov. 3, 2007. That day, Kansas ran 90 — and scored 76 points.

Oh, how the Huskers have changed — on both sides of the ball.

Contact the writer: 679-9899, dirk.chatelain@owh.com

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