[NU Sports] And the second half ...

[peg wolfe]

AaaaaaRRRRGH!

I can't decide what upsets me more - this game, rendering all of the hard 
work and milestone victories by the Cats this season hollow (not to mention 
the awful way it ended), or ASU's absolutely ridiculous loss to Evil - and 
awful! -  UofA  - we slid from the Holiday Bowl to the Sun Bowl, and lost 
Andrew Walter for the bowl in the process.   What a weekend.  Euggh.

Goodnight, all.  *sigh*

- sundevilpeg


>From: "SjT (Stephen J. Truog)" <sjtruog at jorsm.com>
>To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
>Subject: [NU Sports] And the second half ...  Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 
>01:50:29 -0600
>
>Well, we get the ball first -- can NU finally get the O going after failing
>to put this one away in the first quarter?
>
>- Only 103 rushing yards at the half against this D? Pathetic. WAKE UP 
>O-LINE!
>- Even these Fox commentators can see how odd our gameplan has been, saying
>that they're surprised that we haven't run the ball more.
>- A run up the gut on the first play ... for seven yards (SEE!!! SEE!!!)
>... looks like the mind signals of thousands of NU fans watching at home
>finally got through to the islands!
>- We don't go for it on 4th and 1 near midfield? If you can't make one yard
>on this D, you don't deserve to win. Then again, if we can't cover a
>friggin' punt (Owens again!), we don't deserve to win either.
>- Pathetic special teams play. Anemic offense. This is getting embarassing.
>- Where's the O line? Were they left in Chicago?
>- OK - down 35-20 now. We run up the gut on first play ... five yards
>(SEE!!! SEE!!!) and it sets up a big pass play on second down. Another run
>up the gut with Baz the next play for huge yardage (WHERE WAS THIS
>EARLIER!!!). Noah up the gut for five again (ARRRGGGHHH!!!).
>- We needed that fake field goal -- had we gone for 3, I was ready to hop
>on a plane to Honolulu myself, so it shouldn't have been a surprise. But
>still, much needed.
>- Oh joy ... a penalty on the PAT. Did we practice special teams at all
>this week?
>- Anybody care to cover Owens this game? Sheesh. Hawaii's back up by two
>scores.
>- Man, when Chang is on, he is just a kid in a candy store with this NU
>secondary ... he's slicing and dicing the Cats at will. We really needed to
>score more when he was cold at the start of the game.
>- After Hawaii answers our TD with their own, we come out and have a drive
>with only one running play (the reverse) ... until we get Noah loose on a
>screen. RUN MORE!!!
>- There are 20 minutes left in the game and we're already over 100 yards in
>penalties. UGH.
>- A BLOCKED PAT? Special Teams ...aaarrrgggghhhh!!!
>- Is this TERRELL Owens we're playing today or what? Sure seems like it. He
>should send us a thank you note for this tape to send to NFL scouts.
>- Noah doesn't even have 100 yards as we end the third. He should be on his
>way to 200 at this point. What's up with our gameplan?
>
>What a disappointing third quarter. We came out without the fire, let them
>jump ahead by two scores and still haven't figured out what to do. Our
>offensive play calling and execution are maddening ... our special teams
>atrocious and the defense fading fast after their first quarter efforts
>went to waste. We're now down 49-33 and in big trouble.
>
>- Hey look! We start the fourth between the hashes and Jordan gets 23 
>yards.
>- 5 for 15 on third downs? Ugh.
>- Kim Thompson's catch on 4th down was a thing of beauty -- looking forward
>to watching him mature the next few years with his height and speed.
>- So it came down to 4th and goal at the 1 or 2 with 10 minutes left and NU
>down 16. I've always said that if you can't get one yard, you don't deserve
>to win. We couldn't get one yard. We didn't deserve to win. Noah wouldn't
>go down without a fight, but there was just no hole there. The game
>essentially ended there.
>
>We mounted a late comeback, but finally ran out of lives I guess (though we
>had plenty of time to run the ball at the end there -- why we felt the need
>to pass only with 20 yards to go and 1:20 left is beyond me). The late INT
>was a bit bogus, but we didn't play well enough to win despite getting a
>bad break.
>
>There's a lot to be disappointed about. The defense gave up a lot after
>that beautiful first quarter. The penalties were inexcusible. The special
>teams were mixed (great FGs, blocked punt and fake FG ... horrible
>penalties and coverage). But for me, this game really came down to NU's
>offense. Our game plan was puzzling and our offensive line never asserted
>itself and lived up to potential. We never got in sync.
>
>I just have this feeling that Michigan State is going to gash this defense
>for some huge yardage on the ground next week. Why we couldn't, I don't
>know. Yes, they stacked the box - but our play calling helped Hawaii out by
>running horizontally ... and our offensive line -- the experience and
>strength of this team -- never came to play. And in a game that essentially
>was for a bowl bid, that's disappointing.
>
>So we fell into the Hawaii trap ... certainly not the first team and we
>won't be the last, but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow. Our
>defense came out strong and forced turnovers to give us every chance to win
>it early. We didn't. With so much on the line, it's sad to have it end this
>way, with a game that we never even needed to schedule.
>
>It's also an unfortunate sour note to end this season. We got into
>WAC-style shootouts that brought out our worst in the opener and closer. In
>between, we had ten solid games. Losing to four ranked teams, but winning
>the other six -- one "first" at Happy Valley, two by a field goal and three
>in overtime, including that memorable streakbuster against Ohio State. We
>went 5-3 and finished fourth in the Big Ten. We got to six wins for a
>second straight year.
>
>But the trip to the Islands just did us in. I'm sad it had to end this way
>for our seniors -- they deserved a better finish after this year. This
>one's gonna hurt for awhile. After a few weeks, I may be able to better
>appreciate what we did this season and could see us deserving a 6-6 waiver
>if there aren't enough bowl teams since we did finish above .500 in league
>play and the Big Ten is short of slots. But right now, it just hurts and
>I'm sure no one feels it as much as those seniors will on the plane ride
>home.
>
>GO CATS!!!
>-Stephen
>
>
>8888b Y888  ======== Stephen J. Truog
>88888b Y88  E-mail: sjtruog at jorsm.com
>88 Y88b 88  1320 Woodhollow Ct. #2 North
>88b Y88888  Schererville, Indiana  46375
>888b Y8888  http://www.jorsm.com/~sjtruog
>
>
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