[NU Sports] Can you really blow a 22-0 lead?

[Roy Lamberton]

> Ugh - this just plain old sucks. Ouch. Hate to see a
> gutsy player like Baz go out that way. He took some
> shots today. What happened to our O-line?

It seemed to me that our O-Line was out quicked up front, and overmatched, with
6 guys coming almost every play

>
> this was a team loss, make that a SPECIAL
> team loss, but certainly not the fault of the defense.
> When you give the offense a three touchdown lead to
> start the game, they need to make that lead hold up.

In the 2nd quarter, the Defense wasn't able to hold the lead that they gave us
in the 1st. They adjusted and for the most part kept UCLA off the board until
the very end. FWIW - it appeared that they attacked the left side of our D-Line
[ran right] most of the game when they were successful. Even Todd B noted that
McGarigle had been effectively taken out of the game in the 2nd. 

But Once they got John Gill some help, we did a decent job of shutting them
down, but during that 2nd quarter run, they were doubling up on Gill and
removing McGarigle big time. It reminded me of the Alamo Bowl, where Nebraska's
center took our MLB out of the play every time.

Colby's defensive scheme, with Cofield charging hard, and Gill coming maybe a
little behind him with Mims, etc, had them on the ropes early, but something got
said to the UCLA O-Line and suddenly they were playing like they could beat U$C.

> We never got the running game going, had too many
> turnovers, dropped a bunch of passes and then we get
> to the special teams ... ouch. 

The 6 man rush, the linebackers were closing on almost every play, stopped
tyrell and Baz in their tracks. UCLA had both Baz and Tyrell covered on the
option plays, and they effectively used a safety to stop our traps. TV doesn't
show all of the defensive sets, so I wasn't sure where all the UCLA guys were
coming from, but they were all reading keys and playing very well.

I was obvious to me that UCLA was planning to rush at least 6 guys all game I
thought Zack and Dylan did a decent job, but the inside guy was chasing Baz all
game.

The Kicking game started off bad, with an out of bounds kick off, and went down
hill from there. We get the 5 points early and we don't need the on-sides kicks.

> > Happy New Year to everyone & thanks to the Cats for
> > their heart and the excitement they gave us!
> 
> Yup - a shame to see #14 and #41 go out like that. But
> on the whole, it was a fun season and it was a
> pleasure to see them play in purple.

Right up to the end you could see Baz had his "we're gonna win this" look on his
face. 

 Five tough losses
> to five top 25 teams -- but hopefully we can continue
> to improve with Sutton and Roach next year and push to
> get those big wins and that elusive bowl win.

I'll add my thanks to Baz and McG for some really great games this year. It's a
shame we had to lose again. Maybe we need that 12 game in November to stay
sharp?

Go Cats!

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate
Computer Applications & Support Associates
and Publisher of Purple Reign, 
The Scout.com Northwestern University Site
(http://www.purplewildcats.com)
AIM Handle: CoachRoy74
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