[NU Sports] Different Perspective On What Went Wrong

[Abrahamson, Alan]

 If I had been in the interview room after the game, I absolutely would have asked if Basanez was suffering from the effects of the hit. 
 But I wasn't. I was in El Paso as a tourist, not as a working reporter.
 I must say this was a very disappointing loss. The Wildcats had the victory there for the taking. And the fault -- I remind one and all of my defensive gloom after the Arizona State debacle -- was this time most definitely not on the Northwestern defense.
 

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
To: nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com
Sent: 12/31/2005 11:25 AM
Subject: [NU Sports] Different Perspective On What Went Wrong

I was at the game; haven't watched the tape yet. I feel the defense,
under 
the circumstances, played well enough for us to have won the game. Of
course, 
the kicking game was a joke, except for surprisingly good kick-off
coverage. But 
the problem, from my perspective, was that Basanez got his bell rung
late in 
the second half and his decision making skills suffered accordingly. In
fact, 
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he played with a mild concussion.
We've 
seen Basanez's decision making skills suffer earlier in his career after

getting hit in the head. Air Force in his Sophomore year is the best
example. I 
think that's what happened yesterday.

In the second half, Basanez locked on to his primary receiver. He's
lucky 
more passes weren't intercepted. One pass in the fourth quarter, Baz
must have 
stared down his receiver for five seconds before firing a bullet to a
receiver 
who was blanketed. Nearly all second half passes were fired full
strength; no 
touch was utilized - even on short passes.Poor decision making wasn't
limited 
to the passing game. Time after time, I felt Baz made the wrong decision
on the 
option and the zone read. It seems he already had his mind made up on
who was 
going to get the ball instead of reading the defensive end. In addition,
the 
QB is supposed to stick the ball into the RB's gut and either remove it
or 
leave it there on the zone read - based on the read. Instead, Baz was
lunging at 
the RB when giving him the ball or making a perfunctory wave of the ball
a few 
feet from the RB when he kept it. No deception or utilization of the
read was 
evident in the second half in the running game.

And this from the same QB who led masterful performances much of the
year. 
This certainly wasn't the same QB we saw against Wisconsin and Michigan
State. I 
think the reason is that Baz was suffering from a mild concussion in the

second half. We've seen Baz adversely affected by a blow to the head
earlier in 
his career and I feel it unfortunately happened again in the Sun Bowl.

Bob Schooler  
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