[NU Sports] Different Perspective On What Went Wrong

[John A. DeGroat]

Schooler's anlaysis of Basanez is probably accurate.  He took some 
whacks that would have ko'd a lot of players.  It wouldn't be a surprise 
that he got a concussion.  Who could have guessed two years ago tht he 
would be as good as he was this yer.  It will be intersting to see wehe 
he goes in the NFL draft.

JohnDeGroat


BSchooler at aol.com wrote:

>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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