[NU Sports] Halftime in Cornland ...

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Quarter number 2 ...

- Nice to see Baz still engineering an effective
drive, but I hope we're using the pass to set up the
run and get Sutton going sooner or later.

- Speaking of our fab frosh ... it's only a 5 yard run
down to the 7, but he had to have broken 10 tackles.
WOW!

- Baz for SIX!!! 200+ yards, 3 touchdowns already.
This is a senior leader who is just seeing the whole
game in slow motion right now and has his offense on a
roll. 21-3 ... keep it going, O. Don't let up and let
Baz cool down.

- Some hard hits and at least the D isn't making it
easy all in a big play or two ... but they're still
giving up 1st down after 1st down as the opponent
keeps marching downfield. UGH!

- Did my eyes deceive me, or did we get a 3rd down
stop? Uh oh ... 4th down ... dang. Stupid holding call
... double dang. And then we get fooled on that statue
of liberty reverse again for a TD. 21-9.

- Dumb penalty stops us deep after the kickoff - DOH!

- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Get up Baz! PLEASE!!!

- Perfect call on the screen with Baz out to get the
first down and keep from losing momentum.

- Still can't get TS going.

- Thank goodness Brett's back in. Whew. But make the
friggin' catch wideouts to help him out.

- C'mon D ... need a stop or turnover to keep the
Boilers from sneaking back in this.

- TIMMY!!! What a much-needed fumble recovery by our
all-American linebacker. Just what we needed before
the half!

- TYRELL!!! We finally break one on the ground.

- Right call on 4th and 1 ... Tiller's going for it
all day, so we'll have to when we can.

- NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Now Tyrell's down. UGH!

- Nice finish of the drive (since that PSU game, we've
learned our lesson on O -- get six, not three). 28-9.
Now hold on before half!

- C'mon D! Our secondary may not be able to cover yet,
but they are hitting HARD today!

- McGarrigle = Fitz Jr. If I could just block out the
rest of the D and watch #41 play, I think I'd be a lot
happier when the opponent has the ball.

- Looks like both QBs could have 500 yards today.

- A FOURTH DOWN STOP!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Didn't like the use of time at the end of the half
... second week in a row Baz and the O wasted time at
the end of the half.

And that's the half. We lead 28-9, but there's a long
way to go and Purdue has the ball first in the 3rd.

So Purdue could have been right in this if they hadn't
had the turnovers and we could have blown it out if we
didn't have a couple inopportune penalties in the 2nd
quarter. Overall, I guess we'll have to take it at the
half.

Elsewhere in the league, looks like another wild
weekend with MSU/OSU and UM/UW flipping back and forth
... and even Indiana's hanging in there with the
Hog-eyes in Kinnick.

Couple notes heading into the locker room ...

What I do like about our D is their aggressiveness
this week. Yes, we're giving up yards and not stopping
them yet ... but we've chucked out the soft-cover
zones and play-it-safe mentality. We're blitizing,
covering aggressively and making plays to almost tip
balls. Sooner or later, we'll make those tips and get
more of those turnovers and I like that mentality to
attack on D just like we attack on O. Will it give up
big plays? Yes, but we gotta have that aggressiveness.

After our "epic" discussion last week, I was thinking
all week about what the game reminded me of ... it was
not as thrilling as the 47-44 or 54-51 wins in 2000
even though the score was as close -- what it reminded
me of more was that thrashing at East Lansing in
between those Wisconsin and Michigan wins of 2000. In
that game, I just remember Zak and DA2 looking
unstoppable on O and the rest of the game didn't
matter because they were going to keep scoring.

Keep it up for one more half guys.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!


	
		
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