[NU Sports] Where is everyone?

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> We lacked a running game only in the first quarter. 
> Roberson couldn't 
> get anywhere.  Starting in the second quarter, we
> did develop a running 
> game.  Sutton looked great.  We may have made some

Eh, I wasn't that sold even in the second. I think Baz
getting on fire helped the run more than the change in
back so Ohio couldn't stack the box as much. And even
then, we still had trouble running up the middle for
short yardage -- the sweeps did work well though and
Sutton hit the corners nicely. Also had a couple nice
spins on one short-yardage dive ... but still came up
short.

> the passing attack, but after we get in rhythm, we
> had a fairly 
> balanced attack.  3 or our 4 TD drives in the 2d
> quarter were 75 yards 
> or more, including one of 88 yards.  They were
> solid, sustained drives.

Definitely - and Baz was cool and collected on 3rd
down and spread it around to different wideouts and
different spots/depths of the field. He looked sharp
in the second. Had we wanted to in the second half, we
could have put up 66 points.

> I agree the defense is still an open question, but
> you have to give 
> them some credit based on Saturday's performance. 
> The defense didn't 
> give up a single 3d down conversion, and they only
> gave up 7 points.

Yup - I was much more heartened by the D than the O
(the passing was crisp after a slow start, but that
so-so running game between the hashes has me worried).
The couple secondary lapses aren't surprising (and the
big mistake at the end of the first half was rectified
by hustle to catch the Bobcat at the 1 yard line and
prevent a score) -- but I was happy to see a lot of
pressure, a lot of movement to mix up the fronts and
some solid option tackling, especially from our
linebackers.

> when I felt as comfortable as I did yesterday with
> 10 minutes left in 

Yeah - only Illinois 2000 ... but that was more fun to
get some revenge on the Ill-whine-I.

> Btw, if you missed the game, we easily could have
> scored more points, 

Definitely - we were getting a lot of experience for
the second string in the second half and not trying to
run it up at all.

> pretty good job, but they blew two late TD
> opportunities, one with a 
> fumble into the endzone, and another with an

And that led to one of the light-hearted moments where
the QB (Bacher) took off running the drive after
fumbling at the 1 yard line and about 20-30 fans from
various spots simultaneously yell "hang on to the
ball!"

Whatever the case, good to start off with a solid win.
We'll need improvement for NIU, but this was the kind
of win where you feel good, but still see room for
improvement and hopefully the Cats make that leap from
week 1 to week 2 you always hear about.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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


	
		
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