[NU Sports] Where do we go from here?

[Tom Maycock]

> > > You can say Cole made some mistakes during the PSU game - he 
> > > was burned pretty badly, but I'm not sure it wasn't more 
> > > trying to cover two or three guys and guessing wrong, than 
> > > "bad coaching." 
> 

After seeing the game in person, I zipped through the tape later on
Saturday (yes, that is sort of pathetic on my part). In particular I
was wondering why Cole got burned so badly a couple of times. 

Here's what my inexpert eyes saw:

On one play, Cole made the mistake of looking for the ball too early
and too long. Perhaps misjuding the flight of the ball, he slowed down
a
bit, allowing the receiver to separate a bit, and ultimately pull in
the TD catch in the back of the end zone.
 
On another play--the long bomb on 2nd and 1 if I recall
correctly--Cole tried to jam the receiver at the line. The receiver
made a move and eluded the jam and got a running start down the
sidelines. Cole pretty much matched him step for step, but was never
able to make up the step he lost right off the bat. A perfect pass
resulted in a TD. 
 
So, both cases looked like minor, but critical, technique breakdowns.
Coach's fault? Player's fault? I dunno. The line between success and
failure for DB's is razor-thin. 
 
I'm very skeptical about our ability to stop any good passing team at
this point. However, I'm not sure we'll see a pack of receivers that
can fly like the PSU guys--they have at least 4 very fast wideouts.
 
Finally, I don't recall NU ever going into a true prevent defense.
But we do employ that 3-3-5 formation fairly regularly though
(including, I believe, on the 4th and 15 play). I've seen this defense
work well on a number of occassions, but I'm skeptical about using it
in that kind of situation. Seems like I would want to favor more
pressure on the QB.

Maybe coach Roy can fill us in on the NU coaches thinking on this
one. Is the 3-3-5 designed to help cover up limitations in our D
backfield?
 
Tom