[NU Sports] Rueful Realist

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

>  Glad to see life there in the Twin Cities is still
> being filtered through purple-colored (or

I have a feeling this could be the most wild Big Ten
race in awhile -- MSU, Minnesota, Purdue and a
farewell tour for Barry Alvarez plus the shortcomings
of OSU, Michigan and Iowa could make it a fun fall in
the midwest. I personally think we're good for at
least two more wins -- though I can't really point to
a sure win. I just feel we've got a topsy-turny league
from week to week this year and that's why letting
this game slip away vs. PSU really, really hurt.

> have marked down as a possible NU win. Uh, Wisconsin
> just beat Michigan. So maybe Michigan isn't the
> Michigan of yore. But it took 'til almost the last
> play of the game, playing at home, for Wisconsin to
> win. Methinks Wisconsin is maybe very good. 

Not sure I buy that cheese yet ... yes, they have
emotion with Barry's farewell. But they did look
U-G-L-Y at NC and the defense was horrendous against
BGSU and a lot of Big Ten teams have similar offenses
now. Besides, Lloyd Carr just doesn't coach well in
September.:)

>  The problem, as I wrote after the ASU game, is that
> the Cats 1) rarely get pressure up front on the
> opposing QB and 2) are a sieve in the secondary. The
> PSU game just underscored the issue and led me to

I'm going to disagree with #1 -- we got a lot of
pressure on PSU and tipped more balls than I think
I've seen NU tip in the last three years combined.
Robinson, for all his shortcomings as a passer, is a
heck of an athlete and scrambler, so you won't sack
him often. But our front seven got some decent
pressure most of the day.

>  Candidly, a good defense would have brought the
> hammer down in the first half -- after the Cat
> offense raced to a 23-7 lead.

I'll be even more candid -- frankly, the offense
should have had a 31-7 or 35-7 lead. I won't excuse
our secondary, but the O should have never let it come
down to a final drive. We looked so good on the
opening drive and were given terrific field position
all half by the defense and special teams ... yet we
kept settling for field goal after field goal and not
even attempting a throw to Thompson or someone in the
end zone. This one should have been over at the half,
but we kept playing it safe and getting only 3 to let
the Lions hang in there.

>  It is a complete mystery to me why the Wildcats
> suffer year after year from this particular issue --
> strong linebackers, weak up front and in the
> secondary.  Really, a complete mystery. There must
> be four guys like Hudaifa Ismaili available and

Not saying I buy into the "thugs are DBs" issue ...
but the one good CB we've had at NU in the last decade
-- Ismaeli -- was one of our more problematic players.
And if you look at the solid corners in the country
(Stanford has good corners???), I'm not sure any of
them even gave NU a look -- whether that's recruiting,
rep or whatever, they just don't come here much. But
if we're getting an abundance of receivers, it
shouldn't be this tough to turn some into corners.

What I do know is that when we played close on
Saturday, we were burned, and when we gave a cushion,
it was a biiiiiiig cushion. That 4th and 15 play
reminded me of that Packers-Iggles playoff game a few
years back.

But as easy (and deservingly so) as it is to blame the
secondary, I do think a good deal of blame has to go
to our offense for settling for three (and
disappearing the second half) and to the coaching for
not going for the KO punch early and wasting timeouts
late to prevent a final drive that was makeable.

I don't really see us out of any games coming up
except OSU (that D is too good) and MSU (they know the
spread and look consistent this year). The problem is,
I don't see us putting together the consistency to
have a win streak against that schedule either -- 7 of
our 11 teams have already been ranked at some point in
the season and a win over Minny by PSU this weekend
would likely make it 8 of 11 (and NIU could
conceivably get in as well). So we'll have to take it
one game at a time -- Wisconsin is winnable if we
focus on stopping their ground game and exploiting
their defense like the BUGS did. BEAT THE BADGERS!!!

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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

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