[NU Sports] report from State College

[Brad Wilson]

Thanks to an old friend of my mother's, a huge PSU
booster, I watched Saturday's debacle from 50-yard
line seats 40 rows up after tailgating in reserved
parking 90 seconds from the Stadium. (chicken, good
beer, fresh veggies, Bloody Marys, the works)

I wish the game had matched the setup. The weather
wasn't ideal, but it wasn't too cold or (quite) too
wet; typical Big Ten weather for grind-it-out
football.

But NU couldn't have ground pepper Saturday. The
offensive line was outquicked and outmatched. There
wasn't a prayer of getting a running back going -- by
the time the handoff was made, the blocking had broken
down. Only Brewer's niftiness allowed any QB runs to
work at all, and most of those were quickly closed off
by PSU's gifted linebackers. If NU can't run, NU can't
win.

And the pass protection was if anything worse --
Brewer had no chance to get set in a rhythm at all.
How he was not sacked 12-15 times is beyond me; only
his speed saved him. Even the PSU fans around us were
stunned at how he got away on several plays. Brewer is
the quickest NU QB I have ever seen. 

On a day when there was no blocking to speak of, it's
hard to judge the skill players. Sutton didn't look
bad when there was some room to run, which there never
was, though he made a nice play on the TD. Brewer
didn't make plays a more experienced QB would have,
and he didn't make some even he should have, but what
can we possibly expect from a redshirt frosh QB with
virtually no experience starting his first Big Ten
game in front of 107,000 people? His first series
started at the 9 in the closed end of the stadium.
Tough, tough task for the kid. The receivers made some
nice plays, esp. Lane, who to me is the best we have.
Good to see Thompson back but he looked tentative.

The defense's numbers were awful by the end of the
game, but I thought they played pretty well until they
got worn down midway through the third quarter;
remember they received no support from the offense at
all, nothing at all to feed off of. 

Take away the one long pass Cole was beaten on and he
played  very well, esp. in run support and on making
tough open-field tackles on Derrick Williams. Roach
and Eaton had their moments, as did Eddie Simpson
(let's see more of him) and Corey Wootton played his
ass off with hustle and intensity. And hold PSU to FGs
four times inside the NU 20 is terrific; the NU
defense took  PSU's best shots and kept us in the
game. They spent way too much time on the field and
were shot by the end, but with a smidge of support
from the offense this  could have been a winning
effort (and certainly would have been in 2005 against,
say, UCLA).

So all the defense's problems came from the lack of
offense? Well, no. 

Biggest problem: no pass rush. Battle doesn't catch
213 yards of passes and PSU doesn't bomb away 4 long
passes (the one right before the half was a killer) if
there was any pass rush. And aside from Wootton, who
PSU quickly double-teamed, there was no rush at all.
Morelli could have had a cup of coffee every pass play
without spilling a drop from the pressure. There has
to be more pass rush. I'd rather send the house and
occasionally get beat while coming up with sacks and
fumbles and picks than sitting back and still getting
beaten.

Other problems: Other than Smith's recovery the
safeties did nothing. Kadela seemed overmatched.
Battle was, charitably, very poor. The middle of the
defensive line was ineffective at run-stopping and
when the LBs couldn't make plays there were a lot of
big cutback runs.

Special teams were fine; Larscheid did fine, returns
were decent and coverage pretty good. This and the
much  lower penalty numbers (though Belding had two,
ouch) are welcome changes from 2005.

Coaching? I liked the decision to go for it on
4th-and-1 and I thought Fitz did some other things
right (punting on a 4th-and-1 from the NU 32 [from the
42 I'd have gone for it]) and declining the
delay-of-game PSU intentionally took on the FG try to
get a better angle. With no blocking the playcalling
hardly mattered; not much will work with no blocking
-- the screens were a nice idea, though. I do think
Colby needed to sell out more to generate pressure and
why we could not stop that little delay-draw to Hunt
that they ran at least 27 times (or so it seemed) for
less than 5 yards I cannot imagine. (My NU friend with
me called it at least 5 times; if he could see it
coming why couldn't Colby?

So, not a pretty picture, but ... the defense is
improved and getting better but still has a way to go.
If the offense can improve and come along, there's
some reason for optimism against MSU, Perdoo,
Illinois. 

But NU simply does not have the experience or moxie
yet to play with teams full of All-Americans like PSU,
Michigan and Ohio State. We have never had and never
will have the talent these schools get, but have been
able to overcome that deficiency with smarts,
experience, savvy, guts and hustle every so often.
Without the experience and the moxie of a Basanez,
Fitzgerald (as player) or Kustok, NU doesn't have much
chance against elite teams this season, I am afraid.
2007 may well be different. 

Brad Wilson




 







"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.

"We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular." -- Edward R. Murrow, 1954.

"Quis ipsos custodes custodiet?" -- Juvenal

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