[NU Sports] Sad

[Abrahamson, Alan (NBC Universal)]

I agree with Steve all around. 
 The pick in the fourth quarter was obviously the killer. Down 3, the
Wildcats get the ball back with a chance to go ahead. So what happens?
The kind of mistake you could expect from an inexperienced qb,
particularly one who may have been banged up. 
 Oh, well.
 I also would point to the four-minute stretch in which the Cats
committed three turnovers that led to 17 Nevada points. If the Wildcats
don't commit turnovers, that game last night is a Northwestern win. 
 That said, ifs are always ifs. As one of the many sayings on this topic
goes: if my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a trolley cart,
right?
 Overall, I also saw improvement. But doesn't it look this year could
well be one of those one step up, two steps back kind of years. 
 In time, the team will be much better. The issue, as always: how much
time?
  

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
On Behalf Of SjT (Stephen J. Truog)
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 8:59 PM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Sad

It was painful to watch - but I did find some hope for the future in
this game, namely in Kafka's gutsy performance. However, he looked a bit
too hurt at the end and throwing floaters off of his back foot instead
of on the run really doesn't make him look good.

But a total team loss tonight -- much like New Hampshire, we played well
enough to win in most aspects of the game, but that turnover ratio just
killed us.

I guess it's to be expected with a young quarterback - but it's hard to
watch at times, and our heralded O-line, while much better on the run
tonight, is still pretty inept at pass blocking.

As for the D, unfortunately we just get picked apart by an experienced
quarterback, and the Big Ten is loaded with them this year. Our only
chance against a fellow newbie QB will be next week at State College and
106,000+ Lion fans more than compensate for that.

As for special teams - bad all around. Missed kicks, blocked kicks,
fumbles. We had a nice return in the second quarter but did nothing with
it. Ugh.

For awhile there, it looked like we were going to have a nice comeback
win for a tough young QB coming of age in the second half ... but the
injury and replay really swung momentum around. Yes, he was out of
bounds, but they got more than their share of generous spots on the
night and that replay 1st down hurt a lot.

But that's something we'll probably see a lot this year. We're not
exactly a team that blows others out a lot and what we're seeing this
year is the difference an experienced QB like Baz made. We're pretty
much 4-0 if we hang on to the darn ball - we gave New Hampshire and
Nevada early leads with turnovers and tried to play catch-up with a
freshman QB, never a good idea.

The good news is that we're close -- cut out the giveaways and free
1st-and-goals and we're not too far away. Getting Kafka's confidence is
key and it looked like we were close to boosting that big-time tonight
with a win.

The bad news is that we're in Big Ten play from now on, and unless we
can grow up in a hurry, those freshman mistakes that gave away games in
the nonconference will lead to early blowouts and big confidence-killers
against the Big Ten, especially in Happy Valley, Madison, Ann Arbor and
Iowa City.

We knew this was going to be a tough year - yes, it's tough to watch us
hand over games we should win. But I saw some improvement and effort
tonight. We just gotta hang on to the gosh darn ball!!!

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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

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