[NU Sports] Sad

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> > I thought our offense looked MUCH improved over
> the past three weeks.
> 
> Yes, it did, as long as you ignore five turnovers. 

And there's the big difference. What I saw in the UNH
and Nevada games was a team that wasn't all that much
different from last year's, minus one big, BIG, *HUGE*
difference, and that's the quarterback. And we're
gonna have to live without Baz for now and suffer
through some of those freshman mistakes.

Our defense is actually doing better. Not good, as
people have pointed out, but better. I loved the
blindside CB blitz last night. And our early holes
against UNH and UNR were much more to turnovers and
handing the opponent the ball inside the 20 than the
D. Yes, they're still bending a lot, but breaking
less.

And I liked the ground game last night, too. But the
fumble hurt and our pass blocking and telegraphing of
passes was bad. Special teams was a mixed bag but hurt
us as well.

The real sad thing about last night, though, was that
I saw an NU team that was overcoming those mistakes in
the second half - dominating play and ready to take
the lead despite all those errors. But the replay
(right call on the fumble, but I've yet to be
convinced of the spot) and the injury to Kafka's
mobility really killed that. And yeah, that play call
on the INT was poor to have him throwing across the
field off his back foot on a gimpy leg.

> I believe, however, he has the potential to be a
> good quarterback. 

Me too. It's going to be a rough year - especially now
in league play - but I think Kafka has what it takes.
Now we'll really see Fitz' skills as a head coach,
trying to hold the team and his young quarterback
together through an absolutely brutal stretch of
games.

> Please don't whine about that out-of-bounds call or
> the spot.  He was 
> clearly out.  As to the spot. . .  Well, that was

Agreed on the out, but the spot sucked. Though if they
went for it on 4th and 1, I don't see us stopping
them. Still, right call as it was, it took a lot of
the wind out of our sails in that comeback.

> P.S.  That "pistol" offense has some good points,
> especially the one that 
> allows the running back to build up steam before

I liked it a lot too - seems like it would take an
adjustment of center and QB, but we could probably
work a lot of our plays out of it well.

One other gripe with our OC calls - why oh why do we
continually run spread out sweeps to the short side of
the field against a quicker defense? And why with
Jordan? Run TJ up the gut with traps and draws and if
you spread Sutton out, go to the WIDE side and let him
make someone miss. It seemed like we played into UNR's
undersized but quick defense with that a lot and I
know those plays won't be working against Big Ten
defenses.

Oh well, hopefully we can get something going to come
home in a few weeks at 3-3 at least, though Happy
Valley and Madison will be tough. Those cheeseheads
are giving Michigan all they can handle right now.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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

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