[NU Sports] Sparty Chokes Again

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> Anybody have thoughts on the late hit out of bounds
> from Nduwke 
> against Stanton?
> 
> I thought that offsetting penalties was a mistake.

It was certainly the first sign of the MSU collapse or
Irish luck rising. The late-hit part was close, but
what happened on the sideline should have been
offsetting itself at the least and certainly not an
MSU-only penalty (the Spartan guy was being grabbed by
ND coaches, almost had his facemask ripped off by a
couple ND players and eventually had his helmet
removed - which is why I think the refs signalled him
out because they thought he took off his helmet).

It started the momentum shift and was the last sign of
fight from John L. Smith on the night - he seemed
resigned to fate after that.

But no way it was just an MSU penalty on the
sidelines. Then again, I wasn't impressed with the
officiating crew that night. All over this weekend,
crews seemed jittery following Oklahoma-Oregon,
picking up more flags in a week than I've seen in
years and going to replay a LOT ... yet the end of the
MSU-ND game was not replayed. Yes, it was the right
call of an interception, but can you imagine if it had
not been a pick and the refs didn't even check on
replay, just letting the clock run out?

Of course, it all seems to fit into Sparty's storybook
collapse. The big question is whether they will head
into their traditional post-September swan dive now
and whether JLS will be a lame-duck coach following
another loss or two. They should still be able to get
to a bowl with Wisky and Iowa off the schedule, but if
they drop a game or two they shouldn't, it could be
close.

As for Notre Dame, they're already throwing Brady back
in the Heisman mix and after rolling through their
next  seven games (3 service academies, UCLA, UNC,
Stanford, Purdue), they'll probably be back in the
title hunt by the time they visit the Coliseum at the
end of the year. USC will expose them, but they'll
still be in a BCS bowl thanks to Sparty's collapse.
UGH!

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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

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