[NU Sports] pURDUE

[DPENDERG at aol.com]

All of this talk about bowl games and winning the last three games  overlooks 
the fact that we have to play a lot better to win even one of those  games.  
Our two Big Ten wins were the narrowest of victories over weak  opponents and 
easily could have been losses.   We have yet to beat a really  quality team 
this year.  Talking about playing competively for three  quarters against UM or 
PU cannot excuse fourth quarter meltdowns  to say nothing of the Duke 
embarrassment.  Bacher simply does not play  well when he gets rushed hard and our 
running game is virtually non-existent  when playing good teams.  On defense, we 
have continued problems mounting a  pass rush and covering people in the 
secondary.  Easy to say the next three  games are "winnable" but that requires 
significant improvement on both  sides of the ball.  Starting with elimination of 
the poor blocking and  tackling.   Could happen, but the performance on the 
field the last  two weeks does not inspire.  Iowa, Indiana and Illinois all will 
be equally  desperate for W's, so Cat coaches and players have to step up or 
it  will be long winter in Evanston.  
 

 
 
In a message dated 10/28/2007 12:03:01 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
neonrye at aol.com writes:


We  have three very "winnable" games left, and yet I could also see us 
"running  the table" in reverse and losing all three if things don't go well against 
the  Hawkeyes next Saturday.? Indiana may be fighting for bowl bid when we 
play  them, and Illini are probably just too fast and athletic for us, and I 
have  visions (nightmares) of Mendenhall running for 200 yards against our  
D-Line.



If we win out, and finish 8-4, then certainly we will  be deserving of a bowl 
bid (Our BT record would then be 5-3.).? If we win next  two games at home, 
and then lose in Champaign, we would be "on the cusp", and  it would depend 
upon how Hoosiers and Sparty finish, as we are least likely to  win figurative 
"tie-breaker" for bowl bid--and that may even occur  notwithstanding if we beat 
Indy and thus will have won game against each  team--given our attendance 
deficiencies, loss to Duke, etc.



The  main thing is that the 'Cats control their own destiny, and if they play 
well  and manage to take their remaining games, they will go.? You can't ask 
for  more than that at this stage of season, and I refuse to spend any more 
psychic  energy thinking about how the Duke loss is killing our chances.

By the  way, I agree with Stephen T.--Buckeyes really impressed last night, 
and  Boeckman is a big, tough, poised QB, who efficiently runs their offense.? 
He  looks better every time I see him, and while Henne has always had a big 
rep  and a big arm, he also makes mistakes at key times.? Boeckman, on the other 
 hand, seems to make good decisions with the ball, and is very accurate.? OSU 
 really exposed PSU--the Nits' fans must be very down this morning.

Paul  Levinson


-----Original Message-----
From:  Hakirsch at aol.com
To: johnadeg at comcast.net; sjtruog at yahoo.com;  nwu-sports at tssi.com
Sent: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 10:07 am
Subject: Re: [NU  Sports] pURDUE




In a message dated 10/28/2007 5:26:59 AM  Pacific Standard Time, 
johnadeg at comcast.net writes:

> It will  probably take seven wins to get a bowl bid this year and the fact 
>  that no one shows up for NU home games makes it a long shot that NU gets a 
 
> bowl bid.
> 
> John DeGroat
> 

And to be  honest, do we deserve much of a bowl bid ?  While I would be happy 
to  have us go to a bottom tier bowl, we certainly have not shown bowl 
material  
most of  the year-  We are not bad , but we are not  too  good either .I 
havent checked our rating, but I suspect that we are not in  the top half.  




Yes we  have had some exciting wins, but have played poorly in many other  
games--Our record will be inflated by a very easy non-conference schedule  
-at 
least 3 of those games we played poorly--or at least below how a bowl  bound 
team 

should play-

Still I am optimistic about the  future--we are going in the right direction 
albeit with some starts and  stops and Fitz is the right guy and will learn 
as 
he gets more  experience.

Harry



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