[NU Sports] First half thoughts ...

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Not a good half for the Cats ... and that was before
Tyrell's injury. Thankfully he returned, but then the
secondary falls asleep on the final play?!?!?!?!

WAKE UP GUYS!!!

Loved the opening drive, but what happened to Bacher
afterwards? He wasn't the same crisp, accurate passer
and he juuuuust missed a couple big plays. Ross wide
open for a TD being the latest one.

And while I can understand sticking with CJ while he's
hot, when he started losing it, we really needed to
pound the ball a bit with a pre-injury Sutton. We have
yet to establish the running game in the first half of
games this year, and that concerns me with the
offensive line. Actually, it infuriates me - with
three seniors and Rees back, that's inexcusible after
a game and a half!

On defense, we need to get off the bloody field on 3rd
downs - we had them in 3rd and long that first drive
but let them convert and they went on to score. And we
missed chances on two fourth downs later.

Our D (especially the secondary) doesn't seem as
aggressive - part of that may be good coaching by
Nevada in keeping our defense guessing and then double
guessing with their mixed play calling. But still,
someone needs to step up and make a PLAY!

Strange to say it, but our saving grace has been
special teams - nice punts, kickoffs and strong
returns by McManus that have been shoestrings away
from two touchdowns. The field goal at the end was
nice - too bad the D let any momentum slip away.

Until that last half of the 2nd quarter, it appeared
that the officials were letting Nevada get away with a
lot (hey, I don't blame 'em - push until they flag ya)
... but they finally started flagging blatant holds
and interferences. Still, it appears Nevada is
grabbing a lot of purple wide receiver jersey and
getting away with it so far.

Not the most competent crew so far though - the replay
that was overturned looked like a pretty obvious call
and they had officials on both sides looking right at
the play ... then they badly botch the call on the
holding, facemask, second hold call vs. Nevada and
call it on NU at first. They're looking like they flew
into town on the red eye and they never had time to
read the section on pass interference in the playbook.

Oh well, I love seeing Fitz' pre-game pep talks but
he's gonna need to tear these guys a new one at
halftime. Especially the linemen and especially
offense. No running game, no pass blocking - get a
helmet on someone! And our tackling on D needs to
improve in a hurry.

GO CATS!!!
WAKE UP AND POUND THE GOSH DARN BALL!!!
-SjT

PS - Some side thoughts ...

* I see from the highlights Purdooooo has switched
back to turf as well (too many moo moo's eating the
grass?:) ) ... so does this mean it's now basketball
on turf? And by my count, the grass stadiums - NU,
Iowa, MSU, PSU and Indiana (I think they still have
grass at IU) - are now in the minority in the league.

* Hopefully this will be "lay off the Big Ten week"
with ACC powers Miami and VaTech looking to get blown
out down south and Big East powers Louisville and West
Virginia surviving sloppy scares. And between Texas'
struggle last week and Nebraska's first half at Wake,
the Big XII ain't looking too fancy either ...

... but then the Buckeyes decide to play baseball with
Akron? C'mon guys! As long as PSU obliterates the
Domers tonight in what should be a very loud Happy
Valley!

* Oh yeah, because it can't be said enough, the Big
Ten Network is abso-frickin-lutely awesome and is
making Saturdays so much fun for football fans! It's
like having two Sunday Ticket days!

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


       
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