[NU Sports] Michigan game

[DPENDERG at aol.com]

I agree the loss was encouraging in many respects (and minus a few critical  
turnovers it could have been a W), but as the Big Ten results today 
illustrated,  every game remaining in the schedule (excluding Eastern Michigan) will be 
a  dogfight.  If Cats play flat or commit the mistakes we saw in the second  
half, we may not win another conference game.  I hope the game today will  
inspire confidence that they can play with top teams in the league, but any  lapse 
will result in defeat even against teams we thought might be likely  W's.  
Starting next Saturday in East Lansing (and in following weeks), the  Cats must 
play better than they did in the second half today or they will  lose.  Period.
 
 
In a message dated 9/29/2007 6:21:55 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
tkmaycock at yahoo.com writes:

My 2  cents:

The defense played a great football game. Yes, they allowed some  3rd
down completions on out patterns, and ultimately didn't put  enough
pressure on the QB to really take over the game. But they played  well
enough to win, and even bailed out the offense after some of  the
turnovers. 

This was, I think, a defensive game plan in the  classic mid-90's
defense of bend-but-don't-break. No big plays. Make them  snap it 3
times for every 7 yards. Eventually you stop them. And it worked  out
that way more often than not. Without the turnovers, we  win.

Michigan clearly has issues, but I'm entirely comfortable with  the
defensive effort. We totally shut down Hart until after it  didn't
really matter any more. The D play all-out to the last tick of  the
clock.

The offense was pretty solid, but ultimately CJ made some  critical
mistakes, and the O-line couldn't protect him well enough.  Conteh
played very well, but it would have been nice to have Sutton in  this
game--there were a few plays where you just know that Sutton could  have
made something special out of nothing.

A very disappointing  lost, but ultimately I'm left with a much better
feeling than the last two  weeks. This was a well-coached, competent
football team that should have a  shot at beating any of the teams left
on the schedule.

As for Carr,  I do question why they weren't more agressive throwing the
ball, especially  given the way we absolutely stoned their running game
most of the game.  And, I have no idea why they didn't blitz us more
early on, which is  clearly the weak spot in our offense.  

Tom

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