[NU Sports] Polls

Mon Nov 17 08:20:44 CST 2008

Well I am happy to eat crow after predicting a 17-14 loss to the wolves.  The defense came through with flying colors ! We got a few breaks as well and capitalized on them (fumble on the punt and close call on the out of bounds after cj's interception.) But we also got a tough break with kafka going down,particularly with weather that could have used his running ability

So while I won't make an predictions on the Illinois game itself I will predict that if we win, a lot of us on this list will think we got shafted by our bowl selection 

Harry
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: "Jonathan Hodges" <jonathanwhodges at gmail.com>

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:57:01 
To: Roy Lamberton<rstetson at capps-assoc.com>
Cc: Mike Nolan<nolan at romaine.tssi.com>; <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Polls

Against Michigan, I believe Fitz made very wise decisions down the stretch
on how to control the football game and come out with a win.  I was there in
person, and trust me, the elements were a huge factor in that game.  It was
in the low 30s and precipitating in some form (mostly rain with some snow
and sleet mixed in) and it was absolutely the worst weather I've endured to
watch a game (although it was worth it!).  The only thing that could have
killed NU's chances in the second half was a big error - and that almost
came on the CJ interception (note that NU was throwing the ball even though
they didn't need to at that point), but thankfully the official blew the
play dead as the Michigan DB's pinkie toe touched the sideline.  NU's
defense was doing a great job holding back the tide and was helped immensley
by the fact that UM couldn't get its passing game going at all and was
forced into a position where they had to throw.  And the defense definitely
did not drop back into "prevent" mode at any point that I really saw - yes,
they played a good amount of nickel, but had excellent coverage downfield
(they held Michigan to a 33% completion rate and just 86 passing yards) as
the 'Cats racked up 7 pass break-ups and 1 interception.

Next up is to focus on Illinois who is a dangerous team and you never know
what you'll get with them this season.

Jonathan

On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 6:30 AM, Roy Lamberton <rstetson at capps-assoc.com>wrote:

> Scary isn't it....
>
> My primary concern is that when we get towards the end of a game with a
> lead
> we go into extreme conservative mode - it's like we're afraid to lose,
> rather than desire to win.
>
> You don't see teams hold back on scoring opportunities against us, yet when
> we have a lead we're happy to stop throwing completely, and just run, run
> and run again. Most other teams that I've watched this year continue to
> play
> the same offense, maybe the passing is a little more careful, but they
> continue to try to score.
>
> To me it appears we don't.
>
> Not that I don't think C.J. Bacher can't run effectively. I think he's more
> careful about when he takes off and is more ready to give the ball away to
> a
> better runner, but when we're trying to burn up the clock, NU seems to lack
> the power running game that can grind 10 or 12 minutes off the clock in the
> 4 quarter.
>
> It's the same on defense - the Cats swarm the QB early, with pass coverage
> that allows some blitzes and lots of pressure on the backfield. We get a
> lead in the 4th and suddenly we're in prevent [as Walker used to say
> "prevent you from winning"] and the other suddenly QB has all the time in
> the world to pick our secondary apart because we're not blitzing any more.
>
> Michigan threw a lot of passes at the end of the game, fortunately most
> were
> dropped. The Wolves catch a few more passes and we might be cursing the day
> we went to the Big House in 2008.
>
> dOSU kept so much pressure on Juice last Saturday (I watched parts of that
> game too) that Ron Zook put in the 2nd string QB, who didn't fare any
> better. Pam & Co. kept hinting that Michigan might put their backup in to
> try to jump start their offense, but we appeared to back off and they left
> him in the game.
>
> Now, a win is a win is a win and I was fired up about Wisconsin knocking
> off
> Minny, and dOSU's win over the Ill-whine-I, but I wish we didn't go into
> conservative mode at the end of the game.
>
> I know Fitz doesn't believe in running up the score, but I really like to
> see us make a drive for the goal line at the end of game we're winning by
> less than 7.
>
> Go Cats
> Irradicate the IllwhineI
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate & Unix Guru.
> Computer Applications & Support Associates
> --------------- Also ---------------------------
> Retired Senior Chief Cryptologic Technician [R]
> Commissioner Delaware American Legion Baseball
> Northwestern University - Sp 1974
> ==========  Go Cats -  Beat 'em All  ===========
> "The American Experiment will succeed until the
> masses realize they can vote themselves largesse
> from the public purse." -- attributed to
> Adam DeToqueville - 18th cent.
> =============[How True, How True]===============
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
> Behalf Of Mike Nolan
> Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2008 11:52 PM
> To: WildElk2 at aol.com
> Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Polls
>
> > 24th in ESPN/Coaches Poll; 27th in AP, unranked in BCS.   A win vs.
> Illinois
> > and we'll be ranked going into our bowl.
>
> Have we won a game this season when we've been ranked in any of those
> polls?
> It seems like that's been the kiss of death for us.
> --
> Mike Nolan
>
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-- 
Jonathan W. Hodges
1237 Emerson St Apt 2
Evanston, IL  60201-3577
(847) 736-2449
jonathanwhodges at gmail.com
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