[NU Sports] Polls

Mon Nov 17 08:39:14 CST 2008

Interesting what you could see from the stands vs what I could see on TV

Television does have the problem of not showing the full setup prior to the
snap - they only show from the LBs to the deepest RB. The impression I had
from watching the game on ESPN was that NU went into a full prevent in the
4th quarter, because there appeared to be 3, maybe 4  guys on the D-line
most of the 4th qtr.

I used to shoot video for a local school - we'd start the video when the
team came to the line and took the entire set, Safety to RB, then we would
zoom to a picture similar to the TV LB to RB set. You'd follow the ball, but
we took an extremely wide shot to get all of the blocking and Defense around
the ball carrier. On a pass play, you'd zoom out to try to get as much of
the coverage as possible - the coaches and players watching later knew who
was playing where - they wanted to see who did what.

TV has a different agenda, they want the primary camera to cover the ball,
and they hope to pick up other things with the supporting cameras, but the
rarely show the defensive backfield sets, and that leads guys like me to
read the entire D based on who is on the line.

I still think we tend to go conservative with our game plan when we have a
lead, even in the 3rd quarter. We're running the counter almost every first
down and by the 4th quarter, the D expects to see it. CJ and Kafka can go
long if they're given the time and with the lead I wonder what happened to
the Peterman (or maybe Brewer) option pass? Even if it is a fake.

We saw what dOSU did to us at the end of the game. We have the same ability
to make those kinds of plays, but for some reason we just don't.

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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 - 

Chi Phi: Pi74, KD68

==========  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]===============

From: Jonathan Hodges [mailto:jonathanwhodges at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 8:57 AM
To: Roy Lamberton
Cc: Mike Nolan; WildElk2 at aol.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