[NU Sports] THUMP!

[Joe Thiegs]

Well, despite the loss, there are a couple of positive thoughts in my mind
on the Monday morning after.

1.	After the tough-to-swallow MSU loss in 2006, the team came back to
play pretty well the rest of that season, rebounding with a win against Iowa
the next week and also beating Illinois to finish the regular season; the
losses were to No. 2 Michigan in a hard-fought game in Ann Arbor and an
understandably bad beating from No. 1 tOSU.  One characteristic of the
Fitz-coached teams over the past couple of years seems to be that they are
mentally tough and well-conditioned enough to play hard through the fourth
quarter of games as well as through the end of the year when some other
teams get tired.

2.	After the disastrous first quarter, we played even with the
Spartans--a good team--the rest of the way (look at the box score and you
will see identical scoring for both teams in quarters 2-4).  Of course, it
would have helped had we outscored them in at least one quarter.

3.	Sutton looks like he's mostly back to form.  I was a little
disappointed that he got run down by both Spartan defenders on that long
breakaway, but MSU does have some good speed.
 
4.	The story of the game was field position, obviously affected by the
turnovers and poor special teams play.  I think MSU started on average in NU
territory, and we started on average somewhere around or even behind our own
20.  Shortening the field by almost half makes a huge difference.  This also
explains how we outgained them by such a large margin and still lost by
three scores.  The good news is that improving special teams play and
reducing turnovers is more easily done--at least, one would hope so--than
would be correcting, say, athletic or talent deficiencies, and I think we
have enough athleticism and talent to at least have a chance in every
remaining game this year.

I predict 4-2 the rest of the way (wins:  vs. Purdue, at Indiana, at
Michigan, vs. Illinois; losses vs. tOSU and at Minnesota).  Maybe 3-3 if
Illinois gets fired up enough.

Crazy thought of the day:  It is not too much of a stretch to think that NU
and Minnesota might meet with each having 7-1 records on November 1st.  It
is further not out of the realm of possibility that the winner of that game
could run the table the rest of the way.  Perhaps a better chance for
Minnesota.  As we all know, NU has a fortunate schedule this year, missing
PSU and UW.  Minnesota, though, misses PSU and MSU and has already played
tOSU (their one loss).  Here's the remainder of the Gophers' schedule:  bye,
at Purdue, vs. NU (Homecoming), vs. Michigan, at Wisconsin, vs. Iowa
(last-ever Gopher game in the Metrodome).  It is unlikely that they make it
through that stretch unscathed--the Gophers always have trouble in West
Lafayette, no one ever should pencil in a win against the Wolverines, and
the game in Madison should be particularly tough, not to mention NU and a
seemingly resurgent Iowa--but the Minnesota defense has been really fun to
watch this year and should be able to keep them in every game left on the
schedule, assuming they get their top corner and a couple of other key
players back from injury over the past couple of weeks.

-Joe


-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Dennis W. Brandt
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 5:51 PM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: [NU Sports] THUMP!

We got whooped by a better team.  Our special teams were terrible; theirs
was good.  Our defense was shaky; theirs was steady.  We didn't run the ball
consistently; they did.  They had no turnovers; we had three.  Bacher once
more threw INTs; they threw none.  Fitz should never had called that second
onside kick.
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