[NU Sports] THUMP!

[Beamsley, Jeff]

Joe,

Good post.

Couple of responses.

1. It will be very interesting to see how Purdue plays us.  Clearly
other teams are going to try to exploit what MSU saw in our special
teams play.  It wasn't just McManis.  We gave up big yards on virtually
every punt/kickoff and MSU defended our onside kicks perfectly.  Hats
off to Dantonio for MSU's discipline.  If he can keep them together for
a whole season, they can become a real force in the BT.

2. The offense did great when they let the game come to them and took
what the MSU defense was willing to give.  The defense did an incredible
job given the amount of time the spent on the field and the pressure of
playing most of the game on a short field.  CJ got into trouble, as he
usually does, when he tried to force things, particularly in the red
zone.

3. One of the knocks on Sutton is that he doesn't have a second gear.  I
was surprised that he got as far down the field as he did.  I think that
he has a little more top end this year.  I don't recall anyone posting
on the "conversation" Fitz had with Sutton late in the second half when
Fitz chose to kick the field goal rather than the first down.  I thought
that was a particularly instructive coaching moment.  Sutton has passion
and ego, but Fitz had to remind him who runs the show.

My take away is that this team isn't quite there yet.  The fact that the
leaders (CJ and Sutton) seem to feel they have to do something special
to win, suggests that they don't yet believe in the team.  

I feel bad for McManis.  He has great talent, but clearly let his early
failures affect the rest of his game.  Maybe you can blame this on the
layoff.  We will get a chance to see how Fitz and the coaches
re-motivate this group to learn from their mistakes and put together a
better game against a very beatable Purdue.

Jeff



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From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
On Behalf Of Joe Thiegs
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2008 12:13 PM
To: 'Dennis W. Brandt'; nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: RE: [NU Sports] THUMP!

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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