[NU Sports] 4-0 ... whew!

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Did Lloyd Carr take over our OC duties in the second half? That was just terrible play calling, awful line blocking, pathetic QB play and embarassing offense in the second half.

Thankfully, our defense and special teams kicked butt today.

And it wasn't just Sutton's absence (though it certainly hurt) - we weren't punching it in before Tyrell was injured and we had no punch whatsoever after he went down.

We can also thank Eric Peterman for his plastic-man act in stretching for that third down catch late to give us only our second first down of the half at that point and get some time off the clock.

LOVE the defensive pressure.
LOVE the field goal blocks.
LOVE the field goal execution on our end (we have a kicker again!).
LOVE the linebacker play ... especially Prince's hair tackle - ouch!

And I LOVE being 4-0.

But we got some major work to do on offense! 
- CJ has to get his confidence back and spread the ball around.
- The wideouts have to catch balls that are in their hands (and at least jump up for balls that go over your head for an interception when you could have at least tipped it, Ebert!).
- The line has to get some toughness and block.
- Omar has to step up like last year and not be the lateral runner he was today - take it upfield1
- And our play calling on offense has to get a heck of a lot better. The delayed draw to Omar for a loss of 2. The CJ keeper for a gain of 3. A poor pass (or INT) on 3rd and long. That was repeated early and often in the second half.

So ... good to be unbeaten and I guess the old saying about winning 2 of the 3 aspects of the game works, but the one aspect we got crushed in today was embarassing and needs work.

Around the league ...

* OHIO STATE is still looking awfully lazy as a defensive team - though Pryor is starting to show his talent. They're good but certainly not unbeatable anymore ... at least until that D stops pouting and starts playing up to their talent level.

* PENN STATE took the first and last quarter off and still looked unstoppable. But the creampuffs are off the slate now - the next five games has the Illini in State College next week, and then road trips to West Lafayette, Madison and Columbus ... with a visit from nemesis Michigan in between. If they can keep up the fireworks, though, they'll be tough to stop with the lax defenses in this league.

* MINNESOTA continued to look better than expected, but again, we get the first real test next week with the Buckeyes.

* PURDUE ... ugh ... last week I call you for the upset and you choke in triple OT ... then I pick you TO be upset and you pull a rabbit out of the hat late. With ND, PSU and OSU up next, though, they NEEDED that win today to avoid a catastrophic start.

* Go Sparty! I think everyone is hoping MICHIGAN STATE can smack lil' punk boy Jimmy Claussen and the Irish back to reality today to avoid a big ND start against the easy schedule and all the NBC hype and BCS talk.

* IOWA had a tough loss that hopefully carries over into next week. But their D will eat our offense alive if we play like we did this week.

So we did what we needed to do - go 4-0 in the nonconference slate and set ourselves up for a solid season. I like our defense and our special teams are much improved, but the offense has been worse than expected and needs some work.

Next weekend is a HUGE game for us at Iowa. Not only are they a rival who we've struggled against before, but it will be big for bowl positioning in the muddled middle of the conference this year. A loss after this week's game leaves a sour taste heading into league play. A win puts us at 5-0 with a bye week to prepare for a big two-game homestand. Gotta fix that O this week and come out and cream the corn, Fitz!!!

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!