[NU Sports] What a great win

[Tom Maycock]

> BTW, I may be personally responsible for today's winning
> karma. I had on my purple Wildcat jersey through the first
> quarter, then changed to the white road jersey because of
> course we were on the road -- my bad at the start, for sure.
> Just a moment after I switched to the white road gear,
> Stanzi went down.

Good call. 

I almost switched living room seats late in the 4th quarter to avoid a glare from a window. Realized immediately that making any sort of "change" at that point would be a mistake, and returned to the previous position. 

I remained relatively calm throughout, although I did find myself spread out face down on the floor when Quentin Davie let that last-drive INT slip through his fingers. I recovered quickly, and so did the Cats. 

What a great win. Obviously losing Stanzi made a big difference, but our defense came up huge all game long. Hats off to Persa for a gutsy effort, and Kafka for an equally gutsy effort. 

The big key for me was our running game. Modest as it was, we got at least a few positive yards on a lot of handoffs, which made everything else easier. That was crucial given that we were probably down to half the usual playbook options once one-legged Kafka came back in. I heard the postgame WGN interviews, and Kafka was very gracious about Persa's role in the win. 

A true team effort. Almost 60 minutes of good football (that first minute of defense was shaky). Offense, defense, special teams all played well. Very, very proud of the effort from all involved.

What a great day. After the game, we headed out in shorts and t-shirts for a long walk around Evanston in beautiful weather. 

Got home to watch ND go down to Navy, which was icing on the cake. 

Tom