[NU Sports] Was anyone else thinking . . .

[wildelk2 at aol.com]

?? List Friends,



?? Thanks for "the accounts and descriptions of this game".? Get this: C.O. ?and I were invited to a pig roast this afternoon; others in attendance were not interested in college football, so I had to rely on periodic updates from my son, who is in college 4 hours away (Robert Morris U. near Pittsburgh- 1-AA.)? 

?? When I left for the pig roast, we were down 3-21.? Nice to see us get some turnovers.

?? But I must ask, when we forgot how to tackle?? The 2009 season has turned out nothing like I planned; that of a stifling defense and Kafka running for his life.? On the down side, Purdue was expected to be "2nd tier", and a loss to NIU (at home) tells us something.? We'd all love Fields to be the second coming of Tyrell (and he still might be), but not today.

?? Good: Kafka has done MUCH better throwing the ball than what was expected, and we've been "right there" in a position to win all our games.? No doubt, while ugly, this was a "season saver".?? 

?? While I'm not ready to make plans for Pasedena, we're still on track to scratch out 6-8 wins; and give Pat another chance to win in post-season.



???????????? GO CATS!!!??????????? Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: SjT (Stephen J. Truog) <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com; Jim Bendat <thehaze at earthlink.net>
Sent: Sat, Oct 3, 2009 5:40 pm
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Was anyone else thinking . . .




You hit it on the head.:)

"The one time we don't WANT to be efficient in the red zone is when we score the 
frickin' TD in a couple quick plays" is what I believe I mumbled.

But there wasn't much we could do - you never want to have it come down to a 
field goal, plus Purdue had two timeouts left, so they would have been able to 
stop it.

A couple nice plays by Kafka and some nice defensive calls at the end to save 
the win, but the big thing we need to take out of this game are the two O's ...

- Offensive line (and wideout) blocking
- Offensive playcalling - especially in the red zone

Kafka played a good game (some big overthrows, but nice mix of pass/run. The 
special teams shined for once and the defense rebounded nicely from taking the 
first quarter off (McManis' INT was the huge HUGE game changer). And yes, Purdue 
obliged for the second straight year with turnovers galore.

But we can't let the lessons of this game slip by in the celebration of holding 
on for the win. We had six turnovers. We had eight plays inside their two yard 
line. We should have won this game by 21 or more looking at the stat sheet.

McCall needs to seriously look at his playbook and rip about half of it out - 
then he needs to reassess personnel on goal line situations along with the plays 
called there. This sort of ineffectiveness in the red zone will cost us down the 
road if not corrected now.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT


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


--- On Sat, 10/3/09, Jim Bendat <thehaze at earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: Jim Bendat <thehaze at earthlink.net>
> Subject: [NU Sports] Was anyone else thinking . . .
> To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Date: Saturday, October 3, 2009, 1:43 PM
> that maybe we scored too quickly,
> thereby giving Purdue a chance to pull out the game at the
> end. I know it's hard to control, but the fact is that we
> all we needed was a field goal. We could have run down the
> clock a lot more. Don't get me wrong - I'm thrilled about
> the win. But here's another thought:
> 
> Aft
er we scored the TD, we went for (and made) a 2-point
> conversion. I didn't like the call of a pass play on that
> conversion. If the pass had been intercepted and returned
> all the way back, then we would have only led, 25-23 --
> which would have meant Purdue would have only needed a field
> goal to win the game at the end.
> 
> Just a few things that went through my mind during this
> crazy game!
> 
> Jim B.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> nwu-sports site list
> nwu-sports at tssi.com
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> 


      

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