[NU Sports] NU-Miami

[hakirsch at aol.com]

We won.   That's all that matters.  We have had a history of losing a game every year against teams we probably shouldn't be playing incuding miami(in 95). This beats a close loss

Harry
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: "SjT \(Stephen J. Truog\)" <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:12:12 
To: <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Subject: [NU Sports] NU-Miami

You don't get to say this often as a Northwestern football fan, but that was a thoroughly BLAH victory.

Thank you defense for showing up. Offense, ya got some work to do.

This game was what we were expecting in September and would have been perfectly acceptable as a fan early in the season -- a dominant defense wins the game for our inconsistent offense.

But it's October, the middle of the season and we expect the offense to be a bit better by now -- but they actually seem to have gotten worse the past few weeks. Late play calls, optional blocking on the line, inconsistent play calls and execution. From coordinator McCall down to the O-line, this is not what we expect of our players in purple. Kafka has been the bright spot this year, but he can't do it alone. And with the games coming up, we need MUCH better play out of our offense.

On the flip side, the defense seems to be getting better and came into Saturday's game with a hard-hitting attitude. It sure is nice to have McManis back, and our D-line stepped it up nicely in Wootton's absence. I think Coach Hank needs to give McCall some pointers on adjustments and attitude.

So nice to get the win, and we certainly needed it to go to 4-2, but we need a far, far better performance on the offensive side of the ball -- especially in converting opportunities (we had great field position ALL DAY and squandered it!) and getting six instead of trying for three -- the rest of the way.

Around the league ...

* ILLINOIS is officially the "stick a fork in 'em" team this year. They're done. They've quit on Zook. They have too much raw talent to go winless in league play, so NU better not slip up when we visit Champaign, but we can erase them from the bowl prediction chart at the midway mark already. On the flip side, MSU seems to have found their rhythm just in time for a visit from the Cats. Ugh.

* PENN STATE found their offense a few weeks too late for the Iowa game. Still, bad news for Michigan and OSU. Don't count JoePa out of a return to Pasadena just yet.

* MINNESOTA didn't look impressive, but they got a much-needed win against the butterfinger Boilers. Purdue is the anti-Illinois ... they're playing their guts out and you have to feel for them with so many close losses, but they just can't get over that hump.

We have showdown Saturday in the defense-optional SEC coming up, but there are also two mega-matchups in Big Ten land at the Shoe and Kinnick. Should be a fun day for football fans everywhere to enjoy.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT



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


      

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