[NU Sports] At the end

[Jonathan Hodges]

I agree that the OL is the major problem this year, and that despite the
fact that Fitz has brought in some pretty highly rated recruits at that
position the past few years.

The OL hasn't been able to open up anything in the running game.  NU must
therefore resort to throwing almost exclusively, and they can't really go
downfield because Kafka rarely has enough time, thanks again to that line.

NU will never have as much talent at the other guys, especially when NU is
wearing thin thanks to some injuries (Smith, Johnson, and McNaul on
defense).

For NU to have a great season like last year, things really need to line up,
and it's pretty apparent that it's not happening this year.  But, NU still
has a winning record and can make an impact down the stretch if they can put
something together.

Jonathan

On Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 3:17 PM, SjT (Stephen J. Truog)
<sjtruog at yahoo.com>wrote:

> > We just don't have it this year, and
> > that disappoints me.  The offense is anemic.  We
>
> Well, I think we expected the offense to be a bit sluggish with all the new
> people at receiver and in the backfield ... however, Kafka's actually been
> pretty solid. The O-line is the biggest disappointment for me -- and they
> got shredded by MSU in the second half (and have been largely responsible
> for the lack of running game, which hurts everything else down the line).
>
> On defense, I think it's the injuries that have killed us this year. When
> they were running down the list during the game, it was long and had some
> big names on it. McManis out early, Wootton out late, our safeties playing
> hurt, our linebackers thinned out.
>
> We had a chance to have a special defense this year, but we had to stay
> healthy and we just got decimated by injuries. It happens to everyone, but
> NU is just never going to have the consistent depth to overcome it.
>
> And as we've discussed on the list, the play calling on offense has been
> unimaginative and won't make anyone scared on defense -- their interview
> with the MSU coach said it all, pretty much. Just do a "rope a dope"
> strategy, let NU complete all the 3-yard outs they want and sooner or later
> they make a mistake or drop a pass or make a penalty and you get a longer
> distance down where they can't convert. I was pleased to see us go downfield
> ONCE in the game (before the final minutes when we had to), but we need to
> find ways to make our offense work given our situation (more rollouts and
> bootlegs to ease pressure on the O-line, more QB runs - especially in the
> red zone, etc.).
>
> We have our work cut out for us in terms of bowling. I do think we'll get
> two BCS teams because I think PSU will win out (unlike us, they're starting
> to GET healthy with Lee back today). That would mean we need to beat
> Illinois and Indiana (no easy task).
>
> If we can't double dip in the BCS, the path becomes much more difficult.
> The pollsters don't show the league much respect yet, but we should have
> five top 25 teams right now, with Wisconsin and Michigan ranked (how is ND
> in when they lost to Michigan???) -- we play three of those top 25 teams in
> our home stretch, and by the end of the day, the Hawkeyes, Nittany Lions and
> Badgers should be 18-3. It's tough to see where we break through there ...
> but then again, no one outside of Jim saw Purdue's win today either.
>
> Gotta take care of business and beat IU for homecoming.
>
> GO CATS!!!
> -SjT
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nwu-sports site list
> nwu-sports at tssi.com
> http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports
>