[NU Sports] PSU game

[Jonathan Hodges]

I agree, Kafka had the offense running on all cylinders early and the air
was definitely let out of the tires when he went down.  Hopefully he'll be
back soon.

It's amazing how similar this situation is to what happened last year when
Bacher went down and Kafka came in.  When Kafka came in at the end of the
Indiana game, many thought that he was a joke.  Even after his
record-setting performance at Minnesota, many dismissed him as just a runner
who can't throw.

Now, despite leading the conference in passing yards coming into this game,
many realized that Kafka is indeed a good passer, and have now moved on to
dismiss Persa when he was thrown into the fire.

If Kafka is indeed sidelined for next week's game, it will be interesting to
see what kind of game plan that they can put together for Persa, who has
pretty good speed.  He definitely wasn't helped by PSU's intense pass rush
(especially in the fourth when NU was forced into passing situations almost
exclusively).  Timing is key in the short passing game, and it takes at
least some practice time to build that up.

Anyways, don't count out the 'Cats down the stretch this year.

Jonathan

On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 10:18 PM, Tom Maycock <tkmaycock at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Quote from JoPa says it all:
>
> On if Penn State made adjustments in the second half...
>
> "The adjustment we made is their quarterback got hurt."
>
> A gutsy, well-coached effort almost the entire game. They even hung tough
> in the 3rd quarter, when the offense was no longer holding up its end of the
> deal.
>
> PSU was bound to bust a play or two eventually, and I'm not sure we could
> have kept up even with a healthy Kafka, but it would have been close to the
> end. Too much spark, precision, execution, and confidence went out along
> with Mike, and our D ended up on the field way too much as a result.
>
> As far as Persa being the answer for next year, I think it would be silly
> to judge his future prospects based on tonight's performance. See the other
> JoePa quotes--they got real aggressive on the pass rush once Kafka went out,
> and Dan was running for his life most of the 2nd half. I'm sure they guessed
> correctly that a redshirt sophomore with virtually no reps was not going to
> be anywhere near as ready as our very talented 5th year senior.
>
> I really feel for Kafka--he was playing at a very, very high level before
> he went down. I sure wish we could have seen what might have happened had he
> not been injured.
>
> Tom
>
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