[NU Sports] Preparation S

[Jonathan Hodges]

I would argue that Syracuse was not prepared for the hurry-up offense - NU's
offense performed its best when it got in a good rhythm and got away quick
passes.  Most of Kafka's errors came when he held onto the ball too long or
when the NU offense took too long of a break.  More than once the 'Cats got
nice gains when the Syracuse defense wasn't completely set.  In any case, it
was nice to see NU finally open up the playbook and see some good things
from them.  The defense, well, that's another story.  Hopefully NU can get
some health at the CB position - they'll need McManis to go up against
Decker next week.

Jonathan

On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 2:48 PM, Mike Nolan <nolan at romaine.tssi.com> wrote:

> > Did anyone else notice that Syracuse was well prepared for our speed-up
> > game?  Each time we went into fast mode, they countered with a good
> > defensive play.  And what was Fitz doing trying to throw a pass at the
> > end of the 2nd quarter?  It nearly caused disaster.  We played badly
> > on defense.  It's time to be worried, but not about Kafka's passing.  He
> > shined.
>
> So many teams run variations of the spread and hurry-up offenses that most
> defenses are reasonably prepared for both these days, because they will
> face them week after week.
>
> The trick is to either be so doggoned good at it that they just can't
> stop it or have some new wrinkles, which I don't know that NU has yet.
>
> The biggest positive to take out of yesterday's game is that the Cats
> can come back from 3 score deficits (though it would be better not to
> ever have to.)  The biggest negative is that they still haven't learned
> how to slam the door shut at the end.   We've seen that time and again
> in for quite a few seasons, both under RW and under Fitz.  And what that
> means is that the other team knows they still have a shot as long as
> they're close, and sometimes even if they're not (aka the Michigan State
> fiasco.)
> --
> Mike Nolan
>
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