[NU Sports] 17+ point leads

[Tom Maycock]

The "lost leads" thing is a good news/bad news situation. The fact that we are 
in a position to have big leads over teams like MSU and PSU, even in a 
"rebuilding" year on offense, is a pretty significant change for NU. Learning 
how to hold those leads would be the next step in the progress of the program. 
It's certainly more painful to be ahead and lose than to never even be 
competitive, but on the whole we're in a much better position than in the past 
(aside from 95-96). Still hurts though. That first 29 minutes was a lot of fun 
to watch, and I wish the Dunsmore catch had stood as the defining moment of a 
fondly-remembered game. 

My main concern all year has been the play of the offensive line, and I think 
that was really the weak point against PSU. The run blocking has improved over 
the year, but the pass blocking just hasn't been where we need it against any of 
the better opponents. If Persa were playing behind the 2000 or 2005 O-lines, 
this offense would be putting up huge numbers. Instead, we're living on Persa's 
ability to improvise and scramble. I suspect part of our second-half problems 
result from opponents adjusting to deal with how good he really is at that. I 
really thought the O-line would be significantly better than last year, as it's 
pretty much the same guys who seemed to get better as the year went on last 
year. Not sure what's happened there. 

On D, it appeared that losing Vaughn really hurt. He seemed to be playing well, 
and once he went out, they really started picking on his backups. It was also 
disappointing to see the D getting manhandled up front--guys were getting 
pancaked left and right--but the offense really let them down in the second 
half. I really wish we had McManis and, say, a healthy Corey Wotton for another 
year. I think those are the pieces we're missing.

I have no doubts this team is capable of bouncing back against the remaining 3 
opponents, but I'm really worried that their strengths (D-lines) really match up 
in their favor against our weakest element (the O-line). We'll need a much 
better effort up front to have any chance against any of them.

Tom