[NU Sports] 17+ point leads

[Beamsley, Jeff]

Tom,

I agree.

We have made the transition from rebuilding to reloading.  That is
significant.

What we appear to have lost is the trust that drove past teams to
"believe" that they could win every game. Instead we appear to be a
little fragile. 

What happened at PSU is that Joe Pa's team got a little glimmer of hope
at the end of the first half and got the crowd back in the game.  We
could have taken that hope away from them with a solid drive, but
instead we were the team that lost our confidence and poise in the
second half.

I also agree that Vaughn going down was huge, but that's what the game
is about.  You have to adjust and play in the moment. The pressure we
had on the QB in the first half was gone.  The ability to stuff the run
that we had in the first half evaporated.  The three and outs from the
offense helped wear our D down.  The short punts put even more pressure
on our D.  Finally, penalties put the whole team in a hole that they
never seemed to be able to get out of.

The first half demonstrated how good this team can be.  The second half
demonstrated how much more work the coaching staff has ahead of them.

Jeff

 


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From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
On Behalf Of Tom Maycock
Sent: Monday, November 08, 2010 7:37 AM
To: Northwestern Wildcats
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] 17+ point leads

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

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