[NU Sports] 17+ point leads

[Tom Maycock]

> 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.  

I know it depressed the hell out of me. 

I really thought the coaches did a poor job there by going into a much softer 
defense, which allowed PSU to find some time and some rhythm. That said, there 
was some really poor tackling on at least one key play, which really undermined 
the "play it safe, keep it front you" approach. 

> 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.
> 


Yep. It was really unfortunate that just when PSU was starting to manhandle the 
Cats at the line of scrimmage, NU made things worse by starting to commit all 
sorts of unforced errors: penalties (after a very clean 1st half), the bad 
punts, the Simmons indecision at the goal-line. All those things dug the hole 
deeper. 

And in the "half full/half empty" category, even when PSU was rolling, we had a 
bunch of shots at tackles-for-losses that could have killed drives and turned 
the tide, but those tackles were missed. A lot of credit to some talented PSU 
running backs, but disappointing to see them do everything right on many 
plays--the right call, the right reads--but then fail to wrap up. 

It should also be noted that there's a reason JoePa has racked up 400 wins, has 
an incredible W-L record in bowl games, and has run the table on several 
occasions: he's as good as it gets, and he attracts and keeps top-caliber 
assistants. We know better than anyone how good Vanderlinden is. He could easily 
be a great DC for a lot of teams, but has chosen to remain as "just" an 
assistant on that staff. Consider how devastating the linebacker play was in the 
2nd half. 


Tom