[NU Sports] 17+ point leads

[Beamsley, Jeff]

The bad tackling in the second half could be the result of kids losing
their poise and trying to individually do too much.  As an example, PSU
ran the screen play to perfection.

At the end of the first half, there wasn't any excuse.  When we softened
our D, we seemed to lose the edge that had allowed us to control the
game up to that point.

I also agree that it just seemed to be one of those games where NU just
got out coached in the second half.  Every time we took a chance on
defense, they had exactly the right play called on offense to take
advantage of the weakness we exposed.  On offense, you're right.  Their
LB's took the game over and we weren't able to do anything.

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 9:41 AM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] 17+ point leads

> 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

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