[NU Sports] Post-game thoughts?

[Eric West]

  I have many thoughts, and with any hope I will get most of my 
frustration out on the first one:

1. How do you not get up for this game? Prime time telecast, home game, 
biggest and most enthusiastic crowd in a while (thanks to an AD that 
seems to be working his tail off to get greater Chicago to notice us), 
the easiest opponent left on the schedule, the only game you have to 
play for two weeks, and this is what you have to show? That sound you 
heard was the entire metro area shrugging their shoulders and going back 
to Bears, Hawks, Bulls, and Notre Dame (heck, even the Irish could beat 
Purdue). I can't even see anyone listening to the exhortations to "stand 
up and make noise" anymore; what's the point of getting laryngitis and 
ruining my back if THIS is what I get in return? How do you not get up 
for this game -- and if you don't, why should anyone else?

(Okay, the worst is over...Coach Fitz, I promise not to say things like 
this again for at least two more years.)

2. I don't think Demos was the problem. If we're counting on multiple 
40+-yard FG attempts, the problem lies elsewhere on the offense.

3. I'd really like to retire the "Cardiac Cats" name, along with the 
"good record in close games" statistic, because it promotes the notion 
that things will always work out in the end, so why worry about pulling 
more than one score ahead? Maybe then we won't play as though we are up 
by 20 points when we're really only up by 3 or 4. Stop "expecting" 
victory and focus on causing a victory.

4. The part of the game that frustrated me the most was our drive before 
Purdue's winning score. We start moving the ball for the first time in a 
while by doing what's worked all season (short passes, focusing on 
getting first downs), then on 3rd and 1 we try a running play that 
hasn't worked all season, never mind all night? Then on 4th and 2, 
instead of going for it (which we usually do against a tougher 
opponent), we ask Demos to make a long field goal that would still keep 
it a one-possession game? Maybe I'd see this in the first quarter, but 
the fourth? It was the first time all season I was surprised by the play 
calling, because it just wasn't like us. No urgency, no daring, and 
ultimately, no victory.

5. Even with all that, I don't think this season is over at all. I was 
just as disgusted with the Indiana loss last year, and the team still 
won some great games and made it to the Outback. I wouldn't be at all 
surprised if there were some upsets along the way. I guess I just 
thought this team was a little different, that it would finally break 
free of the clichés and do something that an NU team hasn't done in a 
while. Now I'm back to believing that the 'Cats will have some exciting 
games, pull off some upsets, make it to a good bowl game, keep it really 
close against a higher-ranked team...and lose. And our goals for next 
year will be the same as they were for this year, and for last year.

For the record, I really want to be wrong...but it isn't up to me.

Eric West
e-west at northwestern.edu