[NU Sports] Post-game thoughts?

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> 1. How do you not get up for this game? Prime time
> telecast, home game, biggest and most enthusiastic crowd in

I don't think the players were lax (Persa seemed a bit TOO up for the game, with his off night and happy feet as Joe Theisman would say) -- they were jumping around on the sideline feeding off the crowd and vice versa ... but the offensive game plan didn't work. Maybe in the first half, but you gotta adjust. The D play was better but still didn't account for their QB until too late.

> a while (thanks to an AD that seems to be working his tail
> off to get greater Chicago to notice us), the easiest

The new AD and president really impressed me. Like I said, they were everywhere and leading the purple pride charge, while still making it known that we're an academic institution first.

The athletic department does lose points for not giving out ANYTHING, though. Seriously, purple shakers, towels, t-shirts, thundersticks or even the crappy roll-out signs they had last year ... SOMETHING for TV!!!

> 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

Exactly - the atmosphere was awesome and it sure seemed like it was our chance to move up to the next level of interest from Chicagoland. Ugh.

> 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.

Well, the snaps and holds were awful, but Demos takes some blame as well - it was just special teams all around. The duck "rugby punt" ... the bobbled returns and fumble ... the kicks. But you're right in that we stalled way too many drives for long FGs instead of the TD through penalties and dumb playcalls.

> 4. The part of the game that frustrated me the most was our
> drive before Purdue's winning score. We start moving the

Every drive in the second half after the first frustrated me because each time we lacked the execution and killer instinct that could have put this game away waaay before they finally got a drive done.

But we get a week off to work on everything (SPECIAL TEAMS EVERY DAY!!! DOUBLE TIME!!!) and put some wrinkles in the system (hint: find #9 and #11 MORE OFTEN!!!) to catch MSU napping. They are beatable. Notre Dame moved the ball on them and so did Michigan (they just turned it over) ... it'd be nice to get back on track with a big homecoming win.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
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