[NU Sports] Failed to finish

[hakirsch at aol.com]

The stadium was nearly full though I can tell you almost all on the East side were MSU fans an there were a lot in the West as well
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-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Maycock <tkmaycock at yahoo.com>
Sender: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2010 16:04:13 
To: <nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com>
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Failed to finish

I said before the start of the game that we'd know by the end whether or not NU 
is a good football team. The good news is that we are, I think, a pretty good 
team indeed. The big keys to me were whether our O- and D-lines were good enough 
to line up with a team like MSU, and they are. 

Unfortunately, the MSU D-line is probably a little bit better than our O-line, 
and that was a key to the game. But flip any one of several key plays (fake punt 
and the Cousins fumble we couldn't cover, the should-have-been 60-yard TD to 
Stewart) and we probably win. I'm proud of the effort, and proud of the strong 
showing by the NU fans in the stands. I really do think NU has turned a corner 
in terms of our general competitiveness, talent level, AND fan support. 

Nice to see Adonis Smith really starting to work into the offense. There were a 
lot of glitches in the Persa-Smith handoffs, but Smith showed me a lot. I expect 
him to be the starting RB in a week or two--and I hope he starts getting a 
steady dose of carries. It's time for the "committee" thing to come to an end. 

The only real downside (other than losing) is that Persa was just way off on 
those last few possessions. I don't know if the bumps and bruises threw him off, 
or he couldn't adjust to the (by then very strong) wind at his back, or what, 
but he wasn't on target down the stretch. Strange and somewhat surprising. 
Still, his efforts throughout the game were near-heroic at times. 

Very different feel than the Purdue game. Disappointing to be sure, but this 
week the Cats played well--very well, just not quite well enough. You have to 
give a lot of credit to MSU. We shut down their running game, but Cousins was 
very solid. He made a lot of great throw, and just as importantly, he wisely 
threw the ball away a number of times to avoid sacks and keep drives alive. MSU 
is a very good football team. Probably not quite national championship caliber, 
but very solid. 

If anything, this loss makes the Purdue loss hurt even worse. We should be 6-1 
with our only loss a narrow defeat to a top-10 team. Worthy of a solid top-25 
ranking. Instead, we're 5-2 with tough road ahead. Iowa and Wisconsin will be 
huge challenges, Illinois seems to be improving, and playing at PSU is never 
easy. This team may be better than last year's, but equaling last year's record 
will be tough.

Tom

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