Thoughts on the Northwestern Game
1. Carlos Brown looked great today, and we should have a nice 1-2 punch next year with Brown and Minor.
2. Mouton stood out in a good way.
3. Wooten for NW will play on Sundays. He is a beast.
4. It is painful to watch us try to throw the ball this year. Boy, did I take Henne for granted!
5. We better clean up in recruiting this year, or it could be a brutal year next year.
November 15th, 2008 at 4:16 PM ^
Funny, people were saying #1 about this time of year last year as well.
November 15th, 2008 at 4:23 PM ^
we will be 7-5 or 8-4 next year which would be huge and dont worry about recruiting. rrid is a great recruiter who will get his guys there.
November 15th, 2008 at 4:23 PM ^
we will be 7-5 or 8-4 next year which would be huge and dont worry about recruiting. rrid is a great recruiter who will get his guys there.
November 15th, 2008 at 4:25 PM ^
are going to make that much of a difference. The guys that are right now on the field and sidelines are going to make what the team is going to be, not the true freshmen of next year (well, maybe Forcier).
November 15th, 2008 at 4:39 PM ^
There will be no Savior for this team. It's gonna take another year of practice in the system. Coaching will have to improve... this season is not all on the personnel.
November 15th, 2008 at 4:33 PM ^
forcier is the savior unless something magic happens to the arms and brains of sheridan and threet
November 15th, 2008 at 4:43 PM ^
6. Bear-hugging a receiver is now legal for visiting teams. It trumps PI.
November 15th, 2008 at 5:08 PM ^
Not sure if the liveblog provided any information, but did Mike Massey really start because it was senior day and Koger asked the coaches to let him start? If so, I just really don't know what to say. Massey didn't even make an attempt to make a play on the Threet pass that was intercepted. He's been terrible all year long and was benched for Koger for most of the season; am I missing something here?
November 15th, 2008 at 7:06 PM ^
man, that was like eight feet over his head. no way he catches it.
November 15th, 2008 at 7:41 PM ^
Hmm, at first it looked liked it was a little over him, but I just rewateched the pass and saw the million feet high height on that pass. My bad; just frustrated and looking for places to place the blame on.
November 15th, 2008 at 7:25 PM ^
i couldn't believe people were criticizing massey on that pass. not only was it high to tacopants but it was BEHIND him as well. that as an uncatchable pass. even the announcer said he messed up when after initially criticizing massey.
November 15th, 2008 at 5:11 PM ^
Koger dropped a routine catch that would've been a first down at one point. I really don't think he would've swooped in and won the game for us if he got more PT over Massey.
November 15th, 2008 at 5:46 PM ^
We got completely hosed by the officiating today. I have already sent a email complaining to the Big Ten.
I always hate losing but its worse because this game was stolen from us.
LSA'99
November 15th, 2008 at 7:27 PM ^
1. Brown did look good, and it is a shame he has missed so much time to injury.
2. The tackling was much better. I hope the kids learn something from being able to see on film the difference between good (most of the game) and bad (NW's 1st TD on 3d & 17) tackling methods.
3. NW looked bad when it didn't throw downfield, and M looked bad in coverage when they did. Two uncovered post patterns = 14 points, one on 3d and very long. All 3 NW TDs were right up the middle of the field.
4. I hope I'm wrong, but it looked to me like neither M QB steps into his throws. Is there a reason for that?
5. Am I wrong to think the coaches should really work hard to teach/drill against holding penalties on running plays? Those penalties are sure drive killers.
6. Am I wrong to think the pass patterns are weird? I am sure it is deceptive to have blocking TEs (Massey, this game) and FBs (Moundros against State?) running deep patterns, but the guy still has to be able to catch it. Also, I know the TV doesn't give a really good view, but are the patterns designed to have 2 receivers near each other?
7. Is there somewhere I can find a well qualified explanation of just what went so wrong this year?
November 15th, 2008 at 7:47 PM ^
...that Donovan Warren's run after the interception should never have been called out of bounds? That was total garbage and should have been a pick-six -- the replay from the angle in front of him shows his foot clearly did not touch the sideline (this wasn't apparent from the other angles).
This game also solidifies my opinion that Scott Schafer does not know how to make in-game adjustments. The defense looks great until whomever we're playing adjusts, and then seems like we keep running the same scheme and sending the same blitzes that leave the entire middle of the field wide open and we get gashed over and over and over again. At least the tackling wasn't as bad.
Sorry to sound like Valenti, but this game (of all games, NW) pissed me off. It was a huge let-down after looking so good in Minnesota (and I realize at this point that the main reason we looked so good against Minnesota is because they hardly adjusted at halftime, and it helped that their #1 WR was out). I'm normally very calm, but I actualy I found myself cursing at the TV (repeatedly) for the first time all year today, and that's saying something considering how the season has gone.
Maybe my anger is misdirected, but I think Schafer deserves a good chunk of the blame for how the defense has been so inconsistent, and overall, unable to make adjustments when the opposing team does. I realize there is a big deficit in talent when it comes to the linebackers, but it's almost inexcusable how poor our secondary's coverage has been. Do we ever play press coverage at all? What's with the 10 yard cushions on the line of scrimmage? We might as well put up a huge sign on the sidelines that advertises "Free FieldTurf: Available in 5-7 Yard Chunks (Minimum)."
November 15th, 2008 at 9:26 PM ^
Shafer switched from man to zone when they started having success throwing the ball one on one with our DBs (i.e. after they made some adjustments, he reacted). So, either your eyes froze shut during the game (high probability) and were unable to see this, or you are just rehashing old arguments and really don't know all that much about football.
And yes, we have tried press. See: Cissoko getting burned during MSU.
November 15th, 2008 at 9:45 PM ^
I'm not saying press coverage is a magic bullet for our defensive problems . . . but I kind of doubt Purdue would have put up 48 on us had we consistently manned up tightly on their WRs and forced Siller to make more pinpoint throws. MSU and Iowa did that and held PU to seven and 17 points, respectively.
November 15th, 2008 at 11:33 PM ^
No.
Nonono.
We let up 1 legit TD in the 3rd. The second was a blown coverage, which you can't chalk up to "scheme". After that, they did nothing for 5 straight possessions.
This talk of "adjustments" is utterly mindless. Point to something they did, or something we failed to do. Don't continue to forward this utterly meaningless "they made adjustments" bullshit meme. WHAT. DID. THEY. DO. Specifics.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:08 PM ^
things we can control (unlike our bad QB situation, deluge of frosh etc) is our 3rd down defense. It should be a rule that we rush a minimum of 6 on 3rd down. We may get burned now and again (as if thats a change), but we have to give our DLine a chance to make a play and force their QB to make a quick decision. Especially when facing these 2nd and third stringers!! Instead we rush 4 and give 8-10 yard cushions. Ridiculous.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:12 PM ^
What I don't get is why Shafer feels it's necessary to give the giant cushions when we only rush three or four. Are we THAT bad in coverage that even when we drop seven or eight, we still have to give huge cushions? It seems completely counterintuitive. WRs get open so quickly against that coverage that the QB is always able to get rid of the ball before our rush can get there.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:17 PM ^
the core strength of this entire team, and we (Shafer?) constantly run schemes to marginalize it and lessen its impact, e.g., 3-3-5, dropping 8 on 3rd. We could have been sacktacular if we were a blitz-happy D. Would we get burned at times? Yes. But I think these plays (which occurred regardless) could have been offset by MOAR sacks, forced fumbles, causing young QBs to throw some picks, less long balls (which we suck at), etc etc. To me, this is way more infuriating than shitty quarterbacking...since we flat out don't have the tools yet.
November 15th, 2008 at 11:35 PM ^
Northwestern was 6 of 18 on 3rd down. Seriously. Look up a fucking number to see if your complaint is valid before bitching
November 15th, 2008 at 8:06 PM ^
Warren definitely looked like he stayed inbounds, but it appeared that the refs blew the whistle some time after that and everyone else stopped. What's the rule for situations like that? Should we, after reviewing the replay, have gotten the ball wherever Warren was when the whistle blew?
November 15th, 2008 at 11:38 PM ^
The rule is the refs should be god damn well sure that the guy is out of bounds before they blow the whistle. If it's close they're supposed to let the play go and let replay handle it.
So of course they blow the whistle when Warren doesn't even step out of bounds. Once the whistle blows like that on that play, there is no review, and it's wherever they thought he went out of bounds. Even if it's clear that they blew it. Which it was. We were robbed of at least 20 more yards, if not a touchdown.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:42 PM ^
What is it?
November 15th, 2008 at 8:43 PM ^
I believe it was sandis vaginis
November 16th, 2008 at 9:33 AM ^
It looked like he's in shoulder separation territory. The way he came down with his full weight on his shoulder and how he reacted afterwards, that was my first thought. Not a doctor, though.
November 16th, 2008 at 2:56 PM ^
Not that I blame people for leaving the stadium, but the crowd after halftime was maybe 35,000, dwindling to like 25,000 for the 4th quarter. I mean, we still had a chance, it wasn't like we were getting blown our or anything.
FWIW: Tyrone Wheatley was standing by the student section, and we asked him if Al Davis was crazy. He nodded his head yes. So there you have it: confirmation that Al Davis is in fact, crazy.
November 17th, 2008 at 3:32 PM ^
The better team on Saturday lost because Northwestern was maddeningly efficient at exploiting their tiny number of opportunities. If you had told me beforehand that we would outrush Northwestern 181-59 on a day with terrible weaether and block a punt for a touchdown, I would have expected us to win big. A shitty loss no doubt, but not the worst of the year by far.