Uggh. We body-slammed ourselves back to the Dark Ages with that performance. Somehow you just had the eerie karma feeling going in the 1st half. Here I am worrying about Michigan not embarassing the Big Ten and yet our beloved Purple take the honors. I woke up and we STILL lost. Now, for all of the true diehards (and that number seems to be shrinking) the only thing we can do is categorize yet another in a long list of nonconference bugaboo games. Hmmm...worst than Wake in '96 but not as bad as Duke in '98 (ACC theme)? Or somewhere below Miami (OH) '95 yet above Bowling Green (pick a year) (MAC theme)?
So, allow me to exorcise this puppy before burying it and moving on to, gulp, Ohio State.
The Great:
None - unless you're a Duke fan and then you should thank us for making Thaddeus Lewis (19-24) look like a Heisman candidate.
The Good:
Bacher's stats. Career best in completions (30-50) and passing yards (368), but his 2 INTs were ugly.
Ross Lane. 9 catches for 128 yards. Shades of Musso out there.
The Disappointing
Let's see...
The D-line again registered 0 sacks against a weak line.
The play-calling. Why do you take 3 points off the board in the 1st half for a 4th and 3?
The lack of discipline. 13 penalties for 125 is unacceptable. Period.
The non pass interference. Are you kidding? Perhaps a payback for getting the reverse call on Duke's 4th down?
The attendance. The 23,000 cannot be a result of knowing we were going to lose. A night game. A joke.
Comfort Zone
It almost seems as if the Cats are more comfortable playing from behind. The D stepped up in the second half, but had dug ourselves such a hole that the final drive - which we are trained to finally expect victory - was a crusher. First and goal from the 7 and 4 incomplete passes.
True Fandom
It will be tested all week (and possibly year). We are simply not a good team right now. And, if we have a prayer of a bowl game we have to split one of the next two against the big boys - OSU or Michigan.
Let's Pray
The Dukies beat ND later this year so we don't have the honor of playing in another losing streak game when we meet Duke next September in Durham.
Man am I disappointed. This stinks. Over/under on Michigan attendance - 35,000.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
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7 comments:
Unbelievable, is all I can say. Terrible defense, and even worse officiating.
According to the unbiased third party behind me (he was just at the game to show his Irish friends what "football" was), he considered this the "worst officiated game [he] had ever seen."
We know the 'Cats aren't sloppy enough to have 125 yards in penalties-- the refs just didn't let 'em play.
BUT, that's no excuse for a defense that made THADDEUS LEWIS look like the second coming of Donovan McNabb.
Words cannot describe my anguish.
A terrible, terrible night for the program all around.
There were a couple of questionable calls, but what I hated more than anything was the utter lack of tempo in the game. What the refs were really abysmal at was getting the ball set and keeping the game in any sort of rhythm.
That said, no excuses. Lewis played very well in the first half, and we were sloppy. Our defense is just painfully slow. Our DL can't get any pressure whatsoever on the passer, and out DB's can't hang with the faster receivers they're trying to cover.
I think it's safe to say we have the most overmatched coach in America right now. And the most unfortunate part for Cats fans is the problem seems to be getting worse each week. I cringed when I read this from the Daily Herald recap:
"I asked the offensive staff, 'We've got points. Do you have a play for me to get the first down?'" Fitzgerald said. "And (offensive coordinator) Garrick (McGee) didn't hesitate. He said, 'I've got a play for you.' And I said, 'Let's go. Let's go for it.'"
I mean, what else is an offensive coordinator going to say there? "Sorry, coach. Nothing in the playbook that's good for three yards." You always want your offensive coordinator to believe he's got a play that can go for 30 yards, yet alone 3. McGee shouldn't be thrown under the bus here for being confident in his gameplan. It's up to the head coach to temper that enthusiasm and make the right call. And the right call is always this: You don't take points off the board unless you're getting a first down on the penalty. It's just that simple.
I could only listen to the game on GN's webcast. I found it curious that a team that had no holding penalties in the first two weeks gets lit up for about 6 of them in one game. I agree that we can't blame the refs, but those holding calls were just rally killers.
That being said, I'm disappointed we took points off the board. Even after that, we could've gone for 3 points and had enough timeouts left to shut 'em down for one more drive.
I didn't see the game -- but sounded like Duke D front seven was very aggressive. Yet, I didn't hear one screen being called.
If this team put 4 solid quarters together, we can play with anyone. Unfortunately, I'm losing confidence in our coaches to pull that off...
Preseason I thought that 9-3 was a best case scenario. If we don't start integrating the painful learning from these three non-con games, we're looking at 6-6. (Wins over EMich, U of I and Minny).
I didn't see the game, either, but what stands out to me is our lack of OFFENSE! If you told me we would hold our opponent to 20 points (and scoreless in the 2nd half), I would automatically assume we'd win. Bacher seems to be playing okay, so what is the problem? My hunch (in talking to friends) is that the O-line is terrible. And where is this highly touted D-line?
Defense is swiss cheese... we know that. I never had any thoughts to the contrary. Not after the 27-0 shutout and not after the 2nd half of Nevada game's stand.
What I'm more upset about is our offense. We have a couple of serviceable receivers... I'll give you that. But O-line did a bad job of protecting the pocket. They were horrible against the blitz... particularly at the end of the game. What do you think is going to happen when the Buckeye's see how we are against the blitz? Watch a Laurinaitis field day next week. We have NOT played a decent defensive team yet. I shudder to think how we'll do the rest of the season.
That being said... I'll be there for every home game with my purple on. GO CATS... beat dOSU
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