Because, like me, you're a glutton for punishment. It's days like this that are obligatory to give us the euphoric highs over unexpected wins. Today, combined with last week are hair pulling games that will go into the ether of "just another loss" in 10 years, but those of us in the know realize these were program turner/momentum building chances blown. It is not that we lost, but the infuriating incosistency that is the problem. We were one stupid roughing the kicker penalty from putting our foot on their throats - in the 2nd quarter! Uggggggggggggggggggggh.
The Great
When you lose to a BAD Iowa team, there is nothing great. Nothing.
The Good
-Rush defense - If you had told me we would hold Iowa to 70 total yards on 34 carries I would have told you we win by 40. But with the good, comes the disappointing....
-Pass Rush - Wow. Multiple sacks, in the same game! Even a forced turnover, which, of course we squandered.
The Disappointing
Play Calling - Tyrell had nearly 100 yards at halftime and we abandoned the run, yet AGAIN in the second half, especially when CJ imploded. You could SEE his confidence evaporating as the game wore on. We had eight run plays in the second half. Mixing up the run, which they hadn't proven they could stop, was a mistake. This is not hindsight - all of us were yelling DURING the game.
The Greed:
CJ went for the home run when he had the "under" receiver WIDE open. This is Curtis Painter-itis. Last season Painter did the same thing feeding his INT mania. Now CJ has 14 INTs - worst in the Big Ten. This is a painful learning experience, that WILL be corrected by next year.
The Pass Defense:
God, how awful are we? We give up 299 yards passing to a guy who had 5, yes, 5 complete passes a week ago. I would have lost my house if you had given me the CJ vs Jake total pass yards bet. I'm still scratching my head as to how Christensen resurrected his game within the game as they were dead on the mat. Despite my positive karma all week, I knew we were in trouble when we were only up 7 at halftime after DOMINATING them. The score felt like it should have been 3 TDs of separation at least.
The O-line:
CJ Bacher was battered and hammered on nearly every toss in the second half. It was sack city out there for the bumblebees. A mainstay of our success went the way of the "mo", especially in the second half.
Final Stats
NU Passing - CJ - 27/54, 264 yds, 1 TD, 3 INTs (Peterman 1/1 13 yds)
Iowa Passing - J. Christensen - 21/36 299 yds 1 TD, O INT
NU Rushing - 33 total carries, 116 yards - Sutton 23 carries 116 yds 1 TD
Iowa Rushing - 34 total carries, 70 yards - A. Young 16 carries, 59 yds, 1 TD
Turning Point
McManis' roughing the kicker penalty in the 2nd quarter. The momentum changed as the field position battle began. 2nd is the Kim Thompson offensive pass interference in the 3rd when we would have had 1st and goal from the 6 yard line.
Best ESPN2 Stat re: CJ:
NU Wins - 14 TDs, 1 INT
NU Losses - 1 TD, 10 INTs
What Are We Made Of?:
The most perplexing NU team since the 2001 edition now has 2 must win games to salvage what was a promising precursor to the high expectations of 2008. No one, and I mean not even the coaches, knows what it will take to see us execute a FULL game, which we have yet to do this season. I can't remember a team that I have had less of an idea of what they were going to bring on a quarter by quarter basis.
Big Ten Wrap Up
Ohio State 38 Wisconsin 17
The Buckeyes overcame a slow start to methodically shred the PJ Hill-less Badgers. Wells racked-up 3 TDs in the onslaught.
Michigan 28 Michigan State 24
Was there any doubt Sparty would find a way to implode? Manningham's game-winning catch will be posterized in A-squared. For the 100th time, is there anyone, anyone! who does not think the Wolverines will finally master the Buckeyes this year en route to the Big Ten title?
Indiana 38 Ball State 20
The Hoosiers are bowl eligible - finally - for the first time since 1993.
Illinois 44 Minnesota 17
Here's to the hope that the Ohio State game next week is a setup for a letdown game against us!
Penn St. 26 Purdue 19
Evan Royster's 26 yard TD scamper late in the 4th capped off a big day for the PSU RB as Boiler Nation feels like we do as they let this one slip away.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
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21 comments:
muah muah mauhhhhhhhh!!
back to your World of Warcraft NW.
see ya next year.
And back to your cousin/sister in Humbolt.
Enjoy the win Hawkeye fans. Smackdown in Kinnick...payback time. Any self-respecting Iowa fan has to admit that NU gave that game away as much as Iowa took it. Regardless, it is another inexplicable loss in an inexplicable season.
Go back to wishing you were going to a rose bowl brady (when was the last time Iowa made it there by the way)? How's Iowa wrestling looking this year? Don't care? Thats ok, because I'm sure your looking forward to another athletic event that will see Iowa once again slip back to mediocrity :>). It's good to be a Northwestern fan these days. Because like everyone else on this blog, I expected Northwestern to win yesterday, and despite what you may think, it was NU, not Iowa, that gave the game away to a much maligned and inferior opponent. I guess there's always next year, and whatever sporting event we may face Iowa in athletic competition. Yah know, I had heard once that Iowa was known for its wrestling program and that they were very good at one time. Hmmm, I wonder what happened?
Jake Christianson for Heisman!!!!!!!
LTP, important members of the blog, what do we think of our chances in the next two games? Lets start with the hoosiers.
[I]s there anyone, anyone! who does not think the Wolverines will finally master the Buckeyes this year en route to the Big Ten title?
Yes, there's me. I not only think Ohio State will beat the crap out of Michigan, but that Wisconsin will do so next week at Camp Randall as well. The Badgers lost yesterday to a better team, but next week they don't play a better team, they play Michigan. Michigan was the only thing that stood in the way of Wisconsin going unbeaten last year. As a result, this is the game they've been looking forward to for 12 months.
And back to your cousin/sister in Humbolt.
Sir,
For one's sister to be his cousin, it implies his mother is his aunt. Outside of bigamy, I don't think that's possible. If you're going to bring the incest jokes, think before you write. Ignorant prick.
As for patlos, I don't understand the vast majority of your post. But to say your team gave away this game to a much inferior opponent takes a whole lot of balls, considering you lost to Duke. As for Iowa's "slip into mediocrity," it again takes balls from the supporter of a team that sees mediocrity as improvement. In any case, 28>17, genius. Also, you misspelled Christensen. Perhaps you need further instruction on mathematics, grammar, and rhetoric before you attend further football contests or attempt to write for public consumption.
To Hawkeye State - Your missing the point. Which leads me to believe that your not actually a University of Iowa graduate, but a person who apparently supports Iowa sports, or Iowa football. Spelling mistakes, and mathematical errors are a characteristic of any human being, because like a respectable human being, I at times make mistakes. With that being said I'd like to point out that you have a very limited ability to understand the conversations of other intelligent people and a poor ability to understand very basic communication. Northwestern is a program that "historically" has not faired well (i.e. win-loss column). Yet in the past ten years this "cellar dweller" has somehow managed to win more big ten championships than your (dare I say alma mata? I don't know if u went to school!!!????) Given the very recent history of the school, the many fans of Northwestern University expect victory, and exepct to beat teams that we should (Iowa '07). Now, my suggestion would be to apply to a junior college, established a respectable gpa and apply to Northwestern. Maybe that will change your opinion, or atlest change your perception of a program that has long clung to the ideal of education over entertainment. (Also, TAKE AS LONG AS YOU WANT TO RESPOND TO THIS POST. MAKE SURE NOT TO MAKE ANY ERRORS, OR TO HAVE ANY OBSTACLES IN YOUR WAY OF MAKING A VALIENT AND INFORMATIVE POST TO THIS BLOG. ALWAYS REMEMBER: THE COMBINED, INCOME, GPA, IQ, AND SAT SCORES OF THE MEMBERS OF THIS SITE IS HIGHER THAN THE average University of Iowa grad. Oh, if your a Chicagoland Alum of Iowa; shame on you!!! Illinois wasn't good enough for you huh? So go ahead and find any grammatical errors I made or apparent, "ahem" mathematical errors; you can post them to those other Iowa scholars and show off what a astute observer you are.
patlos17 - quit misusing "your" in a post, and you might make us all look better in a post meant to demean the intelligence of Hawkeye fans.
Sir,
(1) I'm not going to say anything about "you're" versus "your."
(2) The combined SAT scores, GPAs, income, etc. of Northwestern graduates would most certainly be higher than the average of an Iowa graduate, if only because the total is going to generally be larger than the average. Judging from your two posts, your obvious struggles with the English language and space bar, liberal use of the caps lock, use of "u" (which, despite your thoughts to the contrary, isn't a word), obvious struggles with Latin (it's "alma mater," not "alma mata"), and confusing use of "respectable" to describe a mistake-prone person, you haven't graduated from junior high. I'd give you my GPA, SAT, ACT, LSAT, law school GPA, win/loss record in court, income, etc., but I know you don't deal well with math.
(3) You may expect to beat "inferior teams," but you'd have a tough time finding one. 2007 Duke, 2006 New Hampshire and Nevada, 2004 Hawaii, 2003 Miami (OH) and Bowling Green. The list goes on and on. The truth is you're not that good, and you can't find more than 16,000 fans to attend your games. Once Northwestern starts acting like a legitimate D1 program (rather than the 11th member of the Big 10 who got lucky for a couple of years), we'll talk.
I think anyone who looked at this game beforehand would recognize it was a tossup. Tossup games generally go to the team that makes fewer mistakes. That team was Iowa. Sorry, but 28>17.
Oh, and your school gave us Mike Greenberg. Sweet dreams.
I didn't attend Northwestern. And since we are on the topic of what it means to be a good football program why don't you go ahead and explain to all of us here in this Northwestern blog what it means to be a good football program. Now I understand it may take you a while to respond to this but it sounds like you have plenty of time on your hands. Hope you didn't stay up too late writing that last entry.
Calling us not a legitimate program is a joke. Especially seeing as we had won 2 straight over the Hawks, not to mention 3 Big Ten titles in the past 15 years. I will agree that we struggle with attendance and sometimes sustained success, but we are very much a legitimate program. I believe LTP has done a great job at illustrating that point on this very blog. Bringing up GPA, etc. is a lame argument from either side. We're all about football here, and I think we should stick with that and leave the academics to the mathletes. And just as a kicker, this little athletic program which is "lucky" to be in the Big 10 finished a full 25 spots ahead of Iowa in the directors cup standings the past 2 years.
Did anyone laugh about this? Come on, I think this is the main purpose of blogs. It's time to lighten up the mood. Arguments in person is one thing, but arguments over a web page is HILARIOUS!!! It's just great to rattle some cages every once in a while, and hell, maybe even start an argument. I for one have had a great time and am looking forward to the next post, or next discussion that comes about.
Boys, boys, boys! Wow. Nothing like some venom to rack up the post count.
Iowa won - period. A Duke loss vs an Iowa State loss is irrelevant. Iowa beat Northwestern.
I prefer to point thumbs, not fingers, as NU has some major soul searching to do as we figure out how the hell not to lose games in the 4th.
We learned it by watching you, ALRIGHT!!
It was only from a week of watching Northwestern game film that our OC Ken O'Keefe learned the wonders of a hitch & go. It took us 10 games to figure out how to throw the ball, sadly it happened against you guys. Also, Bacher gets a little nervous once you smack him a few times. Abandoning the run really was one of the stupidest coaching moves I've seen all year, and I've seen a lot of them.
Well, here's what I can say pretty much about all of this:
1) Schools play a role in education, but it's what you make of it. My dad went to Iowa for undergrad and grad (PhD economics), and he's pretty damned smart... and my sister went there for undergrad as well. That said, some of the Iowa fans I ran into before the game were either idiots, or just acted like them. (Thank you for throwing your various beer cups at my car, by the way)
2) This is a game we SHOULD have won. Case in point: my father (an Iowa native and alum from sometime in the '60s) wanted to bet for Iowa only if I gave him 21 points. He thought the game was lost for Iowa before the ball was hiked.
3) RUN THE BALL. I was screaming (of course, not that it mattered) to keep handing the ball to Tyrell. I knew it was only time before we turned Jake Christenson (sp?) into Dennis Dixon, and we needed to score some points. CJ CAN be the man-- he just needs to get rid of this "Rex-Grossman-itis".
One final thought-- about the only thing that made me smile about this game, despite its inherent lack of sportsmanship -- (and this is tacky)-- was a comment an NU fan made to an Iowa fan:
"I can smell the pig shit from here".
Now THAT'S a winning spirit.
I'd given up on this, but I really can't help myself.
Your missing the point. Which leads me to believe that your not actually a University of Iowa graduate, but a person who apparently supports Iowa sports, or Iowa football.
Next post:
I didn't attend Northwestern.
As for the "legitimate football program" crack, I apologize. It is true NU has won 2 of 3, 6 of 11. But the thing that surprised me the most about Evanston was the complete lack of enthusiasm for what was supposed to be a rivalry game. Even with 12,000 Iowa fans in attendance, the place was only 60% full. The student section was nonexistent. The Northwestern fans around me were wearing only traces of purple and took a couple seconds out of their ongoing conversations about everything but the game to golf clap for a pass completion. And it's not as if this is an historically bad year for Northwestern; you are one win from bowl eligibility. As I said on my blog, I'm sure there are die-hard NU fans out there (I've read as much on this site), but they seem to be few and far between.
Hawkeye State - You are correct. They are few and far between. NU has done a terrible job capturing the Chicagoland fan. With an alumni base in Chicago that is a tiny fraction of Iowa's 29,000 (according to tribune) Chicago-based alums, it is impossible for us to rely on alums alone. The private school factor (as opposed to Illinois) further limits the general "root for my state team" that Iowa, MN, IL, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State et al enjoy.
It is tough to compete for fans in Chicago as we compete with Cubs, Bears, Hawks, Bulls et al - and the only way to clear through the clutter is when we have Big Ten title years.
The diehards tend to be oldtimers who aren't passionate and are the golf clap variety. Our fans' football IQs must rank in the cellar as the primary driver of attendance for years had been tailgating/social gathering.
With losses like Saturday, the bandwagon continues to become teflon-coated as Barnett used to say.
We're jealous of every other fan base in the Big Ten and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
The TRUE sign of arriving for NU will be consistent sellouts with majority Purple. Don't know if we'll ever see it in our lifetime.
Good luck the rest of the way - not like you'll need it.
I was implying Hawkeye State that you were probably a resident of Iowa that didn't actually go to the University, or atleast graduate. But hey according to your credentials you seem to be qualified enough to go just about anywhere you want. But for all you know I could have graduated from Worcester State. Tell me who would you rather root for, WS or NU??
Anyway it had been briefly brought up about our fan base and I thought this would be an interesting twist to add and possibly theory the type of fans who wind up at more "legitimate" schools in the big ten. The following post was made by Buckeyelane in reference to the average Buckeye fan. You tell me; is it safe to assume that this is the case for most big ten fans?
Buckeyeland:
I was trying to take the point of view of the average Buckeye fan.
For the most part we are not that knowledgeable about football.
It is one of those situations where Buckeye fans either think that we are the best or we stink.
For example, our fans feel that the poor play of Ohio State is to blame for a loss - take '04 for example - never do we say - "wow, NU has a really good team" - it's more like - "Justin Zwick sucks get him out of there!"
In reference to LTP's comments
As far as us being jealous of other Big Ten schools, I think the hard truth is the majority of us on this blog wish that Northwestern had an alumni base or a majority of the student body were as passionate about football as we are, or appear to be. Filling the stands isn't an accurate indicator for being a legitimate athletic program, there are plenty of athletic events that do not even come close to making attendance quotas, many of those are football teams. It's definitly something to look forward to as a player and a fan, but if you have a stadium filled with 70,000 morons any mention of being legitimate contested just as easily (case in point: The Boston Red Sox).
Okay, so following ALL these posts... I feel some need to defend some of the fan's reactions at the game on Saturday...
First, I'm an NU alum (hence my nickname), and a current NU grad student. I've gone to almost every home game since 1997 (back in the days of our fabulous Punter / QB Tim Hughes!)-- save for a game missed here and there (i.e.: for my wedding...). I love Wildcat football more than any other sports team, and believe me my mood ebbs and flows with the team (there's a reason why I still sit in the student section -- swearing and yelling is permissible).
DESPITE THAT, I found myself at an utter lack of words at times on Saturday. Quiet as a mouse-- in frustration at the team. So, it's not surprising that the rest of the stadium was that way, as well.
AND, as for the student section being 'nonexistent', my wife (also an alum and current grad student) noticed the same thing, but came to the following realization:
they were all studying for midterms.
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