I'm not sure if you have the same 72 hour loss hangover that I always seem to carry. It takes me to about Monday evening before I can "flush" a loss and look ahead to the next game. So, in the final stages of catharsis, I felt obligated to put the final nail in the coffin on the Michigan State debacle.
From the little I know of Fitz personally, I am confident that no one places greater expectations of the program then he does. If you think about it, most of us have significantly raised our bar or expectations, not so much as a result of Fitz' brief tenure, but through the filter of Barnett and Walk leading up to this tenure. Randy Walker had the Cats just about at the point where you could expect six wins a season or be disappointed. The bowl-less six win season last year, a year of consistent inconsistency, cemented the mendoza line, in my mind, that 6-6 seasons are the baseline for future disappointment. But an amazing thing has happened among many of the diehard fans. Heading into Michigan State I could not find one overjoyed Northwestern fan as to how we came to be 5-0. I found many who were overjoyed to be 5-0. The general sentiment was "we're 5-0 and we haven't come close to playing an "A" game yet!".
I'm starting to wonder if we'll get to see the "A" game. In the wake of the "A" list media coverage (when was the last time the Cats were both headlines in the Sunday Tribune AND the Sun-Times during a Big Ten football weekend?) slanted towards the question of how could we not show up for the game until the 2nd quarter, I'm actually happy to see such diligent coverage. Yes, we squandered a HUGE opportunity to capitalize on the Midwest media bandwagon as evidenced by the size of the coverage, but I'm happy to report the media did not succumb to the "old Northwestern" cliches. Rick Morrissey nailed my exact sentiments - see here if you missed it - albeit he injected some nerd analogies. Fitz, the consummate leader, took full blame for the team not coming out with the fire that is oozes out of his every pour 24/7/365. But it made me wonder, how could that be? How could Fitz, Mr. Fire & Brimstone, not have the Cats ripping hair off their chests in excitement at the start of the game. The Cats were flat. Special teams was an absolute train wreck. Ray Bentley wisely pointed out the refusal of us to throw the ball more than 10 yards and its impact on our ability to keep the "D" honest. There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed immediately for us to rebound and beat Purdue. Two wins in a row to get us to 7-1 would get us back on the media bandwagon heading into a dangerous, dangerous tilt at underrated Minnesota. However, Northwestern can ill-afford to follow the path of Pip from Great Expectations and forget their roots as they try to hang with the Big Ten elite.
The Miss Havershims of the world may be spotted throughout Northwestern tailgates, but it was the ex-convict, I believe, who set up the financial windfall for the rags-to-riches Dickens' character. What the hell am I saying? The Cats need to cling to the scrappy, make turnovers happen, out smart, out hustle and out energize their opponents. The Cats cannot take any game for granted, nor will I ever chalk up a win and look ahead. The focus is now Purdue - a team in turmoil and on the verge of spiraling into the cellar in Joe Tiller's final season. The Cats must pounce and pounce now. While Cats' fans must not look ahead, we can at least be happy to be disgruntled as the 50+ fans I brought to the game are, as it means we're gaining the expectations, from a fans perspective of what it takes to be a great team. Let's hope the players follow suit.
Special Kudos
To all who attended the LTP tailgate, especially Brian and Jason who, get this, cashed in miles to fly in from San Francisco and New York in hopes of seeing us upend Sparty. It was quite a feast of food and fun. Next year, we'll hopefully have a better result at this sure-to-be annual call-to-arms of fans.
Hoyer Props
You've got to give Brian Hoyer some props. I thought Corey Wooton's first quarter lick spelled the end of him as he was clinging to his shoulder. Hoyer shook it off and proceeded to be the MVP of the day continually connecting to possession receivers on safe throws for key first downs. The much-maligned Hoyer (in East Lansing) is underrated in my opinion.
Monday, October 13, 2008
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This note from nusports.com made me feel better:
NU's current 5-1 mark matches its starts in 2000, 1996 and 1995 -- all Big Ten championship seasons.
Anyone comparing the 2008 team to those teams other than black and white statistics will be blackballed by LTP! I'm not saying that about NU media services, I'm saying there is NO COMPARISON to the 1995 and 1996 teams, and at this point 2000.
I'm actually pretty hopeful, even for a Monday morning after a loss:
1) We showed for 3 quarters that we could compete with Michigan State (although I assume MSU fans would say they took the foot off the pedal somewhat after getting the 17-0 first quarter lead). CJ's INT in the end-zone (and MSU's subsequent TD drive) and Fitz's ill-fated onsides kick attempt were gut-punches, but we never folded and kept fighting back, even though we never closed the deficit. The point is, we make a few more plays and/or a few less mistakes, and we maybe win this game or at least lose in close fashion. Give credit where credit is due, though: MSU played flawless football and was the better team on both sides of the ball and deserved the win.
2) Fan and student attendance was disappointing but encouraging, but there can be no denying that fan ENERGY was up. Maybe it was the late start time, maybe it was the national attention, but the fans were INTO the game, loud, energized, and STAYED even into the 4th quarter when it was apparent we'd lose. I'm gonna disagree with a lot of people here and say we have BETTER and MORE ENTHUSIASTIC fans next week -- with the Cats 5-0 before Saturday, I imagine a lot of people made the call to go to Homecoming in the hopes of seeing a 6-0 Cats squad. While they'll be disappointed, they'll still be there. We'll have a big, enthusiastic crowd (Homecoming always being a good NU crowd) and the Cats will respond to a week of "reality checks" from the coaches for a victory.
3) We can fix what broke against MSU. MSU did not expose our defense as frauds buffetted by an easy early schedule. They didn't shut down our offense as gimmicky (sorry, but I disagree with Jim O'Donnell in the Sun Times on that one -- we moved the ball pretty well and put up 20 points on a tough defense, and would have put up more but for miscues. So fundamentally, our team is not broken -- they were just beaten by a good team capitalizing on mistakes and playing mistake-free football (again, Dantonio and MSU deserves a TON of credit for this). Special teams, CJ not throwing across his body, more middle of the field offensive play-calling -- these are all EASILY fixable, and I think we can do it, and improve/get tougher as our schedule goes on...
4) No injuries, at least as far as I can tell, from the game. And our D was putting some licks on the Spartans, as many of their players had injury timeouts....an encouraging sign that the tough Cats defense is for real.
5) Finally - the Big Ten is basically WIDE-OPEN. Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa EACH already have 2 conference losses (we only have one), and should/could lose more games. MSU has a MURDEROUS schedule ahead of them (frankly, they NEEDED to beat us more than we needed to beat them, with games against PSU, OSU, Wisconsin, and Michigan still ahead of them). Ohio State couldn't score an offensive touchdown against PURDUE AT HOME -- honestly, with Beanie not at 100%, our Defense's ability to rush the passer and their decent job on Ringer this week, and our offense, I think we could be tough against OSU, who will be playing us after a HUGE game against PSU and prior to their final revenge game against Illinois and yearly battle with Michigan. Minnesota is a solid team, but we should match up well with them. Michigan is clearly in trouble -- this might be the best chance NU has had in a LONG time to win at the Big House. And we don't play Penn State, who we should be rooting for to run the table so that the Rose Bowl potentially is open for a 2nd Big Ten team.
I guess what I'm saying is that 11-1 is really not out of the question, 10-2 is reasonable, and 9-3 is still solidly possible -- all records which would have us jumping up and down Central Street most seasons, and will likely have us someplace warm (I'm dreaming of the Citrus Bowl, hoping for Outback Bowl, thinking Alamo Bowl, but would live with Insight or Champs Sports Bowls) in bowl season....PROVIDED we "flush" this game but for the areas we now know we need to improve on.
Chaddog, I am never surprised at the depths of optimism that my fellow Catfans possess, but your post was over the top. Nonetheless, I loved it. From your lips to the football gods's ears. . .
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We're 0-0 this week, and we've got Purdue in our house. Tyrell is as versatile a back as there is in the conference, when you put rushing and pass-catching ability together. The D was still solid considering Sparty's field position advantage, and last year Ringer would have blitzed us for 200+.
But, I still say CJ's not 100% healthy. Too many balls float to receivers on the sidelines.
Just a couple quick thoughts, although I'm inclined to agree with everyone to a point: Bottom line, in college football (and particularly with NU, although not exclusively), every game is a potential loss. The 'Cats got as far as they did with energy, experience, coaching (on defense), Sutton and luck. The 'Cats could just as easily have beaten Sparty if they took care of the ball and ... I won't go over it, we all know.
Iowa is not as bad as advertised, as they could have easily beaten us and Sparty if they had taken care of the ball.
All of which is to say, we effectively lost one quarter of play (and played MSU even thoughout the rest of the game). It's almost impossible to make it through a season without a letdown. See OSU, Florida, USC, Clemson, Wake, Wisconsin (although I don't know what's up with them), Cal, etc., etc.
The 'Cats have shown that they CAN take care of business, as the defense is good (when not starting every possession at their own 20), and the offense is good (when CJ doesn't get confused about which team he's playing for).
And the 'Cats can really put together a spectacular season from here on out. But they need to come into every game and fight for every play. It's the only way to win in college football.
I think I was disappointed with how this team lost and that we weren't going to be 6-0, but not necessarily disappointed in the loss itself. The disappointment will come if they don't take the next two games, though. I realize that either team has the ability to beat Northwestern, but the Indiana games are two that we should win.
@tdc mole -- overly optimistic? Is that even possible when you're a Northwestern fan?
Still, I stand by my (admittedly) purple-shaded projection. We are NOT a bad team, or a fluke this season in the Big Ten. We LEGITIMATELY can stake claim to being one of the top 5 teams in the conference based on play so far. MSU beat us soundly, but did so by exploiting correctable mistakes that NU made, and exploiting mistakes is what good teams (like MSU) do. Correct these mistakes, and we can compete (if not win) against anyone remaining on our schedule, INCLUDING Ohio State (and, as a point of comparison, who has Ohio State really beaten? They bested Minnesota at home, and a poor Wisconsin team on the road in a very close game....maybe more impressive than any win we have, but I'm not entirely sold on them as head and shoulders the #2 team in the conference behind PSU).
Realistically, I think we go 9-3, dropping 2 of our remaining games. But nucubs is right -- we just need to go 1-0 each of the next two weeks against Purdue and Indiana....that'll set us up in good position for the final 4 game onslaught, and allow us to advance thanks to other teams slipping in tougher parts of their schedules.
@ Chaddogg--
How can you say the student attendance was disappointing? I'm still waiting on official student attendance numbers (if I can get them), but I swear there were at least 6,000 students in the section if not more. Tell me another B10 school that gets 77% of its student body into a stadium for a game.
Student attendance was good, and they wore purple. Fan attendance was bad, and they didn't wear purple.
And if you consider that game to have had a higher energy level, well I just have to say I hope we can go a hell of a lot further. I was walking around other parts of the stadium with the band at the beginning of the 3rd quarter and tons of other sections were sitting on their hands the whole time, even on huge defensive 3rd downs. I'd be yelling at everyone to get up and maybe 50% of the people would stand and start clapping lightly, much less cheering and yelling.
I'm not insulting you, I'm insulting the rest of the peach, orange, and white clad NU "fans" who sit and don't do anything during the game. Our team needs every bit of energy they can get from you.
Sorry - I totally misspoke. That should be fan and alumni attendance -- the students were AWESOME all game long. Seriously - I'm VERY sorry for mistyping that.
@LTP - I wasn't trying to compare the teams. Just saying that the records were the same (the biggest glaring difference being, of course, the Big Ten record at that point). And as such, a great season is still within reach. But point taken.
After I posted it I realized that it actually sucks, because we can no longer go around referring to our best start since 1962 :(
Fitz said it today at the presser, "I didn't think we were flat." He would know best.
I think execution is a better word. They were jacked up to play. That was obvious coming out of the tunnel. They just didn't execute.
@chaddog
In section 128, the fan energy was there. However, the section was far from being packed.
@all - completely irrelevant as I'm proud of "D" and it is the storyline of our season, but consider this to give you an idea oif how incredible 1995 was:
Points given up to Michigan State: 37
Points given up through 4 Big Ten games in 1995: 37 (Indiana 7, Michigan 13, Minnesota 17, Wisconsin 0).
Is that incredible or what?
@ LTP - Points given up to Miami of Ohio - 31. Not so incredible.
But the point is well taken.
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