It has been nearly 48 hours since the Cats lowered the bar in Bloomington and came away with a shocking 21-19 loss. Since that time my scalp is enflamed thanks to a steady overdose of head-scratching. It is unfathomable to me to be seriously concerned about whether or not we'll even be going to a bowl this year, when my expectation was to be bracing for two top 20 teams with a prayer of playing for a co-Big Ten title. To make matters worse, I received the official NU press release concerning the fact Tyrell Sutton will be undergoing surgery this week and his return to the Cats is unknown, which is a euphemism for "unlikely". Add the fact that CJ Bacher couldn't walk off the field and our back-up, Mike Kafka, well, let's just say he didn't look mentally ready to step in to the kitchen. What do you make of all of this?
Is it just "one game"? Well, I'd argue we'll be underdogs in each of our last four and as I've said from the beginning, anything less than 8-4 would be a major disappointment. Now I'm thinking to get to 8-4 would be a major win. When I read the obits on Sunday of the game I couldn't help but be startled by the Eric Peterman quotes. He essentially admitted the Cats did not show up to the game ready to play. Huh? How does a senior-laden team not grab one another by the collar and say "wake up!!!"? I was convinced that Fitz may have had the team too prepared for the overlook factor by talking about how great Indiana was all week. He couldn't even separate it in the postgame when he referred to them as a "great" team. Really? They had a back-up QB who played behind a line that featured second stringers and a walk-on. The Hoosiers were so banged up they were running out of gas in the M*A*S*H cart. They could not get a simple snap off on several occasions. They are bad. Really bad. Which makes us worse - at least for the day.
The only silver lining is we'll get to see what type of bar of expectations we should be setting for 2009 as we start to see Kafka in action this week (assuming CJ is out) and younger RBs. I've been scared to death of 2009 as it tees up as the "other teams reload, but we rebuild" year. However, I'm now scared we're going 0-4 and won't get the coveted extra month of practice in preparation for a bowl.
I'm very intrigued to see how our coaching staff responds. Judgment day is Saturday at Minnesota against a team that I thought we'd give a game to, but ultimately lose to. Now, I'm hoping we stay competitive. Ugggh - I just said it and slid back into the old Northwestern mentality. I told any NU fan who cautioned about Indiana that "no, we're different. We won't overlook them and we're going to take care of business."
The bottom line is that this senior-laden team is not improving. The only players who seem to be improving are the young guns. And most of the improvement is coming from the defensive side of the ball. This is a slippery slope time for our program. Several key recruits are still on the fence and attending the Ohio State game. The Cats were just starting to crack the Chicago major media embargo (see coverage on Purdue game). However, as Gary Barnett once warned, the NU bandwagon is made of Teflon. I would argue a game that a week ago had the promise of two 7-1 teams battling for an A-list bowl game, now actually means more to us than it did even then. A loss at Minnesota sets up a three game skid heading into Michigan (yes, I'm counting the Buckeyes as a loss) which, as we've proven by the IU game, is no gimme. That leaves us needing a split at Michigan and home against Illinois to even go to the Motor City Bowl. Yikes.
Coaches - I believed. I even preached on this very post about taking care of business. Now it's your turn. GB always said "the great ones adjust". He also said "champions are crowned in November." Let's see what you've got.
Monday, October 27, 2008
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Sutton being gone is brutal, but Conteh is at least serviceable. We'll see what other running backs we have. Bacher being gone may not be as bad as you think. He's a turnover machine and always has been. NU never throws deep, so Kafka should be able to handle the usual short throws. Plus Kafka runs better than Bacher, and that lends well to the spread. I know Kafka stunk in 06 and on Saturday. However, if he knows he's the starter this week perhaps they can prepare a game plan against Minnesota. Minnesota is not unlike NU in that they are 7-1 but all 7 wins have come against lighter competition. They are beatable -- especially if they take us lightly again. NU just has to take care of the ball. I know NU is teetering on the brink right now and Fitz better get them mentally prepared -- short of that the seniors need to step up and execute.
@LTP: come in off the ledge, bud! They f****d up on Saturday, no secret, but ease up on the Chicken Little act. nucats93 appears to be on track: there's some positives that may come out of this. Keep the faith!
Yes, losing a must-win to an inferior opponent is bad. Losing three of our best players to injury in the last 2 games is bad too. But does this spell the demise of our 2008 season? NO ONE KNOWS. It's too early to tell.
But there is NO REASON for anyone to stir the ghosts of NU football futility. Even fans of perennial powers have to deal with bad luck and bad losses. As uber-coach Ditka says, "In life..."
We can't expect the outside world to stop saying "same old NU" until WE stop saying it about ourselves.
Disappointed, yes. Discouraged, no.
i always want to keep the faith with the 'Cats, and I have no worry that Conteh can pick up some of the slack....but KAFKA. REALLY! CJ has been our leader this year, and talk about his turnovers and such - but when the game was on the line, CJ fought hard! He ran "balls to da wall" into that end zone, and to get those first downs in Indiana. Towards the end of the Michigan State game - who was still playing every down...CJ. I've been critical of CJ, but he is a huge leader on the team. So we have to put our faith and the team on Kafka?!?! HE THREW BACKWARDS! You can't even do that in a video game!
That being said - I will keep the faith - because that's all I can do...
Go 'Cats.
I'm ecstatic that we're going to see Omar start - Sutton hasn't been himself the the past few weeks. We all saw him put the ball on the ground three times against Purdue, thankfully his knees were down for two of them. With a bruiser in the backfield and a strong O-line, I am looking forward to sending a message at Minnesota.
Go Cats!
This is too over the top. Come on! At WORST, all we have is a big "unknown" when it comes to what will happen next. While I agree at this point we'll be happy with 8-4, I feel like we're not taking the whole season into perspective here.
Kafka is a big unknown. I am NOT going to judge his potential based on what we've seen from him this year, and ESPECIALLY not after that terrible performance where the game was on the line and he had to go down the field to pull out a victory. I would also remind you that the score was 21-19 for THREE drives, and the first two, CJ couldn't do it either. I also saw it pointed out that Kafka probably was trying to throw the ball away but was spun around too fast and thus threw backwards - he surely wasn't TRYING to throw it backwards. Yes, it would have been intentional grounding, and he made a mistake. He's a good runner, and has a good arm, and we will now be able to game plan for him.
I believe people think Kafka is the same guy we saw before Bacher got the starter job 2 years ago. Bacher hasn't improved since last year and seems to have regressed. I've opened up the purple koolaid again and an anxious to see if we can give Kafka a chance to step up as a leader. Conteh too.
Another recent NU coach said "Life is 10% what happens and 90% how you respond." So at the very least please, please let's just wait and see before we declare the sky to have fallen.
Seems like defenses recently have been able to key in on what we do on offense and really seem to be a step ahead of us, or at least on par with us, as we do play calling. With Kafka and Conteh in the starting roles now, teams aren't really going to be sure what we're going to give to them.
As long as Kafka can make the same throws to the sideline that CJ's been making, we have a shot. We will likely see a completely different 'Cats team on Saturday, though.
After enduring the 4-hour drive back from Hoosierton, I am confident that the Cats still have 2 Ws left in the gas tank. As the Big Ten continues to redefine bad, over coached football, I was able to put my fuzzy head on the pillow with dreams of a win in the House that Yost built and recapturing the 64th Sweet Sioux in game 102 with the Chief. However, it can only be accomplished by opening up all roster spots for the rest of the year, each week (i.e. Pete USC Carroll) and let’s see who really wants to play some ball. Some members of the senior class have gotten too comfortable with their status and its clear that equal or better talent is sitting on the bench. Fitzy needs to be a bit more draconian in deciding who plays and who sits. As for personnel, Conteh is up to the challenge, and we need to get the much-hyped young’uns their chance. Bacher, should be able to play and if not, teams can win with their back-up, see Ben Chappell 219 yards passing and 2 touchdowns, just keep the game plan simple for Kafka. And finally, the defense, Fitzy’s real passion, will have to step up and play more physical, especially the corners. Finally, John Leo "Paddy" Driscoll must have been spinning in his grave given Capt’n Peterman declaration. Dude, lead, follow or get out of the way. 4 for 18 is no way to go through a game.
I'm more worried about our corners. If Ben Chappell and his lightly-regarded receivers can do that against us, what's Adam Weber and Eric Decker going to do? I'm with LTP here - I'm discouraged.
Fellas:
Maybe I wasn't clear. I was simply stating fact that we will be underdogs in our final four games. Yes, it is possible for us to win two of them, especially given how inconsistent the entire league has been.
But I challenge you to find another loss we've had, in our lifetime that merits a "top ten" status more than this one?
I just watched the quarterbacks section of Fitz's press conference, and it appears Bacher is still day-to-day.
The loss merits Top Ten because of when it occurred in the season. Now imagine that Indiana was the first Big Ten game, and we'd lost it but gone on to beat Iowa and Purdue. It wouldn't merit Top 10, even with that performance (loss of Tyrell and CJ notwithstanding). We'd still be 6-2 and would have chalked up Indiana as our usual non-conference-like loss.
But I guess what's more important is to say, let's evaluate whether it's the in the Top Ten based on what happens the rest of the season, hmm? Imagine (not that it will happen) that we go on to win out. That loss will simply look like an anomaly.
One should evaluate history when it's already history.
Did the Fight’in Methodist fans jump off the band wagon in ’92, 1892 that is, when the boys dropped their first ever game to Minnesota and followed that up with 2 straight loses to Whisky?
Or the 26 team, who were Big Ten Co-Champs--not allowing any team to score more than 7 points against them, but gave up 6 to Jessie Harper and ND in the last game of the year?
And then 4 years later when the Cats, lost back-to-back to ND and Purdue, in the Depression charity game?
Last Saturday’s minor set-back, will soon be forgotten, and is not even in the top 50 of the Cats 613 all-time losses.
Have a cookie and prepare for a pissed off, bitter group of scholar athletics looking to restore their manhood in front of the square-headed Minnesota homecoming crowd.
Thank Christ for the serenity, i've already jumped into a six pack of mojito mango and am working on a bottle of jim beam and sunkist!
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