This team is making me look clarevoyant. Yesterday I expounded upon Fitz-coached teams' inablity to step on the throat and put games away. Today, the 'Cats led 21-3 early in the 4th quarter and appeared well on their way to perhaps the biggest margin of victory win in the Fitz era (22). Instead, the 'Cats failed to put the Illini away and after Stefan Demos' 3rd missed FG of the day gave the Illini the ball down 21-9, Illinois promptly scored to cut it to 21-16. As always, NU went in to the "play not to lose" mentality, and thanks to a controversial INT by Sherrick McManis, NU held on for the 21-16 win.
There was a whole lot of good that comes out of this, Northwestern's 7th victory, ensuring we're going somewhere warm for the holidays, but it also showed the need for the program to grow to the next level, we need an injection of put-em-away moxie.
Mike Kafka shook off a sluggish start to really play a great game as Northwestern lit up the Illini for 305 yards and that included several drops throughout the game (I counted at least five). The 'Cats also tallied some big play love today with Zeke Markshausen and Andrew Brewer converting in clutch situations from perfectly thrown balls by Mike.
Kudos to Scott Concannon who may have had one of the more impressive 39-yard rushing days you'll see as every yard seemed to be clutch, including a 10-yard pop on NU's signature drive of the year - a 99 1/2 yard scoring drive in which Mike Kafka looked simply brilliant busting NU out to a 14-3 lead.
The 'Cats D got gouged by the run as Illini, as expected played the multiple back run it down your throat attack, but the 'Cats were nearly perfect on pass defense sans the money TD by Jacob Charest late in the 4th.
The end result is we won our 6th road Big Ten game in the past two seasons (6-2), and earned our 10th win against the Illini since 1995. We're 7-4 with a game to go against a very solid, top 20 Wisconsin team that will be rolling in to Evanston for our season finale next week. We'll break it down later tonight, complete with video highlights, but start grabbing some friends, throw them some purple and we need to sell out Ryan Field next Saturday. It is time to start impressing some bowl officials and show them Wildcat Nation actually exists. Go 'Cats!
In the meantime, go root on freshman James Vandenberg in the 'Shoe. How amazing would that be, if Iowa bounced back? Can you imagine the disdain for NU if the 'Cats are the lone blemish on Iowa's record? It couldn't happen..could it?
Saturday, November 14, 2009
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8 comments:
Sorry. Can't root for NUB. It's be like rooting for Archer Daniels Midland.
Can't stand Iowa fans...but must respect what the team has done this year. If Iowa prevails at OSU, with the Big Ten schedule they have this year, they deserve the title. And it would be nice to see somebody besides OSU win the conf.
Ooops, Vandenberg just threw a pick...and there is an OSU TD.
Never mind...
I take back everything I said about Pam Ward. That ESPN Classic announcing crew was the worst I heard all year.
I agree about today's TV crew...almost. The Wardster remains, for me, the pinnacle of awful.
Unless there's something higher than the pinnacle.
Just got back. A nice past 24 hours of NU action.
Oh, and $20 for parking? My goodness. They're raking in a small fortune.
Was this really the first game all season that NU has not surrendered a turnover? Wow.
It was nice to see a bunch of NU fans on the road this morning driving down to the game. When I went to Purdue, I saw maybe one. And last year @ Michigan, I didn't see a SINGLE NU fan until a few blocks away from the stadium.
As for bowl projections, I'm in the Insight or Champs camp. If we beat Wisconsin, we go to the Champs. Lose and it's Insight.
Hopefully Ohio State, Penn State, and Iowa can take care of business and prevent anything screwy from happening.
Just back from Champaign. Big plays by Nate Williams (late 2nd quarter interception that resulted in NU touchdown) and Hunter Bates (flying reception of Illinois onside kick). Continued big plays from Corey and Sherrick (no way to judge his late interception from the NU seats or the scoreboard replay). Big plays by Marshall. The best running game NU has had all year (from their running backs, not Kafka). Demos had a tough day but we all believed he would make one at the end if needed. (No pass attempts by Demos; see Penn State game). The O line again had a great day in pass blocking and opened some big holes in the running game. Illinois played like last year; obviously lots of talent and speed but no consistent effort on every play. It would be nice to see the Seniors go out with a win next week.
@ NU'69. Agreed.
So what's your point?
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