It is time once again to put the 'Cats victory under the microscope and offer up the props, knocks and question marks surrounding win number seven.
THE GREAT
Mike Kafka
After a 3-and-out to open the 'Cats first series, Mike Kafka settled in and was fantastic. Granted, NU again stalled when approaching the red zone and came away with no points on 2 FG attempts in the first half, but Kafka picked up steam as he went along. His 23-37, 305 yds, 1 TD, 1 rushing TD O Int day was even better than the stat line. Kafka suffered several dropped passes from the sure-handed Zeke Markshausen, one from Andrew Brewer and a big play from Sidney Stewart. Kafka's 3rd quarter 99-yard drive that started at the half yard line was the 'Cats signature drive of the season as Mike was simply brilliant.
The O-Line
The much-maligned offensive line played its best game of the year today. The Illini have a slew of big play guys on their D-line and Mike was sacked only one time, despite being a sitting duck for much of the first half as the Illini brought the blitz. In addition to solid pass protection, the line opened up several gaping holes and despite the modest 139 total rushing yards, Scott Concannon and Arby Fields enjoyed the best blocking they've had all year. Arby posted a stellar 5.6 ypc (9 carries, 50 yds, 1 TD) and Scott put up some very clutch yards, averaging 4.1 ypc (9 carries, 39 yds).
Hunter Bates
This goes in the unsung plays of the year category. Most of the viewers missed it as the weak ESPN Classic announcers were talking about some oversized meat sandwich, but immediately following the Illini's first TD, they went for the onside kick and Hunter Bates made a spectacular catch and flip to save what would've likely been an Illini conversion. The 'Cats failed to convert it in to points as Demos missed the 30-yarder, but it was still a huge play.
THE GOOD
Protecting the Rock & Takeaway Mentality - The 'Cats played error-free ball on the ground and through the air succeeding in not turning the ball over all day. On the flip side, Nate Williams made a great interception, as did Sherrick McManis, albeit somewhat controversial. The 'Cats also caused two fumbles, but couldn't win the battle under the pile.
Quentin Davie & Brian Peters
Davie and Peters seemed to be everywhere against the Illini. They continually had to plug the run holes, but were hitting with a vengenance and using their bodies as projectiles. They also combined for 15 tackles on the day.
Dan Persa
Man, if McCall would only let Persa throw! The injection of speed and moxie of this kid makes you think you've got you're DVR on two arrow mode. Persa supplied a nice spark after several series of no points. Granted, he wasn't able to put points on the board, but he helped move the rock.. Persa ran every time he touched the ball and you've got to mix it up for him to truly be a threat, especially when he's in there on 3rd and 5+ situations.
Zeke, Andrew & Sidney
As mentioned, they all had drops, which precludes them from getting the "great" treatment, however they all made huuuge plays. Zeke's nearly two identical plays escaping from the corner and stretching for the pilon were great. Brewer's 52-yard reception was huge and Sidney continues to make the difficult look routine.
THE DISAPPOINTING
Killer Instinct
When the 'Cats went up 21-3 in the 4th you felt, for the first time in a while, we had a chance to blow out a team. After the Illini cut it to 21-9 and Bates recovered the onside kick, we had a chance to put it away. I was disappointed on 4th and less than 1 we elected to go for the FG - especially when Demos had missed two already. I was yelling to put Mike under center and plow ahead. These are the plays that show you're going for the jugular. Being up 12 or 15 - it's still 2 possessions. I wanted to go for six AND chew up some clock in the process. The 'Cats simply lack the stomp on the opponent when they're on the ropes. This goes from on field execution to the tightness in playcalling on both sides of the ball.
Kicking Game
Stefan Demos had a rough day going 0-3 on FG (missed 50, 47, 30) and shanked a rugby-style punt. Really, do we need to continue the rugby? Demos has been automatic from FG range (14-16 entering game) and I'm confident he'll be money again next week.
THOUGHTS FROM AROUND THE NATION
Considering the past week sparked the Northwestern-Stanford-Notre Dame comparisons and smack talk, it is still enjoyable to see ND lose regardless of the fact they rallied valiantly against Pitt. I'm expecting ND to win next week against UCONN and then get slammed at Stanford. I watched the Cardinal throttle USC today and regardless of your thoughts about Jim Harbaugh, they remind me of the 2000 'Cats with an amazing 1-2 QB/RB combo. The fact RB Toby Gerhart is not a front-runner for the Heisman is a joke. Stanford beat top ten teams in back-to-back weeks and put the most points on USC in Trojans' history. Kudos to Iowa and James Vandenberg for taking Ohio State to the wire. Again, I found myself rooting for the Hawkeyes, likely to help boost the 'Cats win a week ago. Hardly anyone gave Vandenberg a chance and it was great to see a kid in that tough situation put up such a fight. Beware of the Badgers - man are they explosive. Northwestern has yet to face an offense with as many weapons as Wisconsin.
2009 Non-Conference Opponents' Results
Beyond ugly, folks. The 'Cuse lost a cliff-hanger to Louisville 10-9 and dropped to 3-7. Man, how much to have that one back for NU, eh? Towson's woes continue as Villanova (9-1) put a Northwestern-like 49-7 whooping on the Tigers who are now 2-8. Miami (OH) got crushed by Bowling Green on Thursday night 35-14 and is now a laughable 1-10. The 'Cats other dreadful MAC opponent, Eastern Michigan, is one worse than Miami and is now 0-10, but not to be outdone, they lost to Western Michigan by the same exact score - 35-14. Looking ahead to 2010 opponents, the 'Cats opening opponent next year, Vandy, lost again - 24-13 to Kentucky and is now 2-8 on the season. 2010 opponent, Rice, got off the goose egg and upset Tulane 28-20 to get their 1st "W" of the year and improve to 1-9. Finally, Illinois State dropped to 5-5 as they lost 30-18 to Youngstown State.
Sunday Morning Cup 'O Joe
- The Tribune's take on NU's win is here thanks to Teddy Greenstein. Shannon Ryan offered the Illini perspective and the controversial McManis pick here.
- Herb Gould files the Sun-Times report in place of the mysterious case of Jim O'Donnell, here.
22 comments:
The difference between being up 12 and being up 15 is pretty big. PATs are near automatic, while 2-point conversions have a success rate around 50%. Assuming that if it got in to OT, both sides had close to a 50/50 chance of winning, that means that the probability of the Illini overcoming a 15-point deficit and winning is only about a quarter of the probability of them overcoming a 12-point deficit and winning (same probability of them getting 2 TDs, but to overcome a 15-point deficit, they also need a successful 2-point conversion & win in OT while they'd need neither to overcome a 12-point deficit to win).
I had no problem with letting Demos try a chipshot FG.
@richard..great point. I still liked the idea of going for the kill - especially if we put Kafka under center and move the pile like the OL had done all day.
Can someone who was watching on TV give insight in to the ruling on the INT at the end of the game? Being there and seeing it on the big screen it seemed like the only explanation would have been that the Illinois receiver never had full possession and that McManis simply took it away.
Is that what happened?
That's the official ruling. From only watching it on the replay, the timing looks about right, albeit questionable. You have to figure the guy didn't really have the ball the way McManis just sort of streaks over him and comes away with it clean in one move.
I wasn't able to watch, don't get espn classic, so listened on wgn. but looked at the vid this morning...did anyone notice how Zook basically tapped Fitz' hand at the end of the game? This guy is a bad coach and not a nice guy. It's a little thing, and he was probably pretty upset at the tough call at the end, but this isn't the first time I've seen poor sportsmanship from him - not a great example to his kids. The Illini Nation needs to understand what a poor choice to lead their team he really is. Now might not be the time to look at this (maybe off season), but there is a growing imbalance of good coach/bad coach (from a character standpoint) developing in the Big 10. On the good side you have Paterno, Tressel, Ferentz and Dantonio, plus Fitz. On the bad you have the bachelor in Madison, the new guy in Ann Arbor, and Zook. Book it now, Rodriguez and Zook will go down with recruiting violations eventually, and the bachelor will go down on other news. But these guys all belong in other conferences, like the Southeastern, where character, graduation rates and good example don't carry much weight.
Go Cats - Bring on Bucky!
DR, this ultimately is neither here nor there, but Illini fans in Dallas followed Zook's lead yesterday. There is a group of us that watch the games at a restaurant in Dallas where Illini fans also gather. The last two weeks, the responsive chant of "I-L-L" "I-N-I" was loud and frequent. Near the end of last week's game, one fan came over to our group, knowing that we were up on Iowa, and said something to the effect of, "Oh, the MILDcats are doing pretty well, BUT you have to play us next week ... HA HA!" The same guy used the "MILDcats" moniker in a conversation in the bathroom knowing I was in there.
Of course, yesterday, the chant was less frequent and far quieter than the previous week. Not surprisingly, not one person from their fairly sizeable group came by our tables to say "good game" as they beat a hasty retreat.
I love this from Fitz about what surely is the longest TD drive in NU history:
"It should go in the books," Fitzgerald joked, "as 99.75 yards."
Zook is the best of both worlds for us. Can't coach up good teams and takes recruiting talent away from other midwestern schools, but not NU.
Lifelong contract, please.
On the interception, I watched live with my son on the Classic - he nailed it. If McManis had swatted the ball away, instead of pulling it away, the call would have been obvious: Fayson would not have secured the ball and therefore it would have been called incomplete and NU takes over on downs. Therefore, because McManis stripped it instead, it should be complete?
They have instant replay review for a reason. If it was a glaringly bad call, it would have been overturned. Move on Illini and move on Zook (the officials had a "bad day" comment is scapegoating). And yes, I noticed the poor sportsmanship on his Fitz handshake as well...pretty weak.
My takeaways from the game are a little different than LTP's. First, it was obvious to me NU is still playing with 2 injured QB's. Kafka's game is still severely limited as his slashing runs are all but absent...and Persa's hand must be banged-up enough that he cannot pass. Fortunately for the Cats, the Illini weapons did not have the experience to take advantage.
Second, look out for the Illini, they will be back. But for a couple of missed throws, the Illini would have won yesterday (McGee missed an easy six, and Charest's first half pic got NU going.) Charest looks like he could be the real deal...and the running game was impressive.
Take heart Illini fans. Zook will use their next games to get the younger guys experience and they will again surprise next year - but on the upside.
I was at the game, so I'm amazed at how after every single cut in that highlight reel, you hear the announcers talking about something non-football related. That really is incredible...
And yeah, the Zook handshake was pitiful, made even more so by the fact that Fitz immediately goes and talks to Charest and a couple of the assistant coaches from the Illini, and that the entire team seemed to follow his lead.
I feel bad leaving two comments not about the game, so to level it out; I was really starting to feel it yesterday, this team is peaking right when we need them to. I've heard sportscasters talk about season-defining wins, I've kinda laughed at the statement before; this is the first time I've seen a bonafide season-defining win that changed the entire outlook of a season. The Wisconsin game is gonna be huge, hopefully this excitement will turn into better ticket sales and keep this from turning into a Wisconsin home game.
Does any other school in the league so solemnly full of itself for so little reason as Illinois? I walked around there yesterday and it seemed like they think they have Ohio State's place in history and they've barely ever been even relevant. So incredibly different a vibe from Purdue, for example.
Maybe they're overcompensating for having their mascot taken away.
@ subwayalum...nope, bar none, Iowa fans are the most delusional in the Big Ten conference...and likely in the entire country. However I think there may be a couple of European soccer clubs whose fans have a more baseless sense of their teams importance than Iowa fans have, so I can not assign them the global title.
Scott - Although I did have some big foreheaded cretin call me and my purple-clad kids "grapes" in the Champaign Walgreen's parking lot yesterday, I would not argue against Iowa fans being the jerkiest in the league. Just seems to me Iowa at least recognizes your team has to be good for you to act like that and they think their team is better than it is. Illinois doesn't understand your team ought to be good before you make some solemn quasi-religion out of it.
Yesterday I was going to send my kids up in front of the Red Grange statue, count to 3 and snap a photo as the unfurled their purplepalooza banners. But there were so many Illinis lined up we couldn't get near it and I was afraid we'd make some girl cry if we tried, like we defiled an ancient Indian burial ground or something. Do that in Iowa and they'd just punch me out for being a punk. I respect the latter response more, I think.
I received no feedback from the Illinois fans (NU shirt and ball cap). Interesting that they draw a pretty full house of 62,000 with a team that was 3-6 and the town is in the middle of nowhere (apologies to residents of C - U). NU can't draw unless the other team fills half the stadium and NU is in a metro area of how many million? I'm not an NU alum but have season tickets and also went to the PU, MSU and Illinois games. Hey, it's Big 10 football. Any ideas why NU doesn't draw? Also, agree with LTP about the rugby punts - please drop them out of the inventory (12 yards yesterday on the first NU punt that could have dug them into a hole).
True, UofI is in the middle of nowhere, but it's easy for them to draw the allegiance of many of the denizens of Illinois because "Illinois" is in their name. It's an advantage that all the state schools (or even schools named after cities like Pittsburgh & Cincinnati) have. On the other hand, small, private schools that don't have a geographic name have trouble filling up their stadium.
Still, NU does have some strange problem drawing loyalties, I think. I lived in the SF Bay Area and am now back in Chicago, and it seems to me that the Mid-Peninsula folks identified more with Stanford than North Shore folks do with Northwestern. Not sure why that is.
After watching the broadcast replays of McManis' pick to end the game, it was very, very clear that the receiver did not have possession. As his left elbow hit the ground, he lost control of the ball and it was loose on his upper chest. Sherrick made one hell of a play to pick it off.
I would say that I'm surprised the broadcasts didn't see that, but after going through the game and making highlights, it was pretty clear they weren't paying much attention to begin with.
Oh, and losing Jeff Ryan really sucks. I don't know how things can get much worse for the basketball team.
Style
I'm intrigued by the tales of interactions with rival fan bases. It is, first of all, very encouraging that 'Cat nation is emerging. The first thing to get used to is that you're nearly always going to be a minority. It's not a bad thing, just arithmetic.
You're also going to need to get used to dopes dropping dopey comments on you. It's a compliment of sorts. It's as if these folks can't acknowledge that NU actually fields good teams populated by actual student/athletes.
One of the enduring sources of pride over the many seasons, good and bad, that I have been rooting for the 'Cats has been watching and listening as our athletes do interviews. These young men (and women) have been, and continue to be, articulate, intelligent, entertaining and most of all a great source of pride for all of us.
Dealing with the dopes takes a little bit of seasoning, i.e. developing selective deafness or practicing the smile-and-almost-ignore-them move. It's a pretty effective way to take the wind out of the sails of a blowhard when you smile, nod, dismiss him and keep walking.
One of my favorite dopey insults is the "NU doesn't fill the stadium" theme. OK, it doesn't, but I'm not seeing red and looking to drop the gloves when a rival fan takes a shot at attendance.
I normally wear my 'Cat allegiance on my sleeve (and the sleeve is frequently purple). Over the years, that practice has created a lot more friends than enemies for me, and it's encouraged a surprising number of people to take up and share the allegiance. The neighbors expect to see the flag on game days; it's good for advancing the cause. Having a good product on the field doesn't hurt, either.
These are the good old days!
Glad i'm not the only one who noticed the poor handshake at the end of the game.
Having lived in SF for a time, and knowing a bunch of good folks from Stanford, it's just a different vibe out there. They have the Big Game, which is Cal vs. Stanford, it's completely crazy, and lets face it, the weather out there is awesome, so tailgating at either place is like a picnic rather than a cold beer and let's look for the fire pit.
I don't agree that Ilini could have easily won this game with a break or two, and Zook will not rally his kids next year. We should have made 3 FGs yesterday and not punted on 4th and 1, which makes it possibly 37-16...that's football.
UofI gets a full house because its the only game in town down there.
Football there is really bad - their kids don't graduate, you can't have a good football program until you commit to the kids and that means an interest in what they will do after they turn 22. Does anybody on this board think Zook gives a rat's patooty for his football players after they're gone? He used to coach at Florida for God's sake.... he learned his trade on the Death Star.
If kids know its a deadend and you're not in the running for a BCS bowl why should you play hard, that's why Zook's recruiting will work against him - he gets athletes, but he's such a ridiculously bad leader and coach that these gifted athletes don't and won't play for him. He recruits on the basis of a pro football career....does anyone think that Fitz, or Coach Walker, ever once mentioned that a successful career at NU might mean an NFL career?
I just watched the evening news and they talked about the Bears (who really are dreadful), of course, Notre Dame and the soon departed fat man, the Vikings-Detroit game, then about how Juice Williams will start next week!!!!
but not one word about NU.
there is something really wrong with the communications for this team - why would the evening news not talk about NU and the upcoming Badger game? Who cares that Juice is going to start next week? They are toast.
Fitz and the PR folks need to mend some fences - I hate to bring this up, but I think the press in Chicago still has the Rashidi Wheeler tragedy on the front burner and until they get over that deal (thanks Jay Mariotti) NU will not get a fair shake, and we will not get fannies in the seats.
Go Cats.!
I've lived in Chicago for 20 years. It seems very rare that NU gets the limelight in the news (95/96 aside). I would think NU-Illinois would be more than a page 3 item for the Chicago Trib, especially with no Bears game today. ND is now getting the same treatment as NU and Illinois-- it's like Chicago has no care for college sports. And I think that's it -- big cities rarely care about college sports, they have pro sports. Of course, there are exceptions (USC in LA comes to mind, but there are no pro teams in LA anymore).
So, how do we get the Chicago TV / radio news to bring up the Cats on a daily (or at least weekly) basis? I don't have an answer, it's a legitimate question.
Purple Flag - I just want to make two points about how great Northwestern's athletes are. Last year the basketball team lost to Michigan in overtime. After the game they had to sit at a table and sign autographs for all the kids who showed up. I can't imagine they wanted to be anywhere near there doing that after that game. But every one of them was gracious and friendly and had a kind word and a "thanks for coming" for each and every kid in line. You never would have guessed they'd just lost such a tough game. Think your kid ever gets to do that at a Michigan State game?
I took my third grader to the spring football game up in Kenosha and we stayed after for the express reason of getting autographs from the three players on the team who share his first name. All were so happy to sign for him and one of them asked us to find him and say hello during the season (which unfortunately we've been unable to do but it was really cool of him to ask).
Do you think you can just hang around after the Ohio State spring game and get Pryor's autograph and have an actual conversation? Not that I think he couldn't converse, just that you couldn't ever get near him.
I'd love for these kids to get the recognition they deserve with packed crowds every game. Paradoxically, when they do it might kill off a lot of what I love the most about about being an NU fan.
Most college towns love the school in the town and the town is filled with students, faculty, alums, etc. Evanston, although many NU-affiliated people live there, is not NU dominated. Nor do the alums stay in the Chicago area in the percentages of other schools. Other schools have an inherent advantage in this department.
What is troubling is the acrimonious relationship that NU has with Evanston. I don't know what started it, but it existed at least as far back as when I was a student (late 80s). The story is that Evanston residents resent the tax exemption that NU has. If that is the whole story, it ignores how much the students and faculty spend in the town (sales tax anyone) and how much the rental property is worth due to increased demand from students and faculty (and of course the free income from renting a driveway/lawn for parking on game day).
Perhaps the thought is that NU drains fire and police resources. I thought NU made a good gesture recently when it paid for a new fire truck for Evanston. That is a good start.
We need to get Evanston to really back the Cats. I would love to see a parade/march from the campus to Ryan Field before game days, with the streets lined with people. Of course, this would require cooperation and participation from Evanston and its residents.
Finally, there are some great things for kids with NU that you won't get anywhere else. In fact, the family crowd seems to be the target audience for Cats "marketing". However, as has been noted in the past, the desire for bigger, more excited (younger?) crowds is difficult to manage and keep the family atmosphere.
NU needs to overcome the elitist perception that I think is part of the reason non-NU affiliated individuals shy away. All we need to do is get people to attend one game. They will see how friendly an atmosphere we have (except on the field!).
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