No doubt this was a frustrating loss and the pain was magnified by the lack of scoring and final margin of the loss. I was more frustrated than usual because I saw this as an even match-up that could be a win on the road if a couple wild card factors went our way. They didn't, and the game spun out of control and our fans felt like they were kicked in the nether region. Heck, even our fairly steady Ahlibowa, almost went Bailsailz on us.
In hindsight, I don't think we should be as surprised and as a result, devastated, from the nature of the loss and cash in the season. We were generally considered the underdog going into that game and I expected that it would be a tough fought win, if we won, but also needed a couple factors to turn our way.
Turnovers/Special Teams- Many predicted that this would decide the game and it likely did. Northwestern was the team with the game changing return off the punt, that shifted a close game back and forth, to a momentum changing 10-0 lead at half for Northwestern. Then they obviously also add the back breaking fumble return for a TD late in the game. I was very surprised to see our good punter, with the wind, punt two in a row that were not very good punts. The first one lost the field position advantage, and the second one, probably ended up losing the game. We lose the turnover battle 0-2, and while Northwestern fumbled three times, all ended up with good bounces right back to them.
QB Battle- The battle of two inconsistent qb's was going to play a role in who won this game. Many, like me, were banking on our defense and db's to shake the shakeable and wildly inconsistent Thorson into mistakes, misses, and potential turnovers. Thorson instead, played his first solid game of the year, and played very well. I know we tried getting to him with some blitzes, but Northwestern picked up everything. In contrast, while Mitch started out ok, it seemed like as Northwestern adjusted their defense and locked down our running game, he started missing on passes he can make. We couldn't afford to have the inconsistent Mitch in this game.
Health - Both teams were coming off several injuries (Northwestern, for the first time this year) and the questions was who would have the healthier team. While we were fortunate to get Poock and Johnson back for the game, we were still missing two of our likely draftable db's in BBC and Travis, while Northwestern received good news on all their defensive players except for their nickleback. On offense, Northwestern did not get back arguably their best lineman, Mogus, but Frazier returned for the first time, and their line played generally well. During the game, we receive injuries to an already depleted DB group in James and Myrick, but probably most damaging was that Bjorklund was injured early in the game. As soon as I saw Bush regularly taking snaps in first half at LG, I knew it was going to be an uphill battle against Northwestern.
IMO, those 3 factors (and coaching adjustments) all went against us and made the margin of victory larger than it would be if we played them 10 times in a row. If only one of those factors was changed, where we were even on the turnover battle or if some of those fumbles were lost by Northwestern, this would have been the nail biting end of a game we all expected.
It was not our best coached game IMO, and Northwestern adjusted on both sides of the ball much better than we did as the game went on. As I indicated in a pre-game, offensive philosophy thread, I would rather see the offense take some shots down the field even at the risk of a deep interception v. running several consecutive 3 and outs beating our heads against the wall. Where was Still? I may have missed him in the game, but don't remember any targets to him when a tall receiver for Ball St. had shown some nicks in the armor of Northwestern's strong defense.
I'm not ready to make this game an indictment of the rest of the season. Momentum in game and from game to game can change quickly and change a lot of end results. We need some health back and hope that Christenson and Lauer are truly ready to bolster the depleted line. I could very easily see a two game winning streak going into a great match-up on Halloween with Michigan and all will not be lost.
In hindsight, I don't think we should be as surprised and as a result, devastated, from the nature of the loss and cash in the season. We were generally considered the underdog going into that game and I expected that it would be a tough fought win, if we won, but also needed a couple factors to turn our way.
Turnovers/Special Teams- Many predicted that this would decide the game and it likely did. Northwestern was the team with the game changing return off the punt, that shifted a close game back and forth, to a momentum changing 10-0 lead at half for Northwestern. Then they obviously also add the back breaking fumble return for a TD late in the game. I was very surprised to see our good punter, with the wind, punt two in a row that were not very good punts. The first one lost the field position advantage, and the second one, probably ended up losing the game. We lose the turnover battle 0-2, and while Northwestern fumbled three times, all ended up with good bounces right back to them.
QB Battle- The battle of two inconsistent qb's was going to play a role in who won this game. Many, like me, were banking on our defense and db's to shake the shakeable and wildly inconsistent Thorson into mistakes, misses, and potential turnovers. Thorson instead, played his first solid game of the year, and played very well. I know we tried getting to him with some blitzes, but Northwestern picked up everything. In contrast, while Mitch started out ok, it seemed like as Northwestern adjusted their defense and locked down our running game, he started missing on passes he can make. We couldn't afford to have the inconsistent Mitch in this game.
Health - Both teams were coming off several injuries (Northwestern, for the first time this year) and the questions was who would have the healthier team. While we were fortunate to get Poock and Johnson back for the game, we were still missing two of our likely draftable db's in BBC and Travis, while Northwestern received good news on all their defensive players except for their nickleback. On offense, Northwestern did not get back arguably their best lineman, Mogus, but Frazier returned for the first time, and their line played generally well. During the game, we receive injuries to an already depleted DB group in James and Myrick, but probably most damaging was that Bjorklund was injured early in the game. As soon as I saw Bush regularly taking snaps in first half at LG, I knew it was going to be an uphill battle against Northwestern.
IMO, those 3 factors (and coaching adjustments) all went against us and made the margin of victory larger than it would be if we played them 10 times in a row. If only one of those factors was changed, where we were even on the turnover battle or if some of those fumbles were lost by Northwestern, this would have been the nail biting end of a game we all expected.
It was not our best coached game IMO, and Northwestern adjusted on both sides of the ball much better than we did as the game went on. As I indicated in a pre-game, offensive philosophy thread, I would rather see the offense take some shots down the field even at the risk of a deep interception v. running several consecutive 3 and outs beating our heads against the wall. Where was Still? I may have missed him in the game, but don't remember any targets to him when a tall receiver for Ball St. had shown some nicks in the armor of Northwestern's strong defense.
I'm not ready to make this game an indictment of the rest of the season. Momentum in game and from game to game can change quickly and change a lot of end results. We need some health back and hope that Christenson and Lauer are truly ready to bolster the depleted line. I could very easily see a two game winning streak going into a great match-up on Halloween with Michigan and all will not be lost.
