Yep.
We flush this ridiculous game (and give you some hope, too) right after PSU converts another 3rd and long.
Well, we are who we thought we were. The usual big-game issues for the 'Cats rear their ugly heads, and that Detroit trip inches ever so much
closer (hey, remember when we were excited to go to a bowl-- any
bowl?). There's not much to say about this game-- Dan Persa and Jeremy Ebert were fantastic, that catch by Dunsmore was awesome, and then............... yet another backup QB burned NU in a milestone game for Joe Paterno.
Before you go running for the hills,
consider that at this point last season we actually had a WORSE
record... we were 5-4, 2-3 in the Big Ten, and thinking we would lose at least two of our last three to take us to 6-6 and to our favorite city in the world (okay, we are hard on that city, but at least Detroit is not in the state of Ohio).
"Right," you say, "but last year's team was a good team, this year's team is bad." How quickly you forget-- we knew about as much about last year's team at this point as we do now about this year's team. We were 5-4 (2-3), our starting quarterback, who had looked good, but not "2010-Dan-Persa-esque," was out with an injury, we had less of a running game than we do now, we were going on the road to face the undefeated #4 team in the country, and our defense had just blown a lead at home to Penn State and needed a miraculous comeback to beat a bad Indiana team. As a fan, we felt like the team just did not seem to have the moxie that previous teams did, and were bracing for a pretty brutal final stretch.
Yes, the road seems a little bit tougher this season-- it could be argued that Iowa is actually better than they were last season, Illinois really does look improved (how about that "much-improved Illinois defense" playing "lockdown" against Michigan-- what a defensive struggle that was... emphasis on "struggle"), and Wisconsin does not lose at home. However, NU has had quite a bit of success in recent years against two of the three remaining teams (in fact, NU's record against all three under Coach Fitz is a combined 7-3, with the last loss to any of them coming in 2007)-- so if there was a reason for confidence heading into the final quarter of the season, this would be it.
So, grab your favorite sports metaphor and/or Fitz cliché (and, I guess, put your hands up in the air)
... it is time for the fourth quarter.
Filed under: Flush It
Tags: Flush It, football, northwestern, Penn State
