(10-05-2014 10:48 AM)7 Wrote:  People criticizing the pooch punt are dumb. That plays worked to perfection by NIU many times the last couple years. Don't rip a coach for a game not being executed.

Why punt at the KSU 36-yd line? Go for the first down. Worst case is Kent State gets the ball back at their 36-yard line.

(10-05-2014 11:04 AM)houstonhuskie Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 10:48 AM)7 Wrote:  People criticizing the pooch punt are dumb. That plays worked to perfection by NIU many times the last couple years. Don't rip a coach for a game not being executed.

No 7 I was disagreeing with it before it happened. Even said to my son, if the pooch kick here I'll .... With the field position (inside the 40) the way out d was playing. The yards needed, it made total sense to go for it. Second on the list was to try and draw them off Take a penalty if not and kick normal. The pooch was a horrible call in that situation at that moment. (The third down play was suspect too but that one I'll admit to possibly liking if it worked. )

The pooch (I don't think) is a call in and of itself. My guess is they have a play called when they come to the line, the QB takes a look at the defense, and if he gets the look he likes, they run the play. If he doesn't, he pooch punts.

Couldn't tell you what the original play call was, but I'd be willing to bet nobody is calling down on the headsets "OK, strong right trips Larry pooch punt shank on two."

(10-05-2014 11:10 AM)7 Wrote:  Maddie completed 70% of his passes yesterday and they weren't all screens either. Still not sure how everyone has drawn the conclusion that he can't throw.

It was the Kent St 120th team in the nation, PLEASE tell me we aren't using the body of work against one of the worst teams in FBS as the complete body of work. Maddie cannot throw the football, its pretty important for a QB

(10-05-2014 11:41 AM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:10 AM)7 Wrote:  Maddie completed 70% of his passes yesterday and they weren't all screens either. Still not sure how everyone has drawn the conclusion that he can't throw.

It was the Kent St 120th team in the nation, PLEASE tell me we aren't using the body of work against one of the worst teams in FBS as the complete body of work. Maddie cannot throw the football, its pretty important for a QB

So what does that say about the guy who was 8/15 for 93 yards against them?

(10-05-2014 11:17 AM)houstonhuskie Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:12 AM)Michael James Wrote:  Maddie can't read the option to save his life.

Have to disagree. To me he looks the MOST comfortable in the option and just needs the experience to make it hum


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I find it amazing how polar opposite people are seeing Hare and Maddie...THEN people are saying that Carey is doing a bad job at not picking a guy.

In the first half Hare had 2 bobbled snaps and that super ugly lumbering run where he was palming the football. If any of those 3 are fumbled/recovered by Kent St it would have been worse than the INT by Maddie because of the field position.

Seems like we have a good day if Brown has a good day.

His penalties and drops were a huge impact on our Offensive drives.

(10-05-2014 11:43 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:17 AM)houstonhuskie Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:12 AM)Michael James Wrote:  Maddie can't read the option to save his life.

Have to disagree. To me he looks the MOST comfortable in the option and just needs the experience to make it hum


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I find it amazing how polar opposite people are seeing Hare and Maddie...THEN people are saying that Carey is doing a bad job at not picking a guy.

The problem John is that these questions should not even be being asked at this point, this is summer football discussion, August camp. We are 1 game into conference play and in worse shape than Presbyterian. Its a coaching failure in that respect, no way around that.

(10-05-2014 11:42 AM)7 Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:41 AM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:10 AM)7 Wrote:  Maddie completed 70% of his passes yesterday and they weren't all screens either. Still not sure how everyone has drawn the conclusion that he can't throw.

It was the Kent St 120th team in the nation, PLEASE tell me we aren't using the body of work against one of the worst teams in FBS as the complete body of work. Maddie cannot throw the football, its pretty important for a QB

So what does that say about the guy who was 8/15 for 93 yards against them?

Its a snapshot, one day with 35 mph winds on a day with half of your impact players injured. If Carey is using anything that happened against KSU as a measure of who is starting then that's just wow. I do not think Hare is great, but if NIU gets down the stretch and needs to pass to win for a MAC title, or to get into MAC title game, Maddie is not going to deliver that.

Comments on the game:

- All the talk about QB/RB...biggest disappointment and why the offense is under-performing is the O-line, they simply haven't lived up to what we hoped. They're ok, they're not great. They have to get better to win the MAC. They did not get that much push, doesn't really matter who is running the ball when that happens.

- Losing TLL and Beebee hurt a lot (more than we expected), Maxwell catching balls instead of them takes a way a lot of explosion.
Sec

- Brown was due a bad game...and he had it, didn't even get open as much as normal.

- The D was pretty impressive...however, until the last drive, where the heck was the pass rush? They're shown they are great at the rush D, especially with our LB's...not sold on the pass D yet, but that's ok. They're plenty good. Secondary at least kept most everything in front of them.

- Orn finally kicked a kick-off into the endzone! where the heck has that been? Our kick-off coverage still struggled at times.

Overall:

- 4-1, take it and run. We've had plenty crap games like this over the last 4 years, it happens. You're not going to destroy everyone.

- Do people really think we would be better if we had just played one QB all year? Neither are playing that well...I would much rather let them all play until someone finally takes the job then just start a mediocre guy all year. All that matters is that we win games, just because it doesn't fit your "perfect set-up of a team" doesn't matter.

- Has the coaching staff struggled and made some bad calls at time? yep, I think they're still getting used to this young team as well. The comments on firing someone are just idiotic, beyond idiotic.

- Next week will be a good battle, expect a close one.

(10-05-2014 11:49 AM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:43 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:17 AM)houstonhuskie Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:12 AM)Michael James Wrote:  Maddie can't read the option to save his life.

Have to disagree. To me he looks the MOST comfortable in the option and just needs the experience to make it hum


Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

I find it amazing how polar opposite people are seeing Hare and Maddie...THEN people are saying that Carey is doing a bad job at not picking a guy.

The problem John is that these questions should not even be being asked at this point, this is summer football discussion, August camp. We are 1 game into conference play and in worse shape than Presbyterian. Its a coaching failure in that respect, no way around that.

except the guy he started at Presby and NU got hurt...Remember MD?

I just re-watched the game and here are my thoughts:

-Our QBs have been inconsistent but our mistakes, penalties and generally sloppy play are a bigger problem. It's a continuation of what we saw at Arkansas. Botched snaps, dumb penalties, dropped passes, just ridiculous stuff. We were lucky to recover Stingily's fumble on that bubble screen. In one of Hare's series' in the second quarter we had first down at the 50 and then a low snap from Ness makes it first and 15 and we don't convert. On our next series we have first down at their 20 and DaRon Brown is offside so it's first and 15 and we have to take a field goal. Roughing the passer on Bass (he was overdue for one of those), illegal motion on a punt by Lurry, just really undisciplined stuff. Add an unreliable kicker and it's a volatile mix. We're killing ourselves.

-I am sympathetic to our coaches on the QB situation. No one is seizing the job. The QB issue is amplified because so many others are playing poorly.

-As many others have noted, our RB situation is weird. I have no idea what that rotation is right now. It seems to change from possession to possession. It would be nice to get some clarity there and I think our run game would be more effective too.

-Once again our O-line got handled. The legend of this being a great O-line is just that. They need to play better period. Myers and Ruka are getting rotated in, maybe they need to play more. Anything to light a fire under that unit. We need a lot more out of them.

-This is nitpicking but it could be important sometime down the line. At the end of the game when we were trying to run out the clock Hare was snapping the ball with 5 and 6 seconds left on the play clock. He needs get that down to 2 or even 1. Haldi was great at snapping the ball with 1 second on the play clock.

-You have to tip your cap to Kent State, they took over the game in the 4th quarter. Leading 17 to 6 with 12:33 left to play we forced them to punt from deep in their end. Here's what followed:

*A 50 yard punt with no return. He killed that thing.
*They force a 3 and out.
*They take it 80 yards for a TD.
*A successful 2 point conversion.
*They force another 3 and out that ends with Maddie's interception. During that series they stripped Stingily on the bubble screen but we luckily recovered.
*They move it from their 39 to a first down at our 34 with 4:33 left. That was the play where their starting QB got hurt. A terrible break for them, I hope that kid is OK.

After that we took advantage of their backup QBs but even then we got lucky because their wideout should have caught the ball on the play where Folliard destroyed their QB. There's no question in my mind that they win if their QB doesn't get hurt. They had all the momentum and their QB was carving us up. If they scored a TD there to go up 4 let's see a show of hands for those who believe we would have driven the length of the field in the final 2 minutes.

To piggyback off what 1981, I think the place where Lynch is missed the most is in the running game. With Lynch, it was just so hard to stop the offense because of what it did to the numbers. How many times did you see NIU go 3/4 WRs with 1 RB (who was really a fullback) and then you just run QB power. It always became a numbers game that was nearly impossible on the defense.

I really don't want to turn this thread into another Hare vs. Maddie argument, but this is why I want to see more Maddie. Gameplan with him being the starter, and get back to the offense we were running with Lynch. Spread things out more, make the opposition respect the QB run, get numbers in your favor.

They really missed Beebe and Tommy yesterday. Turner has been a bit of a disappointment.

Yeah, probably stole one against a team that really didn't believe they had a chance to win. Had they come after NIU more aggressively all game, they probably could have forced more mistakes that would have tipped the balance. Score one for NIU/Huskie Stadium mystique.

I just re-watched the first half (I got kicked off the internet because Cawoo Jr wanted to know why he couldn't connect to xBox Live). Timing and dumb*** mistakes were what slowed NIU down. The offense isn't clicking because of it. There aren't going to be many 10 play drives that end in TDs when there is always an illegal shift and a holding penalty sprinkled in there somewhere.

That's gotta get cleaned up. It is fixable, though.

To piggy back off something earlier, something that indicates to me the struggles of the qb position this year is one play. It's what some would call NIU's bread and butter pass play: the bubble screen.

In the 2 years that Lynch started, very rarely did you see him make a bad throw on a bubble screen. This year, both Mac and Hare have missed several bubble screens and you can see the frustration on the receiver's faces afterwards. You've got to execute the little things if this offense is going to succeed and in the last 2 games, the execution hasn't been there.

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Oh what the heck.....

A pass to a TE every now and then would be nice....

(10-05-2014 10:48 AM)7 Wrote:  People criticizing the pooch punt are dumb. That plays worked to perfection by NIU many times the last couple years. Don't rip a coach for a game not being executed.

I wouldn't have minded that call from closer to midfield, but from the 36, asking a QB to accurately punt the ball is a tall task. I personally would've just gone for it, but if he wasn't going to go for it, he should've just had the punter kick it.

The D has shown it can be trusted, so I think it's worth risking what is probably 16 yards to keep the ball.

(10-05-2014 11:12 AM)Michael James Wrote:  Maddie can't read the option to save his life.

None of the Qb's can.

(10-05-2014 03:53 PM)The Frisky Biscuit Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:12 AM)Michael James Wrote:  Maddie can't read the option to save his life.

None of the Qb's can.

That's really incorrect. Hare reads it quite well. He's just too slow to break anyone's back with it.

(10-05-2014 03:56 PM)cawoo22 Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 03:53 PM)The Frisky Biscuit Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:12 AM)Michael James Wrote:  Maddie can't read the option to save his life.

None of the Qb's can.

That's really incorrect. Hare reads it quite well. He's just too slow to break anyone's back with it.

I've seen each of the Qb's make the wrong call on the mesh (though I haven't been keeping count or anything). This is why I'd like someone, ANYONE to be the starter and just take the lumps. The only way to get better at it, I think, is to do it more.

(10-05-2014 11:51 AM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:42 AM)7 Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:41 AM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 11:10 AM)7 Wrote:  Maddie completed 70% of his passes yesterday and they weren't all screens either. Still not sure how everyone has drawn the conclusion that he can't throw.

It was the Kent St 120th team in the nation, PLEASE tell me we aren't using the body of work against one of the worst teams in FBS as the complete body of work. Maddie cannot throw the football, its pretty important for a QB

So what does that say about the guy who was 8/15 for 93 yards against them?

Its a snapshot, one day with 35 mph winds on a day with half of your impact players injured. If Carey is using anything that happened against KSU as a measure of who is starting then that's just wow. I do not think Hare is great, but if NIU gets down the stretch and needs to pass to win for a MAC title, or to get into MAC title game, Maddie is not going to deliver that.

Wtf are you watching? Maddie threw the ball better yesterday and pretty well every time he has gotten a chance. There were no 35 mph winds that affected their passes.