I have not yet had the heart to read other threads yet.
Saving it for later.
HERE GOES:
My emotions and words are at a loss. It's a very, very tuff one to swallow or digest.
It rivals the MACC loss to Akron as incredulous and inexcuseable.
I turned to my wife with NIU up 31-21 and said I do not like the rhythm of how his game is unfolding. She jokingly said is this were they come back? Afterwards my honey said , " Sorry for having jinxed the Huskies."
It was much like watching Bart Ball & the Cubs imploding.
Congrats to SIU. They earned and deserved to win --- and we didn't.
Forget about luck, tipped passes etc.
Seemed to me the Saluki lines controlled play up front much of the game.
There were enuff mistakes made by NIU players and coaches to fill a season. A most critical stategic error was obviously not taking the gimme three to go up 34-21.
It was very humbling to walk out of Huskie stadium having given away a very winnable ballgame. I'm staying away from tall ledges today.
Tomorrow is anther day. Pick up the pieces to fight again.
Can we finally put an end to dissing better 1-aa teams?
SIU is top dog today.
I slept on it and feel no better today than I did last night.
NIUbro Wrote:I slept on it and feel no better today than I did last night.
Same here. There's no reason for me to be posting just east of 7 am, but I woke up and couldn't fall asleep. I'll disagree about the lines (though I haven't watched the film yet and may have to retract this). From the 2nd quarter to the middle of the fourth, I thought the lines manhandled SIU. Unfortunately, we couldn't get pressure at the end when we had to have it. The only times we got close was when we blitzed the LBs, and that leaves you in man coverage and a single breakdown costs.
I often repeat this checklist when describing how an inferior team can jump up and bite a more talented one:
1. Make them turn it over (we had five, including two brought back for touchdowns)
2. Make them turn it over in the red zone (4th and 1 and we're short)
3. Make big plays on special teams (onside kick)
If you look at most of the big upsets, those things happen. They sure did last night. We did what we needed to do to win that game. However, we also made some of the worst mistakes a team could make at that time. Nicholson's second pick was about the only thing that could have brought them back into the game. At that point, we stopped playing to win and started playing not to lose.
We lost a game we had no business losing, not because SIU is 1AA, but because we did so many things right. The problem is, we made so many critical mistakes at the end, everywhere, that all that work was wiped out.
A truly sickening feeling.
While I was encouraged during the game to see more balance and productivity between pass and run, I felt we could not simply play NIU smash mouth football when we needed to . We have no RB bruiser in short yardage situations. On many run plays O line opened few holes. I did not see NIU Oline push SIU Dline too often. SIU Oline protected Hill when they needed to.
On the one hand I do give DanN high marks for coming back after the first INT but he then later apparently did not learn much from his mistake. Both INTs were passes like towels left out to dry.
NIUbro Wrote:I slept on it and feel no better today than I did last night.
If anything I feel worse.
NIU needs to learn to stop scheduling good 1-aa teams and schedule cupcakes like Indiana State every year.
Playing SIU does us no good. It's a lose/lose situation.
7 Wrote:NIUbro Wrote:I slept on it and feel no better today than I did last night.
If anything I feel worse.
NIU needs to learn to stop scheduling good 1-aa teams and schedule cupcakes like Indiana State every year.
Playing SIU does us no good. It's a lose/lose situation.
+1000 but the bottomline is SIU is not a team we should be losing too. This game is a testament to the demise of NIU football and the lack of talent being recruited.
COHUSKIE Wrote:7 Wrote:NIUbro Wrote:I slept on it and feel no better today than I did last night.
If anything I feel worse.
NIU needs to learn to stop scheduling good 1-aa teams and schedule cupcakes like Indiana State every year.
Playing SIU does us no good. It's a lose/lose situation.
+1000 but the bottomline is SIU is not a team we should be losing too. This game is a testament to the demise of NIU football and the lack of talent being recruited.
That's so completely false it's not even NIU. NIU dominated that game for the majority. A mixture of just retarded QB play and fluke plays is why SIU won.
They won, and I am not taking anything away from them. However it shows nothing about NIU football. This is the same SIU team we beat by an entire point in 2004. Was our program on the decline then too?
Still shouldn't play SIU. It's the same reason it's dumb for schools like Illinois and Northwestern to play NIU.
7 Wrote:COHUSKIE Wrote:7 Wrote:NIUbro Wrote:I slept on it and feel no better today than I did last night.
If anything I feel worse.
NIU needs to learn to stop scheduling good 1-aa teams and schedule cupcakes like Indiana State every year.
Playing SIU does us no good. It's a lose/lose situation.
+1000 but the bottomline is SIU is not a team we should be losing
too. This game is a testament to the demise of NIU football and the lack of talent being recruited.
That's so completely false it's not even NIU. NIU dominated that game for the majority. A mixture of just retarded QB play and fluke plays is why SIU won.
They won, and I am not taking anything away from them. However it shows nothing about NIU football. This is the same SIU team we beat by an entire point in 2004. Was our program on the decline then too?
Still shouldn't play SIU. It's the same reason it's dumb for schools like Illinois and Northwestern to play NIU.
It shows NIU does not have the talent to hold a big lead over a 1-aa or subdivision school as they are calling it now. A loss like this says everything about NIU football and what it says is not good. This program is pretty bad right now and there is no plan in place to make it better that i see.
A program with 7 consecutive winning season is not bad right now no matter how you try to spin it.