Our offence offline is a great match line but I get the big boys cannot hold up. Jordan inches fast but they were faster. The defense as a whole played their hearts out. Florida State is a very good football team. Finally I was not embarrassed by the performance niu displayed

The game was what I expected. I was hoping for a miracle, but it just did not happen. There were lots of mistakes, the play calling was questionable, and the refs made some quite questionable calls. If we would have made it closer, I would have been thrilled. Tough to sit through a game like this without being inebriated. On to next year.

Now, let's all get together and cheer the basketball team on to a victory sometime over the next couple months.

We played well on defense, and our offense wasn't good last night. We showed some life, but overall it was not our best performance. We leared what we need to do next year though. Our lines need to get bigger and faster, they were barely able to open holes and get pressure. That eliminated our running game and gave them plenty of time to throw. We need more playmakers for Lynch, that was a huge exposure last night. Moore played well, but dropped a few, and the running game was nearly non existant. We have a long off-season to get everything straightened out and get ready to beat Iowa next year. Let's hope recruiting goes well and we can sign some playmakers and continue to improve our line play.

Thanks for a great season Huskies! you made us all proud.

Thought the fumble call was the critical play. It basically gave the FB game to FSU. Didn't agree with the call. Being able to hit on those open deep routes would have also been a game changer. It's the one thing that MAC teams don't collectively do very well that the better BCS teams can do. Thought the game was a great experience for NIU.
Huskie fans I thought did themselves proud on a national stage.

(01-02-2013 09:40 AM)UnknownScout Wrote:  We played well on defense, and our offense wasn't good last night. We showed some life, but overall it was not our best performance. We leared what we need to do next year though. Our lines need to get bigger and faster, they were barely able to open holes and get pressure. That eliminated our running game and gave them plenty of time to throw. We need more playmakers for Lynch, that was a huge exposure last night. Moore played well, but dropped a few, and the running game was nearly non existant. We have a long off-season to get everything straightened out and get ready to beat Iowa next year. Let's hope recruiting goes well and we can sign some playmakers and continue to improve our line play.

Thanks for a great season Huskies! you made us all proud.

+1

A great showing by our fans. Proud moment

I was disapointed that they did not play their best. Even if they had FSU probably would have won but it could have been real tight like 3 or 7 points only. I've gone long ways to see college football games and can say that I have been much more deflated twice before and dont consider last night a blowout, now Clemson getting beat by West Virginia in the Orange bowl 70-33 last year that was a blowout. Or Nebraska getting beat 63-35 in last game against Colorado and still making it to a national title game where they got blown out again by Miami 42-13. So we ought not to downgrade ourselves.
However cruddy you might feel to see Huskies lose at least you did not have to walk 4 hours last night from 1230 to 430 from Sun Life to Hollywood Beach like I had to. Cant believe all the huskie fans turned me down for a lift last night, I would have paid them 25$ for their help. I think it was about 12 miles for sure and that was a tiring walk believe me.
Personally when TCU blew out NIU in 2006 and I went to San Diego to watch that debacle was I more deflated or going to see my brothers school Illinois in 1984 get beat by UCLA 45-9 when they were 10-1 and ucla was only 6-4-1 and that was a truly embarassing defeat. Ours last night was nothing like that and I should think those knowing the game of college football discovered some new found respect for Northern.

game was and also wasnt quite what I forecasted /expected.

I told those I was with NYDay including three NIU alums that the final score would sadly be something like 37-9 and NIU would score some consolation points late.

Anyone with a PULSE AND BRAIN understood how NIU was outmanned across the board.

NIU D was awesome and took a step up to meet the challenge. There was fight in them dawgs late into third quarter until the INT and questionable fumble ruling.

I was proud of the Huskies for their efforts.

Two well executed high risk surprise plays gave NIU life.

Lynch had a subpar game but Noles D had much to do with it.

Huskie receivers uncharacteristically left a few plays on the field.

I was pleased with how Carey handled the entire bowl experience, game prep and opening up the O second half. If there were doubts about his selection for the years ahead, they were IMHO mostly removed.

Tremendous good and little bad to post regarding what the Orange Bowl bid and Huskies ' performance means for the program. Yea we mighta played a bit better at key moments but Huskies were facing a D unlike anything we faced this or most any other season.

2013 and opening game cannot arrive soon enuff.

Thanks to all who made this year something very, very special: players, coaches, alums, students and athletic dept.

Yeah, the game played out about like I expected it would when I really thought about it. I knew FSU would have to have some defensive lapses that our guys exploited in order to really get going offensively. I felt like our defense could play an even game with FSU's offense, and they would have held up better if it weren't for those second half turnovers by our offense.

But I'm a fan. And I'm grieving for the dream- that whatever % chance of winning there was going in, that feeling right after the onside kick and before the pick, where the offense looked effective. I know I shouldn't, but I wanted that validation for this program that would have come- I loved the excitement our guys showed when there was a shot- and wanted them to have that Boise moment.

That feeling, seeing our guys on that field, the looks of shared pride any time you saw other Huskies, I want that again. This wasn't supposed to be the peak year- this was literally beyond my dreams for this season.

Aside from it's effect on national ranking, one other disadvantage to playing a weak schedule is you do not find out where your real needs are until they get exposed in the big bowl game.

Remember the 06 Huskies? Just keep giving it to Wolfe, and noone's going to stop him. Until TCU stopped him. Now what do we do?

The Huskies of the last few years have had a good grip on how to beat even the best of MAC teams. Now Rod Carey can build a team designed to beat FSU.

Definitely odd rooting for the huskies.... they did the MAC proud. I think losing your coach before the bowl did not help much, and having the OC doing double duty on the sideline may have been an issue with adjusting in time with teh speed of the game.

ALL in ALL... this Bronco fan is proud of the Huskies.

(01-02-2013 01:12 PM)Huskie_Jon Wrote:  Aside from it's effect on national ranking, one other disadvantage to playing a weak schedule is you do not find out where your real needs are until they get exposed in the big bowl game.

Remember the 06 Huskies? Just keep giving it to Wolfe, and noone's going to stop him. Until TCU stopped him. Now what do we do?

The Huskies of the last few years have had a good grip on how to beat even the best of MAC teams. Now Rod Carey can build a team designed to beat FSU.

We did have some sense where we were, but probably didn't want to believe it. We didn't do much offensively against Iowa, thought I didn't want to read too much into that since it was the first start for Lynch and O-line. We struggled to beat Kansas too though, and those were 2 teams that probably had bigger lines than we did, unlike most of our MAC opponents. In 2006 there were other games where the other team stopped Wolfe and we couldn't respond with the passing game.

Overall, I think it was a good learning experience for the whole team. How often will they get to play a team with a defense like that? NIU's defense played well for most of the game (the haters naturally just blame FSU's offense though). Teams can rack up yardage against us but points are what counts. Defense was put in bad spots but generally acquitted themselves well. This was almost a home game for FSU too.

Excited for next year and proud as hell this year. I have to be a sicko, all I can think about is Iowa, want this one pretty bad. Our Oline will be buttoned up, QB, epic, and our D will be back. All signs point to a great season. We need a W at Iowa, we have to have one, anything else will be miserable for me.

BEAT IOWA