http://www.rrstar.com/carousel/x17812526...e-BCS-runs

Fantastic article, worth the read. I would also recommend clicking the share button and text/email this article to friends not on this board. Would help the hits on the article.

From the article:

Quote:“Games like this always come down to running the football and stopping the run, and we could not run the football well enough,” Carey told reporters after the game.

That’s the type of thinking that just got Lovie Smith fired from the Bears.

Matt Trowbridge has been a long time friend of the Huskies. He was writing favorable articles when no one else was writing about NIU.

GO HUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree the game plan was too conservative. I think the only ball we threw over the middle of the field was the touchdown play. And obviously watching Lynch run into our OL and get tackled after a one yard gain was frustrating.

That being said, starting out with an overly aggressive strategy could have backfired horribly. The game might have been out of reach after the first or second quarter if we have a turnover or two early. We didn't give our skill players a lot of opportunity to make plays, but there were some, and they didn't make them. Lynch had a rough game and the FSU DL is phenomenal.

I love that the outlook is good next season but I am not getting my hopes up like Ohio fans did this past season.

The MAC is a tough conference to win every game along with the MACC and Carey has yet to win a game.

(01-06-2013 02:02 PM)armour248 Wrote:  I agree the game plan was too conservative. I think the only ball we threw over the middle of the field was the touchdown play. And obviously watching Lynch run into our OL and get tackled after a one yard gain was frustrating.

That being said, starting out with an overly aggressive strategy could have backfired horribly. The game might have been out of reach after the first or second quarter if we have a turnover or two early. We didn't give our skill players a lot of opportunity to make plays, but there were some, and they didn't make them. Lynch had a rough game and the FSU DL is phenomenal.

And discussions using the FSU game as "this is what we need to improve upon based upon FSU", need to be taken with a little bit of grain of salt because we are talking about what we need to do to compete at national championship level. NIU would have had a much easier time with Notre Dame than FSU.

(01-06-2013 02:02 PM)armour248 Wrote:  I agree the game plan was too conservative. I think the only ball we threw over the middle of the field was the touchdown play. And obviously watching Lynch run into our OL and get tackled after a one yard gain was frustrating.

That being said, starting out with an overly aggressive strategy could have backfired horribly. The game might have been out of reach after the first or second quarter if we have a turnover or two early. We didn't give our skill players a lot of opportunity to make plays, but there were some, and they didn't make them. Lynch had a rough game and the FSU DL is phenomenal.

Carey was extremely aggressive on special teams but extremely conservative on the offensive side. I would like to have seen more calcuated risks on offense and a consistent philosophy throughout all phases of the game. We all knew we weren't going to be able to run against FSU with our base offense. We knew we had to take what they gave us and not try to take what wasn't there. I would just like to have seen us try to set up the run with more bubble screens and passes to the flat to Akeem and/or Wells. I think that would have calmed Lynch down a bit and given him confidence. What really frustrated me was that the screen played a prominent role in our game-planning according to Rittenberg's inside BCS preparation story, but it played such a minor role during the game itself although we've been a great screen team throughout the season. SIGH....
However, I am confident Carey will grow quickly as a head coach and work his butt off to help us try to get back to the promised land next year.

(01-07-2013 10:53 AM)badmoonrising13 Wrote:  

(01-06-2013 02:02 PM)armour248 Wrote:  I agree the game plan was too conservative. I think the only ball we threw over the middle of the field was the touchdown play. And obviously watching Lynch run into our OL and get tackled after a one yard gain was frustrating.

That being said, starting out with an overly aggressive strategy could have backfired horribly. The game might have been out of reach after the first or second quarter if we have a turnover or two early. We didn't give our skill players a lot of opportunity to make plays, but there were some, and they didn't make them. Lynch had a rough game and the FSU DL is phenomenal.

Carey was extremely aggressive on special teams but extremely conservative on the offensive side. I would like to have seen more calcuated risks on offense and a consistent philosophy throughout all phases of the game. We all knew we weren't going to be able to run against FSU with our base offense. We knew we had to take what they gave us and not try to take what wasn't there. I would just like to have seen us try to set up the run with more bubble screens and passes to the flat to Akeem and/or Wells. I think that would have calmed Lynch down a bit and given him confidence. What really frustrated me was that the screen played a prominent role in our game-planning according to Rittenberg's inside BCS preparation story, but it played such a minor role during the game itself although we've been a great screen team throughout the season. SIGH....
However, I am confident Carey will grow quickly as a head coach and work his butt off to help us try to get back to the promised land next year.

+1. Completely agree with your assessment.

(01-07-2013 10:58 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 10:53 AM)badmoonrising13 Wrote:  

(01-06-2013 02:02 PM)armour248 Wrote:  I agree the game plan was too conservative. I think the only ball we threw over the middle of the field was the touchdown play. And obviously watching Lynch run into our OL and get tackled after a one yard gain was frustrating.

That being said, starting out with an overly aggressive strategy could have backfired horribly. The game might have been out of reach after the first or second quarter if we have a turnover or two early. We didn't give our skill players a lot of opportunity to make plays, but there were some, and they didn't make them. Lynch had a rough game and the FSU DL is phenomenal.

Carey was extremely aggressive on special teams but extremely conservative on the offensive side. I would like to have seen more calcuated risks on offense and a consistent philosophy throughout all phases of the game. We all knew we weren't going to be able to run against FSU with our base offense. We knew we had to take what they gave us and not try to take what wasn't there. I would just like to have seen us try to set up the run with more bubble screens and passes to the flat to Akeem and/or Wells. I think that would have calmed Lynch down a bit and given him confidence. What really frustrated me was that the screen played a prominent role in our game-planning according to Rittenberg's inside BCS preparation story, but it played such a minor role during the game itself although we've been a great screen team throughout the season. SIGH....
However, I am confident Carey will grow quickly as a head coach and work his butt off to help us try to get back to the promised land next year.

+1. Completely agree with your assessment.

Guys, Lynch was 14-41 passing in the game. They tried to throw all sorts of stuff in the flats, but he put so much heat on it that nobody could handle the passes. I grew frustrated, too, with the QB powers that went nowhere. But when your QB can't hit the broad side of a barn that night until two hours into the game, you're pretty limited in what you can do offensively.

(01-06-2013 01:51 PM)huskiebob Wrote:  From the article:

Quote:“Games like this always come down to running the football and stopping the run, and we could not run the football well enough,” Carey told reporters after the game.

That’s the type of thinking that just got Lovie Smith fired from the Bears.

There are also plenty of teams that are poised to take over NIU's spot as MAC Champion.

The 2013 Huskies will have a tougher schedule than the 2012 team, and one mistep could have them watching someone else go to Detroit.

On the other hand, they could get even better.

Daniels was slowed by a foot problem so that is probably why he wasn't used more. Going forward we should never be intimidated by going to a big 10 or any other road game. I would think that we are favorites to win all of our games next year. Iowa and Purdue should be games we win. In conference Ball State is probably our biggest challenge. Don't see UT or KSU being huge threats. I would expect KSU to slip back and UT looses a lot on D and Owens hasn't proven to be the QB to take them to the championship.

While we loose a fair amount on Defense, our use of 7 or 8 players on the line pays large dividends next year. Windsor and Wells should step in as starters; Ippolito and Baltimore are bigger ends that can rotate with Rainey and Meehan; Jones was a fairly highly touted DT and Corey Thomas could be the sleeper. Would love to see Zach Anderson finally make a push for significant playing time.

I just hope that another MAC team can get to the BCS, whether it's us or not. The MAC had a great OOC season, but not a good Bowl run. Hopefully the conference continues to get better and win some of these big OOC games. I would like nothing better than to beat both Iowa and Purdue next season. A tall tale considering both are on the road, but if we do, then it only strengthens the conference standing.

As the old Houston Oiler coach, Bum Phillips would say. We knocked on the door, we beat on the door, next year we are going to kick that mother in!

And going into next season "Orange Bowl" or "BCS Buster" might as well be part of our name. Every team will be bringing a little extra against to take NIU down a notch. Iowa and Purdue will want to "put us in our place" I'm sure.

(01-07-2013 11:04 AM)cawoo22 Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 10:58 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 10:53 AM)badmoonrising13 Wrote:  

(01-06-2013 02:02 PM)armour248 Wrote:  I agree the game plan was too conservative. I think the only ball we threw over the middle of the field was the touchdown play. And obviously watching Lynch run into our OL and get tackled after a one yard gain was frustrating.

That being said, starting out with an overly aggressive strategy could have backfired horribly. The game might have been out of reach after the first or second quarter if we have a turnover or two early. We didn't give our skill players a lot of opportunity to make plays, but there were some, and they didn't make them. Lynch had a rough game and the FSU DL is phenomenal.

Carey was extremely aggressive on special teams but extremely conservative on the offensive side. I would like to have seen more calcuated risks on offense and a consistent philosophy throughout all phases of the game. We all knew we weren't going to be able to run against FSU with our base offense. We knew we had to take what they gave us and not try to take what wasn't there. I would just like to have seen us try to set up the run with more bubble screens and passes to the flat to Akeem and/or Wells. I think that would have calmed Lynch down a bit and given him confidence. What really frustrated me was that the screen played a prominent role in our game-planning according to Rittenberg's inside BCS preparation story, but it played such a minor role during the game itself although we've been a great screen team throughout the season. SIGH....
However, I am confident Carey will grow quickly as a head coach and work his butt off to help us try to get back to the promised land next year.

+1. Completely agree with your assessment.

Guys, Lynch was 14-41 passing in the game. They tried to throw all sorts of stuff in the flats, but he put so much heat on it that nobody could handle the passes. I grew frustrated, too, with the QB powers that went nowhere. But when your QB can't hit the broad side of a barn that night until two hours into the game, you're pretty limited in what you can do offensively.

We all saw that Jordan had an off night, but when I watched the replay he was very successful on the two bubble screens we did throw and the quick passes to the flat to the slot or RB. I thought Carey could have done a better job playcalling to alleviate Jordan's off night with the quick, short passes. When Jordan had that 400-yard passing game, bubble screens were most of his completions. I am still disappointed but in the big picture we had an amazing, amazing season. I feel like I shouldn't be complaining and being very greedy. Human nature.

Niu wont make a bcs bowl even if they go 12-0!!!! No way no how! Not after what just happened....

(01-07-2013 04:16 PM)Philly1021 Wrote:  Niu wont make a bcs bowl even if they go 12-0!!!! No way no how! Not after what just happened....

Well ya. At 12-0 we would still have to win our conference championship game to get the AQ along with being ranked higher than another non-AQ.

(01-07-2013 04:22 PM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 04:16 PM)Philly1021 Wrote:  Niu wont make a bcs bowl even if they go 12-0!!!! No way no how! Not after what just happened....

Well ya. At 12-0 we would still have to win our conference championship game to get the AQ along with being ranked higher than another non-AQ.

Problem is you have to get voted high enough! Nobody will vote y'all that high next year because they will say remember what happened last year!

(01-07-2013 04:16 PM)Philly1021 Wrote:  Niu wont make a bcs bowl even if they go 12-0!!!! No way no how! Not after what just happened....

If we're 12-0, well 13-0 since we'd have to win the conference championship game, we'd be a better team than we were this year. Even then it would require other teams to lose, and get ranked lower than us. Could happen. But I'm just hoping to be in the running for the MAC West title again. That's where it starts, along with beating Iowa and Purdue.

(01-07-2013 04:16 PM)Philly1021 Wrote:  Niu wont make a bcs bowl even if they go 12-0!!!! No way no how! Not after what just happened....

Whats with all the haters.. you'd think we were stealing their grandma's walkers from them while crossing the street.