Saturday, September 18, 2010
Two in a Row of Directional Illinois
Quality win today at honme over a game NIU Husky squad from DeKalb. These guys always seem to find a way to go bowling in December. But not today: Good Guys 28 / NIU 22. And the final score was representative of the game itself. It was a defensive struggle until late in the contest.
What impressed me most was the way we got up early, then fell behind, then seized the lead for good and pulled away late. In prior campaigns, this would have been over in the 2nd quarter. And wow, 319 yards on the ground to go along with 70 through the air, and no interceptions. With LeShoure and Ford, we pounded NIU for 6.5 yards / carry with those 470 pounds of rushing mass. We also won the time of possession. I see a formula for success going forward.
On the downside, we have to get a handle on penalties, 8 for 85 yards. Many of these were drive killers. Going forward, we'll need to clean those up if we want to beat the best in the conference and make a serious for a bowl game. Additionally, the defense was effective but ended up yielding 390 yards to a balanced HUSKY attack. And the passing game needs to be more efficient / productive. I don't expect it to win too many games in 2010, but we have to do better than 50% and 70 yards.
Next week is our bye before we open-up confernce play in November against Ohio State.
What impressed me most was the way we got up early, then fell behind, then seized the lead for good and pulled away late. In prior campaigns, this would have been over in the 2nd quarter. And wow, 319 yards on the ground to go along with 70 through the air, and no interceptions. With LeShoure and Ford, we pounded NIU for 6.5 yards / carry with those 470 pounds of rushing mass. We also won the time of possession. I see a formula for success going forward.
On the downside, we have to get a handle on penalties, 8 for 85 yards. Many of these were drive killers. Going forward, we'll need to clean those up if we want to beat the best in the conference and make a serious for a bowl game. Additionally, the defense was effective but ended up yielding 390 yards to a balanced HUSKY attack. And the passing game needs to be more efficient / productive. I don't expect it to win too many games in 2010, but we have to do better than 50% and 70 yards.
Next week is our bye before we open-up confernce play in November against Ohio State.
