Northern Illinois @ Minnesota: What we learned

This young Gopher fan found better things to watch than the 4th Qtr
Photo by JT

Another gut wrenching loss.  What can you say that hasn't already been uttered in an overheard expletive laced tirade on the post-game walk to your car. Another glorious evening for football at The Bank, made ruinous by poor run blocking, and even poorer tackling. Sigh.  Losing at home is not a habit I'd like to see develop.  But it's happening.  At least last year, we respectably defended our home turf with a winning record (4-3), with respectable losses to Cal and Wisconsin, and Illinois in a headscratcher.  We seemed to own the night with the Air Force and Michigan State wins with some timely (if not lucky) bounces that went our way.  That all seems so distant now.  Truly, my confidence in the Brewster regime is all but dead.  Only an improbable run in the conference schedule will restore it to at least measurable levels.

Now NIU is no pushover MAC team, but they certainly aren't USC either.  Yet they came in and pretty much did the same damn thing to us that SoCal did.  Ran the ball down our throats.  Life seemed so much simpler 2 weeks ago, when we could just blame our pass defense on the inexperience of Christyn Lews and James Manuel (or conversley the suspension of Theret and the injury to Royston).  Now that we've been gashed in both the pass and run, the defensive troubles seem so much more, well, troubling.  The Huskies managed 34 points on the Gophers, in only 23 minutes of possession.  Disgraceful.


Clearly NIU head coach Jerry Kill saw something on our tape vs. USC that he liked.  I'm guessing it was the way our linebackers seem to always be 1 or 2 steps out of position, leaving major running holes wide open. Going into this game I thought we were going to get 'Dante Warren-ed' to death by a better and more experienced Chandler Harnish. Turns out, they didn't even need him to do much more than be a caretaker for the offense, letting Chad Spann carry the load.  In that limited time NIU had the ball, Spann managed to rack up 223 yards on just 15 carries.  Yeah, that's nearly 11 ypc.  You'd think Barry Sanders or Gale Sayers was lining up across from us with those kind of numbers. And Harnish's legs? Well, he seemed to be the one player we actually did scheme for, and his runs were held in check. But that isn't  worth much when the halfback lining up behind him can just get you 10 yards a crack.

This looks like a stout  bunch in the Maroon.  Key word - 'looks'.
Photo by JT

At the beginning of this season, I really did believe that the front 7 of this team would continually improve and ultimately become the strength of this defense.  They certainly appear to be an athletic enough group.  Chalk their performance up to inexperience and poor coaching?  I suppose so, but my confidence in Cosgrove is virtually gone, to say nothing of Brewster.  Last year I feld like Cosgrove had really maximized the talent on our defense, making them a cohesive unit that kept us in games all season.  This year, I am really at loss for what has happened so far, and how things will progress/regress into th future.  Perhaps all the Nebraska and Wisconsin Cosgrove-haters  who warned us had it right?  
 
On offense, OC Horton again tried valiantly to establish the run, but simply could not. Our longest run from scrimmage was a measly 12 yards, and the one explosive run we did muster (Bennett's 3rd quarter sprint to the east endzone) was called back on a hold. NIU's defensive rotations (6-man line shifts) seemed to keep them from getting worn down later in the game, and kept running room difficult all game.  And once again, Weber was serviceable and didn't do anything to cost us the game (although that desparation shovel pass was an absolutely dreadful decision).  He padded his stats again late in the game on some nice drives that ultimately just closed the margin of victory for NIU.  MarQueis again looked the part of a potential All-Big Ten WR (maybe Dave Mona wasn't insane for claiming that?). 

Thumbs down Gophers, you let my boys down
Photo by JT

 
But I need to stay positive here. There were some aspects about last Saturday's gameday that I did like:
1) The weather. Just about a perfect evening for football. Fireworks at the half were nice too.
2) My entire family taking in a Gopher football game (as we like to do as a full group annually), including my two boys getting to go to their first game at The Bank!
3) The Ski-U-Brat. Tasty, but the brat itself needs to be a bit larger, to match the scale of the bun.
4) Fresh mini donuts. Sweet and delicious. 
5) "Goldy's Groove" in the 3rd Quarter. Attention TCF Bank Stadium Operations Manger(s) - keep this feature. I'm all about anyway we can incorporate Earth, Wind, and Fire in to gameday.  And 'Let's Groove Tonight' did inspire some excellent fan dancing.  How about next week we rock Funkadelic's 'One Nation Under a Groove'?
6) MarQueis Gray. He's real good at WR. He's not fumbling the ball. And Weber is finding him  I like it. 

So there were plenty of reasons to enjoy myself. Just not football. Well, except for MarQueis Gray.  He can actually play football.


Fireworks. I enjoy them even when losing.  Photo by JT

So how is this team going fare against Northwestern?  The 4-0 Wildcats haven't won a single game convincingly against less than impressive opponents. Like most of our games versus the Mildcats, I expect a shootout.  And tomorrow we should have our first of several weekly opposing views from a fan of our current Big Ten opponent.  This week, my friend and Northwestern alum, TKL will be putting together a preview of his own of the game. He's also using my tickets, as I can't get up to the Twin Cities for a 4th straight weekend. Before you scoff at my selling season ticket seats to the enemy, remember this is a Northwestern guy, not some Badger jackhole or Hawkeye d-bag.  And Northwestern alumni will always beat the rest of the Big Ten alums in 'gentlemanly-like behavior' at all sporting events.  Except for that one NU fan who got ejected from Welsh-Ryan Arena last year for yelling at Ed Hightower.  But then, who hasn't yelled at Ed Hightower?  So no worries, he'll behave himself and be respectful.  And he's graciously agreed to share with us what he thinks of our new digs and the upgraded 'college football on campus' atmosphere.

And what did we learn?  I learned that we can't even stop a MAC team's running game.  I learned that our offensive line cannot create running lanes against a MAC team.  But I also learned that the most beautiful of autumn nights cannot quite be ruined by gross incompetence.   And finally, I learned that I learned that having your wife and kids smiling at the game only goes so far, and that eventually you just need to abandon your family and grab a beer.  Thanks for being there Mr. Omar Douglas Redux.  That Surly Furious on tap at Stub and Herbs we had went a long way to soothe my nerves.  And as my favorite beer, Surly Furious shall become the first of our Crew's Brews we highlight, as we suffer through this season and find different beers to ease the pain (stay tuned for more of our GEHG's Crew's Brews). Ethanol is needed to survive our Big Ten season and brutal remaining home schedule.  Beer is the vehicle.