Feels Better Than a Loss

But not much!  Weird feeling on the way out of the stadium on Saturday.  I could not help thinking how different I would have felt if we had beat USC by a last second field goal.  But it is all about expectations and the pundits told us to expect a win by 14 points.  So of course we are disappointed.  I kind of felt like we were winning the whole time but the score did not reflect that.  We ran up a lot of yards through the air but did not cash in for enough points.

Bad news:

What happened to the run game?  We came out from the first play clearly wanting to pass.  The Purdue d-line was good but we did not even seem to try to establish a run game.  The Colonel and I agree that is a head scratcher.  Was hoping for more from the offensive line.  Of course you have to look beyond the stats as many of the sweep tosses were officially passes but actually more of a long hand off in practice.  I liked that play to get our RBs around the end quick, it seemed to work well throughout the game.

Key turnover late near our end zone obviously hurt.  We have to stop doing that.  Not sure what all the final dispositions will be with the injuries so that is scary but hopefully not permanent damage.  Wasted timeouts were frustrating; we were fortunate that we did not need them at a critical time later.

Good news:

Defense played pretty good all day and did not give up a lot of big plays.  A few missed tackles can be corrected.  We have a great backup QB!  And Tommy is right where he belongs:  a solid sub who can run the offense under pressure.  But Golson is the man.  He can play and he can make all the throws.  Was particularly impressed by his mobility; the guy extends plays which really makes a difference in the Kelly scheme.  Guys get open if the QB buys a little more time and there were several big plays that EG made happen with one juke.  He did get sacked a few times but I hope he will learn to throw it away a bit more as the Colonel suggested. 

A LOT of front line players went down with injuries and the subs stepped in to play well.  Very encouraging.  The big positive is that we drove down the field at the end when we had to win the game.  Again, the mojo this year is different.  How often were the Irish on the other end of that story in recent years?

Hey it is a W, so we move on to MSU.   We are #20 (hmmm) and they are in the top 10 so the game will attract attention.  This is a key lever in the season.  If we lose we can make it up against Michigan.  If we win, the expectations for the Michigan game go through the roof..  But I want a win like you do.

Go Irish!  Beat Spartans!