Wisconsin Week Pressers
- Thread starter Mavric
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Undone
Well-known member
I think that second statement deserves some unpacking.
No, you're not going to win a national championship and you're not going to beat Michigan or Ohio State in a conference title game "keeping it simple" with the athletes we have right now. That's a true statement. But he's creating a false dichotomy there.
A critical late 4th quarter situation is not equal to a conversation about the bigger picture. The program has to stop screwing up late in the 4th quarter to even be in the conversation about winning at a high level. And he's had two games where this happened on his watch.
I know he said over and over that he took blame for not getting points on that last drive and I love that, but that second statement in the quote is a big deflection.
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ColoradoHusk
Well-known member
What was the other game besides Maryland? I don’t count Minnesota as the INT at the goal line was before halftime and NU was trailing at the time. Going for a TD in that situation was the correct call. Plus, they didn’t know that Sims was going to be a turnover machine that he ended up being?
Undone
Well-known member
I can argue that putting Grant in over Ervin in the middle of the 4th was a bad coaching decision. Obviously this board has discussed that ad nauseum. So yes, referring to Minnesota as the other one.
But the bigger point I was making is that keeping it simple sometimes is exactly what you need to win a game in the 4th quarter.
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ColoradoHusk
Well-known member
NU was keeping it simple against Minnesota when Grant fumbled, but I won’t beat that horse to death. Agree that Rhule should have played it conservatively against Maryland. I said immediately after the game that it was the first game that coaching cost NU the game.
F
Fru
Guest
Agreed. It’s a wild thing to say at this point. Playing it simple there probably gets this programs first bowl appearance in 6 years. It was a breathtakingly stupid decision.
Undone
Well-known member
Yeah and I'm really nowhere close to being in the "fire Satterfield after the Iowa game" crowd. I think the assessment that his play calling is bad across the board isn't really that accurate.
There's no way we beat Colorado or Michigan with different play calling. So, there are 2 out of our current 5 losses that for me aren't on play calling at all.
Michigan State was just a slug fest between two bad teams.
Then in the case of the Minnesota & Maryland game the glaring problem was turnovers (and even false starts in the Minnesota game's case).
But just one more time back to the point I was making: if we can't execute simple how are we going to execute "not simple?"
ColoradoHusk
Well-known member
Agree 100%. its been overreaction theater with some of the fan base this season.
Regardless of any in-game OC decision, this is a 1-loss season so far with simply average QB play (and that's despite the injury and o-line challenges).
ColoradoHusk
Well-known member
I disagree that it’s only a 1-loss season with average QB play. NU got smoked against CU and Michigan, and who knows how other games end up. Other teams may play more aggressively against NU’s defense if NU had a better offense.
BigRedBuster
International Man of Mystery
Agree. Maybe it puts an added spark into our defense to hold them away from the other end of the field. It would have put more pressure on Maryland's offense. But, if Maryland does the same thing, we are into overtime. Maybe, Maryland goes for the win on 4th down and wins in regulation.
But....yes....it would have put us in a much better situation.
Too much emphasis on the final score and not how the game arrived at that point. CU's offense is the only team that actually has the talent to have tried to be more aggressive if needed (in this hypothetical).