Reading some of these NU threads lately, it's almost as if I walked into a bar and there were several guys sitting around a table muttering, "We suck. We Suck" into their beers. There might be some truth to it, but it's not very attractive behavior.
Adam DePietro
- Thread starter loyolacat
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Willy's just embarrassed about how badly he screwed up for his unwillingness to put his money where his mouth is.
I like those guys but I confess I still think that OL is just serviceable against weaker opponents.
If you had been at those games, you would wonder where those people are the other home games because those games were great.
It's an indictment of Cats fans perhaps -- and supportive of your argument admittedly -- but two of those games were the only times in my entire Cat fandom that complete strangers gave me high fives.
We're just not that kind of fanbase but for those games, we were and it makes you wonder how we can catch it in a bottle like 1995-96-97-even98 again.
For fans who went to the Duke massacre leading off 1998 (which came off a very disappointing 1997 season), remember the crowd? Hot day but full stadium every bit as animated at kickoff as any time in late 1995. Of course then the Blue Devils demolished us and by then the crowd was dead and departing.
Clayton has an awesome arm, but his footwork and pocket presence are still under development.
Considering we have been manhandled at the LOS in 4 games that I can recall, we were three and out quite a bit. A football season is judged by the totality of performances, not just when we showed up and played well.
Still don't think Jackson is elusive. He breaks tackles and is very durable more than he makes people miss. Just my opinion and it does not mean that he lacks value. Typical reactionary Cats fan on here.
Oh my god. Do you watch the games? His ability to make guys miss at the line of scrimmage is rare. You are nuts.
You're totally right. He does it with such ease and sense of anticipation that it doesn't look like it takes much skill.
We were very close to beating Ohio State and Wisconsin and Wisconsin game all we needed was JJ to make that first down and 4 Clayton at the front on the 30-yard line that's 14 points if we going in the score against Ohio State we need to get a three-yard run
Actually elusive is the word I would use for JJTBC. Not bit or overly fast, just elusive.
I was on the sidelines for two of the three games in your first group while working for the team and in the stands for the rest of them. Does that mean NU fans were good for a week at a time or that we shouldn't argue the exception?
One of the announcers a few weeks ago was talking about his ability to both step sideways and actually run sideways, something very few backs can do as well. It makes him illusive in the open and "skinny" in the creases.
We disagree and it may be semantic or not. I feel he is great at breaking tackles more than he is great at making people miss. Those plays at the LOS involve quite a lot of contact and he doesn't go down easily. I feel this is different from the Barry Sanders style elusiveness where guys can't lay a hand on him.
I just see more Emmitt than Barry in JJ. Not that there's anything wrong with a durable back who breaks tackles and rarely fumbles but lacks top end speed.
At this point I could compare Thorson to Unitas and somebody would insist Thorson is more like Brady and what a poor NU fan I must be.
They're good players even great at times but they are not in my opinion thrilling game breakers. Welcome to disagree and understand why you feel the need to defend them since they're the current stars. I just enjoyed Tyrell, Venric, Persa, Bates, Autry on a different, greater level. Thorson still has plenty of time and Jackson is not done yet.
I don't know how you watch football, but Jackson's elusiveness is by far his greatest strength as a running back. With the amount of carries he gets and his relatively small size, he'd have two broken legs by now if he weren't elusive. You can't lack top-end speed, not be elusive and get three 1,000-yard seasons in a row.
JJTBC seems to have picked up a 0.1 second in his 40 time this year. But even he agreed last year that he didn't have great top end speed. I agree with you about elusiveness.
He has broken off some decent ones. I think I remember one of 57 yards. I guess the classic example of a successful back without great top-end speed is Walter Payton, who probably relied on power more than Jackson does. My all-time favorite combination of speed and elusiveness is still Gale Sayers. To this day, I've never seen a back who could cut better than him. And despite the fact that some guys had better dash times, I never saw him caught from behind until he was injured.
So you would say Jackson is similar to Sayers then? After all you say Jackson has top end speed and great elusiveness. Pfft.
I didn't say Jackson has great top-end speed. I said you can't lack both top-end speed and elusiveness and gain 1,000 yards for three straight seasons. Jackson does not have the speed of say, Barkley at Penn State, which is why he relies on the elusiveness that apparently everyone on this board except you seems to notice. And no, I was not comparing Jackson to Sayers. I just said Sayers was a great combination of speed AND elusiveness.
No, Sayers was way more fluid (sort of like Roderick Campbell
) and faster. I never saw Payton or Sayers in college but if JJ can add a more power with out losing speed or lateral ability he will draw more and more comparisons to Payton.
He needs to perfect his stiff arm and lower his shoulder to punish guys in the secondary especially when they are trying to push him out of bounds. I remember hearing a retired defender saying he hated to tackle Payton because he always chose the moment of impact and made the defender absorb the blow. You saw that over and over with Payton. He would see the guy coming and gather himself up to smash him.
JJ isn't that strong yet. That is one of the fun things about College ball, a guy like JJ will be one year stronger next year while the opposition will be one year younger.
I am old enough to have seen Sayers a whole bunch of times on television. In many years of watching college football I have never ever seen anyone with better moves than he had when he was healthy. Nobody. He did things that I didn't think were possible for a human to do. Sadly his professional career was cut short by repeated knee injuries. It should not be too difficult for anyone to Google and find old tapes of his. Prepare to be dazzled
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