Another solid, solid game by Northwestern. Nothing fancy, just lunch pail stuff play after play.
1. Ramsey: Mr. Third Down. Just like the team, nothing fancy but does everything well and plays best on big downs. He's not quite Persa but he is in the same mold, which is extremely praise.
2. RBs: Mostly shut down, but takes a lot of discipline to stick with a balanced attack. Bowser still doesn't look as nimble as he did 2 yrs ago, not sure if that's his health, the OL or something else. Anderson is a change of pace who will get a big play every dozen carries and keep the D honest on the edges. It's RB by committee--we don't have a star but they are doing the work.
3. OL: I'm no expert here. Seemed to have pretty good pass protection, not many holes for the RBs--maybe by design for Purdue and Neal is an absolute load. We seem to miss Slater a bit.
4. WRs: I love how many guys are involved and pretty effective. Once again nobody spectacular but everyone does their job, very few drops all year. Also give credit to Ramsey for accuracy and throwing catchable balls into the numbers. Are we underusing the TE? Skowronek could've taken the O to another level, he's clearly a stud even on a national title contender.
5. DL: Beast run defense all day, just like every game. Not a lot of pure pass rushers here but they do their job and let the LBs and DBs make big plays.
6. LBs: Solid as always. Maybe not their best game, but their usual excellent play.
7. DBs: Newsome hung with their stud WR all day. Yes Newsome gets a little handsy and has gotten a lot of PI calls, but one or two were bogus and a couple others were borderline. Clearly they are willing to take the PI over giving up the big play. And Newsome was always in good position. I don't know how we keep finding stud DBs every year when this used to be our biggest weakness for years. Would an offensive minded coach put one or two of these guys on offense, they clearly seem to be great athletes.
8. Game got a little close for comfort with the last Purdue TD. Keeping in mind that it required a lucky tip ball 3rd down catch for a first down and a couple miraculous move the pocket runs by their RB. On the one where he rumbled 4 or 5 extra yards for the first down after being hit, I realize that the only guys in position to push him back were DBs and they were just not big enough.
9. It seems like we're getting more penalties than usual this year, maybe due to the crazy Covid year it's just hard to get down the same attention to detail. But otherwise we are as well coached a program as any in the country. We have been very good for the past 5+ seasons other than last year--and I truly believe that with a healthy TJ Green we would've had a winning record. Even if Ramsey is better than Green, we see how much it matters just to have an experienced guy who makes the right decisions and can be accurate.
1. Ramsey: Mr. Third Down. Just like the team, nothing fancy but does everything well and plays best on big downs. He's not quite Persa but he is in the same mold, which is extremely praise.
2. RBs: Mostly shut down, but takes a lot of discipline to stick with a balanced attack. Bowser still doesn't look as nimble as he did 2 yrs ago, not sure if that's his health, the OL or something else. Anderson is a change of pace who will get a big play every dozen carries and keep the D honest on the edges. It's RB by committee--we don't have a star but they are doing the work.
3. OL: I'm no expert here. Seemed to have pretty good pass protection, not many holes for the RBs--maybe by design for Purdue and Neal is an absolute load. We seem to miss Slater a bit.
4. WRs: I love how many guys are involved and pretty effective. Once again nobody spectacular but everyone does their job, very few drops all year. Also give credit to Ramsey for accuracy and throwing catchable balls into the numbers. Are we underusing the TE? Skowronek could've taken the O to another level, he's clearly a stud even on a national title contender.
5. DL: Beast run defense all day, just like every game. Not a lot of pure pass rushers here but they do their job and let the LBs and DBs make big plays.
6. LBs: Solid as always. Maybe not their best game, but their usual excellent play.
7. DBs: Newsome hung with their stud WR all day. Yes Newsome gets a little handsy and has gotten a lot of PI calls, but one or two were bogus and a couple others were borderline. Clearly they are willing to take the PI over giving up the big play. And Newsome was always in good position. I don't know how we keep finding stud DBs every year when this used to be our biggest weakness for years. Would an offensive minded coach put one or two of these guys on offense, they clearly seem to be great athletes.
8. Game got a little close for comfort with the last Purdue TD. Keeping in mind that it required a lucky tip ball 3rd down catch for a first down and a couple miraculous move the pocket runs by their RB. On the one where he rumbled 4 or 5 extra yards for the first down after being hit, I realize that the only guys in position to push him back were DBs and they were just not big enough.
9. It seems like we're getting more penalties than usual this year, maybe due to the crazy Covid year it's just hard to get down the same attention to detail. But otherwise we are as well coached a program as any in the country. We have been very good for the past 5+ seasons other than last year--and I truly believe that with a healthy TJ Green we would've had a winning record. Even if Ramsey is better than Green, we see how much it matters just to have an experienced guy who makes the right decisions and can be accurate.
