Ouch! Alex Miller and Ben Oxley out for Duke
- Thread starter lou v
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Tables are ready, Kent and Saunders. We know what happened to Miller, but didn’t notice anything for Oxley.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see Spivak some reps. He’s kind of fun to watch, an extremely high-motor spark plug who’s probably 6-feet tall on a good day amongst the giants on the interior of the OL.
(Not going to get my hopes up and note that Thorson isn’t mentioned at all. Nope. Not gonna do it.)
You’re forgetting...Wyatt. Look for him and Kent on the 2nd team DT. We should be fine.
Already counted him as in the rotation, probably starting with both Miller and Oxley out. He’s a solid veteran presence who I figured would play more against Duke than Purdue given opponent tendencies; he’s much more stout against the run than the pass, which should play better against the Blue Devils than the Boilermakers.
More worried about a handful of younger DTs stepping into what could be a pretty physical game.
I might be missing somebody, but who else do we have? Wyatt will need to play well. Maybe Spivak can be the Butler of the DL. Local walk on made good.
Unless Carnifax is healthy, that’s about it. A couple injuries at one position in the same week will do one hell of a job on depth.
Against Duke’s spread/passing downs we can expect to see Goens inside purely for athleticism. Fortunately Duke is not as much of an inside run team but the concern is keeping the LBs free on zone plays.
Gaziano is a better player, period. The real question is NU better off with Gaziano at DE and Goens at DT or the reverse. If those are the choices, I think the latter is the better option.
It’s not great, but if there’s any single position that NU can weather 2 injuries on the 2-deep in a single week, this is probably it.
It seems like we have more people who could fill-in at defensive end than defensive tackle, which might be a reason to move Gaz inside even though he is a better pass rusher.
It looked like he grabbed his ankle but how it looks on TV and what the injury is has surprised me before.
Not the type of injuries you want facing a good QB. They'll need to get a rush on this guy, and fresh bodies help.
Sounds like the infamous and dreaded HAS (high ankle sprain) Hope he gets back by MICH
I was at the game and sitting just to the left behind our bench. Alex's ankle was wobbly coming off the field and he went into the injury tent twice. After the first visit, he tried to run and really could not - so, he went back in. After the second visit, he seemed pretty nimble. He was getting in his stance and running for quick bursts thereafter and seemed to be asking to return to action. I am guessing that he was taped up really well during the game and that swelling occurred afterward. I remember from turning an ankle on occasion during my days playing competitive tennis that such circumstances can happen with ankle injuries - the days after are sometimes worse than the day of the injury.
I would move Gaz in and bring in Brown on passing downs, and have Goens slide in on rushing downs.
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