Me to my wife (minus any cursing):

"We're going to lose...we lost. Worse loss ever since Ferentz has taken over. This is so embarrassing. We lost."

"YES!!! WE BLOCKED IT!!! YES!!!!"

"WHAT!?!? No... That was clearly past the line of scrimmage. See, it went by the 23, then bounced back. Clearly past the 23. This is so stupid."

"We lost again. So stupid. I can't believe it."

"YES! YES! YES!"


First off, let me channel my inner Kirk Ferentz and give major props to UNI and especially to QB Pat Grace. There's a team that going to win a lot of games in the FCS this year. Grace impressed me all day. He made good decisions, found open targets, and ran with the ball well when he had to. I, along with probably everybody else in the world, underestimated the Panthers, but good job to them....again major props.

Okay, now that that's out of the way...what the crap was that? Thank God for Tony Moeaki and for Broderick Binns (which I called last week: "I think there may be some more blocked kicks this year...Broderick Binns may be one of those guys with his long arms and his quickness off the snap.")and Jeremiha Hunter. Coming into today, I thought we'd get some questions answered at running back, at the backup quarterback, see some impact freshmen, and win rather comfortably. Boy was I wrong.

Nothing against Paki at all, because I like the kid, but he was obviously not the answer at running back. He did fine up until the fumble, but did not make any great plays. Robinson looked slightly better averaging 4.2 yards per carry, and did have the advantage of some better blocking as UNI's defensive line got worn down. Still, it is quite clear that we are going to have to run the ball better if we want a chance to win 8 or 9 more games this year (87 yards on the ground is not going to get it done). Maybe we should try handing it off the fullbacks again. Brett Morse, shockingly, got a carried and took it 16 yards right before half. Hopefully Brinson will work his way into the line up and Robinson will continue to improve. I also imagine the offensive line will get better next week with Calloway back...and even better when Vandervelde is back too. Gettis looked okay today, but the inside of the line in general was not too strong.

The defense was not spectacular today either. Castillo looked like a redshirt freshman and I was honestly surprised they didn't throw it in his direction more often. Why would you even try to throw it near Spievey. That guys is a ball hawk back there. He looked absolutely great today. Anyway, back to the negativity. Sash and Greenwood had mediocre games as well, getting beat deep once. The linebackers were nothing wonderful either. Overall just an okay effort by the defense...obviously good enough to win the game, and not to blame for the closeness, but not great.

End of rant.

Moving on. A win is a win and we won. There are some positive things that I saw today starting with Tony Moeaki. That guy is an absolute stud. Without him, I don't think we win this game today. He had 10 catches (many in traffic) for 83 yards and hauled in the lone touchdown pass from Ricky Stanzi. I sure hope he stays healthy. He will have a special season if he does.

Actually I was impressed with all the receivers today. McNutt looked very good in the first half with 3 catches on the opening drive. Chaney looked like he was much improved. He actually caught the ball on the deep touchdown that was called back. I was pleasantly surprised by that. DJK barely played but made a nice 22 yard catch. Stross also had a good day with 3 catches for 61 yards.

Stanzi looked pretty good too, in the second half at least. He made good decisions for the most part, and once he got warmed up (or perhaps after a talking to at half time) he was sharp. In the second half he went 16-21 for 179 yards and 1 touchdown. He was also not sacked in the second half after getting sacked 4 times in the first. He did still have a fumble that led to 3 points for the Panthers, but at least no interceptions. If he just cleans up him game a little I still think he'll be good this year.

On defense, I thought the defensive line looked pretty good at times. They looked gas on that last drive and were not getting pressure. However, they did get pressure throughout the game and tallied 2 sacks and 4 QB hurries. Ballard looked good at tackle and I saw Binns beat his guy pretty consistently.

The real star on defense though is Amari Spievey. He completely owned his side of the field. He finished with 8 tackles and 2 pass breakups. Nobody on the team is a surer tackler than Spievey. When someone in front of him does happen to catch a ball (which was not very often) he gets them down with no yards after catch. Very impressive today.

Last way to overly optimistic thought of the night. It may be good that this team faced a little (okay, a lot of) adversity today. It'll be good that they know they can win in close games (a problem the last couple of years minus the PSU game) and hopefully it'll make them practice even harder.

I plan on putting together a more analytical and better thought out post on this game later, so look for more to come. I also am still going to post on the Ken O'Keefe Challenge (I did pretty good today, around 65% correct I think). Then it's on to Iowa State.