NU 33, Ohio State 27 (OT)

It's hard enough to write about a football game as big as the NU win over OSU on Saturday. Let alone the fact that I try (and often fail) at being funny. But this week, with the death of Frederick Lieb, it seems a little trite. So, I'll first direct you to some nice articles in The Daily's forum and sports sections. Now I'll just make a couple notes.

I should point out, because you all crave my infinite wisdom and point-out-ness, that my favorite stat held up again this week. Yard per pass attempt: NU 6.3, OSU 5.0. Now, 6.3 YPA isn't that great, but it's a lot better than 5.0. 5 is puh-oor. It's more of a statement about our suddenly decent pass coverage. Now, maybe we did use a lot of 5- and 6-back coverages. But we also held them to less than 100 yards on the ground. When you do that you can play Cover 3 defense all day if you want.

In other nice news, the win got a good reception from the conference and the country. Pickens was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week in his first game back this year. And the Cats were named the Team of the Week by both the FWAA and SI (independently, I think.)

So, it's nice to be noticed, and it's nice to be the early 11 point favorite against Indiana next week. I hope this niceness lasts for a while.

Oh, and by the way. Mad props to the person that gets the clock tower purple so quickly after a win. That's epic.

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In My Opinion:
Cats' O: A couple more first downs and we could have iced the game during regulation, but it's hard to argue with 400+ yards and 33 points.
Cats' D: Pi-ckens. Clap clap. Also, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really hope Backes isn't too hurt!
Cats' Special Teams: If forcing the opposing team to start from the 35-yard line is an art, then Joel Howells will go down in history as one of the great masters.

Go Cats! Beat the Hoosiers!