A few live notes as this game progresses:
Henne MVP, made the plays they needed to make. Give him credit he looked good. I don’t think they wanted to play him. On the pregame show the word was that Henne would start the first possessions of each half. Carr made the right call by keeping him in to close out the game. Great win, 28-16.
Hart’s Stretch Whoa, they didn’t say anything but right before Hart’s touchdown (to go up 27-16) he stretched and lost the ball. They called him out of bounds but it was close…would have been a touchback with the Cats taking the ball on the 20. Again the Big Ten crew is clueless.
Extra Point Timeout? NO EXCUSE! M just used to timeout because they weren’t sure whether they should go for 2 up 20-16 with 10 minutes to go. Unreal! Unprepared. Were they not expecting to score a touchdown? How can you know be aware of the score and the circumstances?? We wasted a timeout.
– Mesko. Zoltan has been solid all year. Punts have been high and deep, and he’s been great holding for Gingell.
Henne Staying in 2nd Half. Had to do it. You’d be seriously rolling the dice with Mallett. With Henne you’ve got a bigger playbook and his knee look fine. He looks good; keep him in.
—————-First Half:
– Penn State really sucks One of the nice thing about having the Big Ten Network is seeing all the games on the alternate channels. Except this week. Watching highlights of the Illinois offense roll-up big plays on the Lions starts to make you think that Penn State sucks and maybe…we suck.
– THROW IT! It’s clear that Northwestern asked its defense to do 1 thing: stop Hart. They’ve done a good job of it and are stacking the box on potential running plays. I think DeBord is finally getting the picture with about 6 minutes left in the half that he’s going to have to throw the ball. At least I think he’s got the picture? [UPDATE 10/1: Check out mgoblog’s rant on this point! Glad it wasn’t just driving me nuts. DeBord sent Brian over the edge.]
– You saw what? With 9:42 left in the half they replayed a short Northwestern out pass that was ruled a catch but clearly hit the ground. The Big Ten crew somehow missed the 2 instances where the ball was resting on the turf and called it “a close call” and muttered something about the receivers hands being underneath the ball. When they overturned the call (obviously!) the dude in the booth said ‘Hmm’, as in “that’s interesting”.
