***Official NIU @ ISU Post Game Thread***

[DRCHIRO]

First of all, the REFS sucked. Late flags and no explanation of calls. Where were they from? Bad First game for the Refs.

I was more impressed with the Defense than the Offense. I thought our LB's did a great job. DL actually didn't do too bad. They played adequate but we need more push. Safeties did pretty well as well as the corners. Sandvig did a nice job replacing Sims. I thought Reeves was more solid than Anthony Young. NIU saw something in that second half when they went to the WR that Young was covering for several plays in the third quarter. Young got lucky a few times because the WR had gotten separation deep.

On offense, Arnaud was a bit inconsistent. He forced a few balls. But made some great plays. A-Rob is A-Rob. That's good. Collin Franklin is a weapon. Sed Johnson as well. We have a good group of WR's. Thought they did pretty well. I thought the line played pretty decent for the first game. We consistently moved the ball pretty well. We need to cut down on the penalties and TO's. They were costly.

ST play was adequate to poor. The return teams did a decent job. FG kicking was so-so. But maybe that FG Mahoney missed was just a total breakdown from snap to hold to kick. It was ugly. Punting was worse. WOW. Hate to dump on a guy, but that 18 yarder was an ugly punt. And the wind was at his back. Ugh. We can't have that next week at all.

Nice observation.

Not a team in America is going to be satisfied after one week or not find some things that they need to improve on. We didn't play the sisters of the poor last night. Northern Illinois was a decent squad that was able to expose us at times. The coaching staff will be able to see that on film and take the necessary steps to fix the problems.

Some people need to take a step back and start looking at the good things they did tonight rather than hashing on all the negatives because the positives outweighed the negatives tonight by a long shot.

The defense is going to get pushed around this year but will maintain the bend but don't break philosophy that we had last year. The bottom line is that they still made plays when needed and did not give up a lot of points (or yards).

Be happy with it and celebrate it.

 

[bawbie]

ST play was adequate to poor. The return teams did a decent job. FG kicking was so-so. But maybe that FG Mahoney missed was just a total breakdown from snap to hold to kick. It was ugly. Punting was worse. WOW. Hate to dump on a guy, but that 18 yarder was an ugly punt. And the wind was at his back. Ugh. We can't have that next week at all.

I'm not sure, but I think it was a bad hold. Coincidentally, Kuehl was holding instead of Bueker last night, which is a change from the depth chart.

 

[cjclone]

The team looked much sharper with play calling coming in quickly compared to the past. The first quarter they ripped off plays quickly. That may have lead to some of the problems like illegal formations. Arnaud's touch and accuracy were much better. The defense played well, overeager on the pursuit at times, leading to some of the runs and open passes.

They played smoke on the water for the intro, I think someone asked. I met Adrian Bennett's family on the way from the parking lot. They drove 15 hours to see the game. His little brother (4th grader) is ready to come to ISU he is so impressed by things.

 

[RING4CY]

I am one who is not big on blaming the officials when a team loses. "Bad officials cost us the game," is a cop out excuse for why your team really lost.

However, credit is to be given to a team when they overcome bad officiating to win the game. In the case of Iowa State's win last night. Northern Illinois had 4 penalties all of last night. 2 personal foul calls, 1-6 yard roughing the passer call, and an offside on a play that was a touchdown for the Cyclones anyway. It was remarkable for Cyclones to overcome that and beat NIU's "flawless" and "mistake-free" football last night. It sure felt like Iowa State had more than 5 penalties called on the them.

With that being said, the Cyclones can not afford to leave points on the field/off the scoreboard. Illegal procedure (questionable) calls negating a touchdown, then a missed field goal, followed by a redzone interception later in the game. ISU should have had another 10 to 14 points on the board and won the game by 37-10/41-10. Those are points they'll need to make sure they get on the scoreboard as the schedule goes on later into the season and gets tougher. Starting with next week.