By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
UPON FURTHER REVIEW. . . .
FIRST THINGS FIRST: Wide out Austin Carr did not return to the 'Cats game Saturday with Minnesota after getting leveled late in the third quarter by Goph safety Duke McGhee. Asked for an update on his condition Monday, Pat Fitzgerald said, "I talked to him this morning at length. He felt pretty good. I'd probably list him as day-to-day (for this Saturday's game with Illinois). I'll give you an official update on Thursday."
STATS ARE FOR LOSERS: This is something Fitzgerald often says, and that may well be true. But some of those from Saturday do reveal the depth of the difficulties the 'Cats offense experienced against the Gophs. For one example: it succeeded on only three of 19 third-or-fourth down conversion attempts. For another: quarterback Clayton Thorson was sacked seven times and five other plays resulted in negative yardage. Further: It reached Minnesota territory on eight of its 14 possessions (ignoring the final one of the first half, which lasted just 21 seconds), but managed only a pair of touchdowns. (Its most-egregious failure here was scoring no points after Anthony Walker set it up on the Goph 22 with a forced fumble and fumble recovery.)
"For a lot of reasons," Fitzgerald would say Monday when asked about that low conversion rate. "I'm not going to bore you with all of them. I know that's your question, but we've got one more game. There were a number of reasons why, worked hard to correct them this morning, went out and did some different things. Hopefully we'll be better at it."
"Like I said after the game, and not to discredit Minnesota, some of the things they did they'd done against us in the past, and we had actually practiced and talked about," he also said when discussing his offense. "On one (play) we came out of a timeout and told them exactly what they were going to do and we don't go execute. It's pretty frustrating."
"You look where we are from an execution standpoint, primarily up front. When we've done a pretty good job, we've won five games. When we haven't, we've lost six," he most pointedly said. "It's not to put all the success or blame on one group. But it's pretty evident. This isn't rocket science. That group plays well, we usually play pretty well offensively."
OWNING IT: Right tackle Eric Olson was one of the 'Cats who appeared after Fitzgerald at Monday's weekly presser and, to his credit, he was refreshingly honest when discussing his unit. "I don't think anybody was really happy the way we played up front on Saturday," he would say. "Nobody played particularly well. We had some breakdowns as far as execution goes, as far as physical breakdowns go, a lot of one-man breakdowns. Moving forward, we've got to do a better job of being on the same page. They threw a lot of different looks at us last week and we've got to do a better job communicating so everybody knows what everybody else is doing. We weren't as good as we should have been at that last week. Then physically we've got to keep focusing on fundamentals throughout practice. As the year goes on, sometimes you lose that a little bit because— you think about that a lot in camp, you think of fundamentals. As the year goes on, you lose it a little bit. So, refocusing on that and getting on the same page as far as execution goes (is what we have to do this week in practice)."
What's the difference between last Saturday and when the O line does play well?
"If I had the perfect answer for that, we would have played well in every game. . .(and) you wouldn't be asking me that question. So it's hard to put your finger on. But it's just bringing it, straining to finish blocks and being on the same page."
Has the O line put it together in any games this year?
"Definitely the games we've won are the ones when the offensive line has played better. It's pretty hard to be a successful offense when your offensive line is not playing well. If your offensive line is not playing well, nothing can really work. You can't really work in spite of your offensive line. Your offensive line can play good and there can be incompletions, whatever. But if your offensive line isn't playing well, you can't really do much. So there have been games when we've put it together to an extent."
Why so bad on third and fourth downs against Minnesota?
"I don't have an exact answer for that," Eric Olson finally said. "Each play is its own play, and there's something that happened on each play that was different. There's not a blanket answer to that. Sometimes on third-and-short when we're running the ball, the box gets really filled. Sometimes there's an issue with who we're going to, who we're targeting. Sometimes that can be an issue, and that was an issue on a particular third-down run or fourth-down run. But there's not a blanket answer."
GROWING UP IS HARD TO DO: Fitzgerald has, more than once, labelled this current 'Cat collection an immature team. On Monday, as it began preparing for the final game of its regular season, he was asked if it had matured at all during the year. "I would say we're like our record is. Yeah. I would say that's who we are from a maturity standpoint," he replied. "We're very inconsistent. Like I've said, it's been a Choose Your Own Adventure book. I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm going to get in Chapter One and Chapter Two and maybe even Chapter Three, which are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. But come the weekend, I've gone to Chapter Five for a win and I've gone to Chapter Six for a loss. So. We've just got to get our minds right. We've got to get our attitude right. We've got to go out and execute. Anytime you play your rival, you throw the records out. But, no. You can see. We've started maybe five, six seniors. I think that group's given everything they've got. I think we've got some other guys who are older who've given everything they've got. And then I think our younger guys, it's been interesting. There's been a little baptism under fire, so to speak. You've seen some flashes of what I think we'll see in the future. And then you've seen what we're going to have to do on Monday regardless of the outcome to get ourselves back to competing for championships. That's what the goal is, and obviously we've failed at that, and that starts with us as coaches. But, yeah. We've got a long way to go, a long way to go. But the good news is a lot of those guys have on-field experience. That doesn't make it any better for our seniors. That doesn't make it any better for our program. That doesn't make it any better for our fans. But sometimes that's what you have when you deal with what we've dealt with."
Then the inconsistency is a byproduct of that immaturity?
"Amen, brother. Amen.'
AND FINALLY, OLSON, on facing Illinois while needing one more win to be bowl eligible: "It's a one-game playoff. If we win, we get another month together. If we lose, the season's over. Every game's important. But there's definitely added significance that it's a win-or-go-home situation and it's against our in-state rival. You definitely want to beat your in-state rival. There's always a little something to that. But the most important thing for us is getting bowl eligible and getting another month together."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
UPON FURTHER REVIEW. . . .
FIRST THINGS FIRST: Wide out Austin Carr did not return to the 'Cats game Saturday with Minnesota after getting leveled late in the third quarter by Goph safety Duke McGhee. Asked for an update on his condition Monday, Pat Fitzgerald said, "I talked to him this morning at length. He felt pretty good. I'd probably list him as day-to-day (for this Saturday's game with Illinois). I'll give you an official update on Thursday."
STATS ARE FOR LOSERS: This is something Fitzgerald often says, and that may well be true. But some of those from Saturday do reveal the depth of the difficulties the 'Cats offense experienced against the Gophs. For one example: it succeeded on only three of 19 third-or-fourth down conversion attempts. For another: quarterback Clayton Thorson was sacked seven times and five other plays resulted in negative yardage. Further: It reached Minnesota territory on eight of its 14 possessions (ignoring the final one of the first half, which lasted just 21 seconds), but managed only a pair of touchdowns. (Its most-egregious failure here was scoring no points after Anthony Walker set it up on the Goph 22 with a forced fumble and fumble recovery.)
"For a lot of reasons," Fitzgerald would say Monday when asked about that low conversion rate. "I'm not going to bore you with all of them. I know that's your question, but we've got one more game. There were a number of reasons why, worked hard to correct them this morning, went out and did some different things. Hopefully we'll be better at it."
"Like I said after the game, and not to discredit Minnesota, some of the things they did they'd done against us in the past, and we had actually practiced and talked about," he also said when discussing his offense. "On one (play) we came out of a timeout and told them exactly what they were going to do and we don't go execute. It's pretty frustrating."
"You look where we are from an execution standpoint, primarily up front. When we've done a pretty good job, we've won five games. When we haven't, we've lost six," he most pointedly said. "It's not to put all the success or blame on one group. But it's pretty evident. This isn't rocket science. That group plays well, we usually play pretty well offensively."
OWNING IT: Right tackle Eric Olson was one of the 'Cats who appeared after Fitzgerald at Monday's weekly presser and, to his credit, he was refreshingly honest when discussing his unit. "I don't think anybody was really happy the way we played up front on Saturday," he would say. "Nobody played particularly well. We had some breakdowns as far as execution goes, as far as physical breakdowns go, a lot of one-man breakdowns. Moving forward, we've got to do a better job of being on the same page. They threw a lot of different looks at us last week and we've got to do a better job communicating so everybody knows what everybody else is doing. We weren't as good as we should have been at that last week. Then physically we've got to keep focusing on fundamentals throughout practice. As the year goes on, sometimes you lose that a little bit because— you think about that a lot in camp, you think of fundamentals. As the year goes on, you lose it a little bit. So, refocusing on that and getting on the same page as far as execution goes (is what we have to do this week in practice)."
What's the difference between last Saturday and when the O line does play well?
"If I had the perfect answer for that, we would have played well in every game. . .(and) you wouldn't be asking me that question. So it's hard to put your finger on. But it's just bringing it, straining to finish blocks and being on the same page."
Has the O line put it together in any games this year?
"Definitely the games we've won are the ones when the offensive line has played better. It's pretty hard to be a successful offense when your offensive line is not playing well. If your offensive line is not playing well, nothing can really work. You can't really work in spite of your offensive line. Your offensive line can play good and there can be incompletions, whatever. But if your offensive line isn't playing well, you can't really do much. So there have been games when we've put it together to an extent."
Why so bad on third and fourth downs against Minnesota?
"I don't have an exact answer for that," Eric Olson finally said. "Each play is its own play, and there's something that happened on each play that was different. There's not a blanket answer to that. Sometimes on third-and-short when we're running the ball, the box gets really filled. Sometimes there's an issue with who we're going to, who we're targeting. Sometimes that can be an issue, and that was an issue on a particular third-down run or fourth-down run. But there's not a blanket answer."
GROWING UP IS HARD TO DO: Fitzgerald has, more than once, labelled this current 'Cat collection an immature team. On Monday, as it began preparing for the final game of its regular season, he was asked if it had matured at all during the year. "I would say we're like our record is. Yeah. I would say that's who we are from a maturity standpoint," he replied. "We're very inconsistent. Like I've said, it's been a Choose Your Own Adventure book. I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm going to get in Chapter One and Chapter Two and maybe even Chapter Three, which are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. But come the weekend, I've gone to Chapter Five for a win and I've gone to Chapter Six for a loss. So. We've just got to get our minds right. We've got to get our attitude right. We've got to go out and execute. Anytime you play your rival, you throw the records out. But, no. You can see. We've started maybe five, six seniors. I think that group's given everything they've got. I think we've got some other guys who are older who've given everything they've got. And then I think our younger guys, it's been interesting. There's been a little baptism under fire, so to speak. You've seen some flashes of what I think we'll see in the future. And then you've seen what we're going to have to do on Monday regardless of the outcome to get ourselves back to competing for championships. That's what the goal is, and obviously we've failed at that, and that starts with us as coaches. But, yeah. We've got a long way to go, a long way to go. But the good news is a lot of those guys have on-field experience. That doesn't make it any better for our seniors. That doesn't make it any better for our program. That doesn't make it any better for our fans. But sometimes that's what you have when you deal with what we've dealt with."
Then the inconsistency is a byproduct of that immaturity?
"Amen, brother. Amen.'
AND FINALLY, OLSON, on facing Illinois while needing one more win to be bowl eligible: "It's a one-game playoff. If we win, we get another month together. If we lose, the season's over. Every game's important. But there's definitely added significance that it's a win-or-go-home situation and it's against our in-state rival. You definitely want to beat your in-state rival. There's always a little something to that. But the most important thing for us is getting bowl eligible and getting another month together."