Saturday, September 13, 2008

NU 16, SIU 7

Bacher shows some great improvisational skills on third down. Strung out to the right sideline, he throws up a prayer, which comes down in the hands of Eric Peterman for a 37-yard gain to the SIU 32. Peterman sneaked behind the defense, which came up a bit with Bacher scrambling.

Sutton breaks through for another big run, pickup up 15 yards up the middle on what looked like the same play NU ran for the touchdown earlier. The Cats follow that up with some attempted trickery, going for a halfback pass with Omar Conteh, who decides to keep the ball and makes a nice gain on the ground.

NU runs it four more times, including three times from inside the 5, but only gets the ball to the 1-yard-line. Right tackle Kurt Mattes comes up lame on third down and comes off the field, and it seems like he might have aggravated the leg injury that held him out of the team's season opener.

The Cats call a time-out and ultimately decide to kick the field goal. Villareal hits his third of the game, and NU is up 4:51. 11 plays, 80 yards on the drive.

After the Duke game last year, don't look for Fitz to take easy points off the board too often this year.

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