I'm very pleased with the outcome and the margin of victory. It's a much better feeling than the last two weeks! After today's games, I feel better about our chances against Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, Minnesota, and Maryland.
Positives from tonight:
-- No TD's allowed!
-- Season-high in points scored... we cracked 40!
-- Multiple blocked punts and snuffing out the fake punt
-- Mills looked MUCH better than the first two weeks
-- The game never got closer than 22 points in the second half
-- Lots of backups got to play, including several Freshmen making their debuts
A few things from the game that concern me:
-- NIU easily could have had two long TD passes in the 1st half
-- Martinez looks slower / less explosive than last year
-- Place kicking (obviously)
-- Starters only scored 7 points in the second half, continuing a pattern of minimal second half production
-- Our blitzes didn't seem to get home very often. We gave up a lot of passing yards between the 20's.
-- Injuries to Taylor-Britt and one of our OL starters (I think it was Jaimes)