That face masking penalty by NU’s defensive end in the 4th quarter when NU had IU at 3rd and 23 deep in IU territory was a killer. He had the ball carrier wrapped up with other defenders nearby. Northwestern played a great game against an elite team. Adding Chip Kelly and Chiles really improved their offense. There defense has been solid under Braun.
As for Indiana, Marsh and Baker are going to cause nightmares for BIG defensive backs. Other than QB, their overall talent definitely is comparable to last year’s team and Hoover will improve as he gets more experience running IU’s offense.
IU's RB room suffered another blow last night with Turbo Richard going down near halftime. Beebe, Jr. showed he 's capable of carrying the load but he needs to stay healthy. I'm impressed with NU. After seeing the score of the Colorado game (41-7), I knew they'd be a challenge and they were. Side note: When you can see a blatant penalty on TV that the refs missed, it's not good. I saw it a few times last night. I sure hope it's not a trend.
In all fairness to officials missing blatant calls, what we see as spectators is not what officials may see from their view on the field? In my opinion the officials have a very difficult job. I do not think I would enjoy that job.
I officiated intramural basketball in college. I did not have any training, but I would not like to have that job either.
Another good barometer game for Alabama today. We should win but South Carolina is a decent SEC team with a good coach. Once again, a slow start where we give up early points and fall behind could be catastrophic. We have dodged bullets the last 2 Saturdays, I don't know how many times we can get away with those kind of performances.