Gutty Young Bruins
by Nestor on Oct 18, 2008 4:34 PM PDT
in Football
Email
PrintEarlier in the week Achilles called this game out as a "must win." I thought this was one of the more winnable games left on our schedule, but I hesitated to call it out as a "must win" not because I didn't have confidence in our young players but more out of respect for the solid program Harbaugh is methodically putting together up in Palo Alto.
But guess what ... I think we are starting to see clear signs ... that our head coach is not to far off in slowing putting together foundations of his own solid program.
Rick Neuheisel's "relentessly" positive gutty young Bruins pull out another heart stopping win at the Rose Bowl. Bruins go on a clutch drive to pull out a game in which Craft somehow transformed from Ryan Fien/Rob Walker to Cade McNown thanks to young starts like Rosario:
Photo Credit: Harry How/Getty Images (via Yahoo! Sports)
That's right Nelson Rosario had his official coming out party (4 huge receptions for 71 yards) this afternoon at the Rose Bowl. Here is the box score from our 23-20 homecoming thriller. Along with Nelson other heroes include Austin, Embree, Moya, Love, Price, Harwell, and as mentioned above Kevin Craft.
Despite the incredible win and the exhillaration as Craft pointed out himself, there are lot of issues this young team needs to work on heading into rest of the season. They have an incredibly difficult game coming up next weekend up in Berkeley. We will have lot more on the issues our team has to address on all sides of the ball (including our special teams).
The challenge for these gutty Bruins will be to followup this gutty win with another gutty performance next weekend on the road. Just keep fighting, scratching and clawing away.
Oh ... and I pointed this out in the comment threads ... CRN is now 2-0 in that blue sweater vest. With that I will leave up to rest of you to soak in the resiliency of our Gutty young Bruins.
Thread it up in our post game victory thread.
GO BRUINS.
38 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
I think I have the sweatervest beat...
We’re 3-0 when I go to the game. We’re 0-4 when I don’t go to the game (or watch it, for that matter).
Needless to say I’m scrambling to find a way up north next weekend.
call me crazy
and definitely call me overly optimistic, but I see a bowl game as a serious possibility. Not a likely one, but a possibility. We have 3 wins at the moment. Next week we’re at Cal in a potential letdown game after a toughie tonight against Arizona, but that’s an unlikely win. Here’s what I see: we’ll be favored at UW, so if we can play our game we should win that one. OSU at home is definitely winnable; even though they’ve improved lately Stanford did beat them earlier in the year. And Arizona State is REALLY struggling right now, and I think by mid November Carpenter will have seriously injured himself and either be out or less than 100%, as he continues to play beat up.
Clearly those games aren’t gimmes, but we can definitely win all 3. A steal up at Cal is very possible as well, especially if they win a close, hard fought game tonight
not to mention
we still take on OJ simpson and his merry band of outlaws at home in what will be a very emotional game for us… sure, the thugs will be favored, but I’m never going to chalk that up as a loss, especially with this team and a few more weeks of experience on the field.
what’s impressing me is how a lot of these guys that are succeeding for us, especially on the offensive side, are underclassmen or first year guys for us. that tells me that we have a lot of room to grow on that side of the ball and may be a greatly improved team.
i was predicting 3-4 wins at the start of this season, but now i’m thinking that we’re closer to 5-6.
Coming together
Great win today! This is probably an analogy that current students will hate, but this season feels like studying for a final exam. For most of the time, things are confusing as hell and you feel like there is no hope. Then, suddenly something will just click and you think, things might be coming together. I feel like today was a major breakthrough in that process. The playbook was finally opened up and Craft finally showed the will/ability to throw the ball downfield and (surprise surprise) it worked out pretty good. The development of Taylor Embree and emergence of Nelson Rosario has me very excited about developing two big athletic receivers to complement Austin in Moya underneath. Great day to be a Bruin!!!
yeah
Rosario was so impressive today. He’s a physical freak…6’5 with a really high vertical. Speaking of pro prospects…..
More likely an Olympian....
He’s even more talented on the track as a Long Jumper (in which he was #1 in the nation last season), as well as a very good hoops player.
Easy money and faithless women, red-eye whiskey for the pain...
A bowl game is certainly a possiblity
Oregon St. at home is winnable and Washington is winnable. If we get those two then we’re one upset away from a bowl. Now it’s still unlikely we get 3 more wins and into a bowl, it is possible.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Oct 18, 2008 5:35 PM PDT reply actions
from the locker room per Dohn
“Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel said he almost yanked QB Kevin Craft late in the first half, but was talked out of it by offensive coordinator Norm Chow.”
interesting that Chow was the one to stick with KC
Was wondering about that.
I only caught parts of the game, but watched late in the first half, when it appeared that Forcier was warming up before Stanford’s 2nd TD.
I thought Forcier was coming in too.
After Craft fumbled it, you could see CRN saying “Forcier” to one of the other coaches. I think they ultimately made the right call leaving him in, although I wasn’t so sure at the time.
Great game, and a great performance
There were some incredible performances today, and the Bruins really showed that they’re in each and every game to win it. Craft put that team on his back and performed spectacularly. Even that one INT. wasn’t really his fault.
Great game, go Bruins. Wish I had gone now.
"Hostility Abounds" 9-17-09
Craft Reminded Me of Cade
He reminded me a lot of Cade when he was a freshman. Cade used to do a lot of stupid things when he was a 1st year Bruin QB. But then every so often, he’d pull off something pretty cool just to remind you that he really had some potential. I’m seeing that a little in Craft.
Will he turn out to be that good? Probably not if for no other reason than he doesn’t have four years to grow like Cade did – nor does he have the OL. But if he can put it together mentally (like getting over his mental block about throwing down the field), he could still be a decent QB for us this year.
overcame some questionable play calls
especially after Embree’s catch that took us to the 3 yard line. The next three plays backed us up 10 yards and we had to settle for 3. I thought the coaches screwed that opportunity up. The defense did that “bend don’t break thing”, helped out by Stanford’s inability to pass. CRN summed it up very well in his post game press conference. A great win with much still to learn. Craft looked so different in that 1 minute drill (and he had some time to throw). How great was Terrance Austin? All our receivers played well. Overall, a great game to watch, a fine last minute victory, and as many said above, so much to look forward to this season and next and …Go Bruins!
sweater-vest
thats the only thing that ties it all together for me…..
keep on wearing it!
GO BRUINS!!! CHEER LIKE CHAMPIONS!!!
Receivers
We have so many athletic receivers and the challenge is to work them into the lineup and how K-Craft can get them the ball down field. Nelson Rosario needs to start—he’s a game breaker. Terrence Austin, Taylor Embree, Dominque Johnson, Moya, Ketchum and Marcus Everett. Almost forgot Cory Harkey. I also think we could throw Osaar Rasshan in that group because he is so athletic, has great size and won’t get a look at QB. I would love to see Norm Chow devise a scheme to have 4 wide receivers in at one time.
Great Game!!
Two great home games so far: Tenn and Stanford.
I loved the Stanford Band’ s take on SC at half time. Hilarious!
It was also good to see one of the regulars back in our section. He’d moved to Oregon, but kept his tickets even though he can only come to two games this year.
It was just an all around great day at the Rose Bowl.
I may work with the Waves, but I'm still a Bruin!
It was all about
how SUC cheats at “football Monopoly”. They don’t pay rent for 3 bedroom houses. Also a reference to OJs 2nd trial. Next they’ll be cheating at RISK.
by Give me a B... on Oct 19, 2008 9:32 AM PDT up reply actions
Sweater vest, sigh...
If the vest works for coach Neu, it is fine by me, even with the tOSU-Tressel connection (I have some Michigan alums in the family, so tOSU=bad, bad, bad).
Sadly, I was only able to catch parts of this game – though I did listen to the final drive, as well as scattered parts of the 2nd half. I look forward to reading through the game thread; from what I caught, I imagine it to be a good read (as always). This game is yet another reason for this newly licensed young lawyer to celebrate tonight!
Good for you!
You are now qualified to give advice next year at bar exam time, among other things.
Thanks Fox, and to everybody here.
I look forward to being able to share advice based off of my perfect score on this exam (as the bar examiners did not release my score, I can only assume that I received a perfect score. Right? ;) ).
You're exactly right about the perfect score
You join a distinguished list of people achieving that score. (For the uninitiated, if you flunk, you get your test papers back. If you pass, you don’t. I didn’t get mine back, and assumed (undoubtedly accurately) that they used my answers as the key to grade everyone else’s.)
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As for sweater some of my very close friends are Michigan alums and I also have some very close tOSU friends as well. In fact I will probably be at the PSU/OSU game next weekend.
So given the results in that big game, I can feel the power of the sweater vest!
If the sweater vest works, it is fine by me.
Though judging from recent history, it may be better if Neu leaves it at home when the Bruins do make it back to a January 1 (or later) bowl game.
Hoo let the dogs out
Congratulations, Hoo. May you right injustices, and fight for truth, justice, and the American way.
Congrats, Hoo
I’m sure you’ll be one of the good guys (malpractice defense, anyone?)
by Give me a B... on Oct 19, 2008 9:36 AM PDT up reply actions
wow
Just read that the Austin’s TD today was the FIRST of his career. That’s hard to believe…but regardless, congrats TA!
It was also
the first WR TD this season!
by Give me a B... on Oct 19, 2008 9:37 AM PDT up reply actions
Absolutely incredible win
I just finished watching the game via DVR and holy COW was it amazing and nerve racking. I am so impressed by all the true freshmen we have playing. Rosario, Embree, Harkey, Moore (hope Rahim is okay), Ayers, Sloan, Baca (though it was an off day for him overall), and I am sure a few others all stepped up huge and I just see so much potential, especially with a few more years a good recruiting. Who wouldn’t want to play for these coaches?! Keep up the hard work Bruins, I see signs of corners being turned and progress being made. Never give up! Gotta love my Bruins!
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
