Game 9: NW vs WU

Opening Thoughts:

Great Googily Moogily - I've seen some bad officiating, but this weeks game takes the cake. I will say that they were equally bad for both teams - but there is no excuse for what we all saw on the field on Saturday. It was almost as depressing as as the stairway to nowhere that is the visitors side of MoSo's stadium. But it was a beautiful day for football. I think I actually got a little bit of a sunburn - which is a great thing for Oct 20th!

I wanted to send a shout out to the Hampton Hawks. It was a tough year, but it was a building year. And you got better each week. That hard work will pay off dividends in the future. Even the almighty Bearcats went 0-11 in Tjeerdsma's first year. We all know how that ended up. Follow the advice that Brady Bolles gave you earlier in the year - focus on your effort and your attitude and the results will follow.

Last Weeks Recap:

Well, it wasn’t a stomping. But NW did win by 24. And it would have been 31, but MoSo scored on the second string D. And NW escaped without too many injuries. I think Petroff sustained a concussion – not sure how long he will be out. I’ve also heard that Young has some sort of strain in his shoulders and will be out the next two week more than likely. I thought that I saw that Hummel came out with a shoulder injury as well. I noticed and DJ didn’t play in the second half. My guess is that that is just to give him some rest. Anyone that has seen him run off the field, can see that he’s hurting.  Other than those, NW came out of the game relatively healthy – unlike last year!

I really am not sure how that Southern team beat MoWest, who then pounded Pitt State. It does not make sense to me. Their QB was horrible at pitching the football. I think the NW D had something to do with that. The Bearcats made sure that if the QB was going to run with the ball, he was going to get hit – whether or not he still had the ball. I think that got into his head at times. But the overall speed of the NW D was able to eliminate much of the threat of the triple option. If MoSo had had any kind of passing game (their QB completed 3 passed, two to NW and 1 to his own guy for 5 yards) they could be dangerous. They were able to gain a lot of yards on the ground – 253 the most by far that NW has given up. But like I mentioned they only had 5 yards thru the air. The majority of those yards came off of 5 plays – those 5 plays were for 20 or more yards and totaled 147 yards. 

I don’t know why, but it whenever NW plays MoSo it feels like they should blow them out of the water. But they don’t. Granted NW scored on every possession except like 3 or 4. So that should be really good. But I always feel frustrated coming out of Joplin. Maybe it’s just that long drive that puts me in a bad mood. I don’t know. I do know that I thought that this was Trevor Adams best game to date.  I thought that he looked confident and didn’t make any bonehead throws. MSSU’s defense had something to do with that – but overall I would have to give credit to TA. He did a great job of spreading the ball around. Nine different players registered at least one reception – and none got more than 5 catches on the day. That is a good job of spreading the ball. They also tried once or maybe twice with having two QB’s in there. That hasn’t worked out yet this year, but I think that it will eventually.

This Weeks MatchUp:

NW faces the Ichabods this week. The Bods are one of the remaining teams with only 1 loss on their record. But in this new watered down MIAA - that really isn't saying a whole lot - especially when their loss was to UCO and they had to score on their last drive last week against Lindenwood to escape with a win. I think its safe to say that the Ichabods are not the power that they once were. But - the Ichabods ALWAYS play the Bearcats tough. The two teams match up very well, and that usually means that its going to be a defensive battle. Plus with it being Washburn's homecoming - you know that they are going to be fired up!

The Bods have not played the toughest schedule.Despite their easy schedule, they haven't been lighting up the scoreboard. In fact nothing about this team impresses me or scares me - and THAT scares me. Because I know that its Washburn and with the exception of last year, they always play with NW. If its possible to have a two week trap games, this might be it as the team might be looking forward to MoWest. But I doubt that they are. They know that they are pretty much in a fight for the playoffs every week - if they win, the hope is still alive, if they don't - odds are they won't make the playoffs. Statistically speaking - Washburns strength on D is their pass D. But I think that that stat is bloated because they really haven't faced any good passing teams. On offense, I would like to see something very similar to last week. Good QB play, good playcalling, spreading the ball around a lot. I would also like to see JF3 go over 100 yards. I've got him sitting on my bench in Fantasy Football - and we all know how that works!

Unlike the MoSo Lions, the Ichabods will be able to pass the ball - to someone on their own team. Dane Simoneau is gone, he has been replaced with Sophmore Mitch Buhler. Buhler is not a threat to run - so far on the year he has -10 yards on 18 attempts - 8 of which were sacks. Buhler is also completing just under 52% of his passes, and has 5 interceptions so far. My guess is that those numbers aren't going too get any better after this game.

My head tells me that this game is going to be a blowout - but my gut says that its going to be close. So which should I go with? Screw it, I'm saying NW 35 Ickybods 17

Game 8: NW vs MSSU

Opening Thoughts:

So after the fiasco that I had last year and the crappy hosts that the Arrowhead staff were this year, I am all in favor of moving this game. I  never would have said this a couple of years ago – but I think its time.I know that next year will be the last one since NW and PSU currently aren’t scheduled to play in 2014. If I had my druthers, this game would be replaced with NW vs PSU/UCM/WU at Livestrong Sporting Complex. The stadium is designed to hold approxiametly 18500 – I think that it would be awesome to play infront of a packed house rather than a mostly empty stadium. Plus people could park in the area that the Nascar track uses – and that is big enough that everyone could have plenty of space to tailgate and there wouldn’t be any need for the Parking Lot Nazis.

Last Week’s Review:

What a strange game. It was a game that left me scratching my head at times. The playcalling was very questionable at times. I know that AD said that since they were the underdogs they were going to come out swinging and not leave anything on the table. Well it certainly didn’t look that way in the first half. In fact the play book looked almost identical to the playbook that they used in the first half of UCM. And at the end of the half NW would have been able to call a time out and get the ball with about 30 seconds left on the clock – but AD was content to let the time expire and come out the second half . Not to mention the cluster that was the game management at the end of the game where NW coaches apparently weren’t able to figure out that they needed one first down in order to be able to run out the clock. Overall a major head scratcher! I think Charlie Flohr and AD need to take those pages from the playbook, take them over to the incinerator and dispose of them properly.

Huge KUDOS to the entire offensive line. For the most part they gave TA plenty of time. They picked up the blitzes well, and handled them. In the first half they were less effective in opening up run lanes, but I think that was more of a function of the playcalling. The Bearcats were very conservative and it was run, run, run in the first half. When it’s obvious that you’re going to run, it makes it much easier to defend it. The RB’s did well – JF3 finally broke the century mark in this game – netting 115 yards and 2 TD’s on 20 carries. Adams even managed to get off a couple of long scrambles.  I thought that TA did a great job in the second half. I won’t deny it – I was seriously surprised that we didn’t see more Bolles than we did – especially after the second interception. I’ll give TA a pass on the first interception, but the second one he basically threw right to the defender. Not Good! I did like seeing them put Bolles in and trying that reverse that he threw out of – and he made the correct choice to throw the ball away, all of his defenders were covered. A big S/O to John Hinchey! How big was that 4^th down conversion that he took for a TD! I’ve been waiting for years to see him do that! He’s a big guy with tons of athleticism, I’m glad that he finally was able to take it to the next level! It did seem like a repeat of the PSU playoff game last year – Adams not able to make the throws and when he did his receivers weren’t catching them. How many dropped balls were there in this game? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Shaw drop so many, felt like the 2008 NC game and Kendall Wright couldn’t catch a cold that game. This was a perfect example of how momentum affects a game. NW got the momentum in the second half and rode it to 31 unanswered points.

I can’t say enough good things about this defense. They held the PSU offense in check the vast majority of the game. I won’t lie I was a little nervous when PSU came out the second half and shoved the ball down NW’s throat. But they made the necessary adjustments and PSU wasn’t really able to do much more the second until NW went into Prevent D at the very end. How big was that stop on 4^th & 1? Absolute killer of any momentum that Pitt had going for them and a total swing towards NW. I can’t say enough for how much this secondary has improved over last year – a big part of that is the Dixon brothers. They both did an excellent job. But it isn’t just them, Alleyne, Manning, Snodgrass, etc – I think that this is seriously the best overall secondary that I’ve seen at NW since I’ve been following them. 

Hats off to the Special Teams again this week. Adolf was able to limit the KO returns by either causing touchbacks or by giving lots of air time allowing the defenders time to get down and stop them early. Goodburn did an excellent job averaging over 46 yards per punt on his 6 punts – 3 in the redzone, 1 inside the 10. For his efforts he was named the MIAA and D2Football.com Special Teams Player of the Week.

 Next Weeks MatchUp:

I’ll be honest with you – I don’t know a whole lot about MSSU this year. I know that in the off season they fired Bart Tatum (who is now with UCM’s former head coach Willie Fritz at Sam Houston State) and replaced him with Coach Daye. Daye came from the NFL where he was an Asst Coach with the Buffalo Bills. Before that he was the defensive coordinator for MSSU. He’s also served as Head Coach of Nichols State. His other coaching experience was at LSU and Southern Miss. So he’s got lots of connections to that part of the country – and his roster shows it. Daye is really beginning to create a good football culture at MSSU. So far his team has been a bit of an enigma. They are currently 5-2 and are coming off a win against MoWest last week. Which is a good sign, but they also lost to Southwest Baptist. Which proves that they still have some improvement to do.

From what I understand, the Southern offense runs an option style offense. Being born and raised in Nebraska – I am a fan of option football. When it is done right, it is very difficult to defend. My only question is how well will they run it.  UNK had success against NW running the option – but I think that had more to do with the fact that NW hadn’t prepared at all for that offense. NW’s overall team speed on defense is going to be their biggest strength in this game. The speed of the linebackers will be MSSU’s undoing. The key to defending the Option, is to take away the pitch man. If you have someone designated to take away the option, then everyone else can focus on the QB. It’s not rocket science – but it is very difficult for defenders to not go after the guy with the ball. It also takes a lot of communication on the defense – I remember on one play against UNK that three guys ran right by the QB to take out the pitchman. But I think that Wright will have his guys prepared for this game.

On offense – the biggest goal should be staying healthy. This game last year killed NW with injuries. Shaw went down and BC was essentially done for the year after this game. Southern is pretty good at stopping the run – like best in the MIAA. They are averaging only giving up 88 yards per game on the ground. But their pass D is their Achilles heal – giving up over 244 yards per game. If AD comes out and tries to pound the rock like they did the first half last week – its going to be a VERY long day for NW. But if they open up the play book and use the strengths of this team, the players could have a lot of fun in this game. I would not be surprised to see JF3 break a few long runs, but I wouldn’t depend on it. Use the passing game to open up the ground game, not the other way around in this game. If NW does that – they win.

It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day for football. 70° and sunny with a slight breeze. Sounds like a good day for football to my – but like my friend always says – It’s always a good day when the Bearcats are playing!

NW wins 48 - 17

Game 7: NW vs PSU

Opening Thoughts:

Well, if you get the chance to go to Edmond for a football game – I would definitely say take it. Wantland Stadium is easily one of the nicest stadiums that I’ve been to in D2. It has been completely refurbished in the past 10 years which includes a beautiful home side grandstand.  The only sad part to it, was there weren’t any UCO fans there to appreciate it. The official attendance was at 1200. I think that included the band, cheerleaders, players, coaches, GA’s, as well as the security staff (bunch of them for some reason) concession workers, press, and officials. The Bearcats travelled probably 250 fans, and I’m not kidding when I say that is about the same amount of fans that the Broncos had. I remember looking over to the home side and the cheerleaders were doing a routine for the fans in that section (I can says fans because there were 2 of them.) Which is sad –but when UCO returns to winning, the fans will come. UCO is just coming off of NCAA sanctions, and I believe that this is their first year without them. They also have a new head coach. Needless to say, UCO has all the potential to be a power in D2. They are the 3^rd largest university in Oklahoma, sit in fertile recruiting ground, and have great facilities. Even though  it is a bit of a drive, I like this addition to the MIAA.

We are now in Arrowhead week. I love this week. I love the rivalry that these two programs have. It is built out of respect for one another. I love the game being at Arrowhead. It is a great opportunity for the players, fans, and programs. I think its a win win for everybody involved - but unless something happens, next year will be the last. NW and PSU are not scheduled to play each other in 2014. I've heard people from both teams argue against having the game at Arrowhead. And I understand where they are coming from. My experience last year was horrible - and it had nothing to do with the football game. Last year the attendance was terrible - just over 15,000 people. Most of those were lethargic NW fans who were not into the game at all. I get it, there are all kinds of sparkly bright lights and magical sounds going on - but we are there to watch a game people. Do me a favor and watch the game and get involved!

Last Week's Recap:

Wow. That is all that I have to say. The Bearcats have beaten the three Oklahoma schools by a total of 169-16. I think that the offense in finally coming into their stride. But I don’t want to sugar coat it. The problems that we saw just a few weeks ago are still there, they have just been masked by playing teams with not very good defenses. I could do some comparative scores and show how NW dominated the past couple of teams, when those teams held their own with some of the other powers in the conference. But I know that the Transitive Property of Equality does not apply to the GridIron. 

When it came to passing the ball – it was like NW was playing a game of catch out there on Saturday. Because UCO was selling out to stop the run, Adams was 10-12 passing with half of those going to TD’s. Adams did have one interception though.  Granted the DB did make a very athletic play, but in hindsight (which is always 20/20) Adams should have just thrown the ball away. But  I can understand why he threw it the way that he did – up to that point Adams had the Midas touch and the Bronco’s D looked like a giant pile of poo out there.  NW was up 21-0 at that point and got the ball back :14 later with their own interception. But  when NW faces better competition (like this week) those things can’t happen.

The thing about this game that excited me the most, but also left me the most worried was the OL. The OLine did an amazing job containing the UCO pass rush. I think on almost every TD pass there was at least one OLineman who made a great block – and not just made the block but sustained it. On the first TD pass I know I noticed Rod Williams made a great block, and on another one Jake Scarbo made the block and sustained it for what seemed like forever. Great job guys. But for as good as they did against the pass rush, they did poorly trying to open up a hole. Granted UCO was stacking the box, but you would think that every once in a while they would make a hole for the backs to run thru. AD said it best on the sideline – "we’re getting our ass kicked out there running the ball." The OL is going to have to do a MUCH better job next week, otherwise NW is in for a rude awakening.  JF3 and Simmons combined for a total of 87 yards on 18 attempts – which works out to 4.8 yards per carry – but I don’t think many (if any) of those came between the tackles.  I think all of those were to the side or if it was up the middle, the runner bounced off the pile and went outside. They aren't going to be able to do that next week.

Well, I’ve been wanting to see the ball fed to Shaw more on that deep route – and they delivered big time. Three deep balls, three balls delivered right on the money.  I would have to say that this was probably the best throwing that I’ve seen TA do since the second half of the Midwestern game last year. He hit all of his receivers in stride. It’s nice showcasing that deep ball threat, because that means that upcoming opponents have to respect that and that helps to draw a safety over to cover Shaw deep. That should help to open up the short routes and the run game.

Special teams: what can I say. Goodburn had a great punt and Simmons broke the MIAA record for career KO returns for a TD- 4.

This Week's Match-Up:


Last week I told some people that the games this past weekend were going to be very telling. I said if NW comes out and dominates UCO like they did to NSU and if Pitt St struggles with UCM, Arrowhead could be very interesting. Well, both of those things happened. I have stated multiple times that despite the fact that NW lost to UCM – I was not impressed with them at all. NW played the worst football that I’ve seen them play (and coached) in that game and NW still only lost by 10. In that game, the NW Oline was a cluster of guys that were thrown together – still trying to figure out the five best guys out there, and two of the starters got injured in that game. In that game the Oline and QB play was terrible – and I think that both have improved quite a bit. The game this week is going to come down to those two things again – Oline and QB play.

Normally when I prepare these reports I spend a lot of time reading over the stats of the upcoming opponent. But that really doesn’t tell me much this week. Other than UCM (and we already know my thoughts on them) PSU has not played anyone. And I mean no one. They’ve played NSU, UCO, SBU, and Lincoln. Those teams are little more that scrimmages to a team like Pitt State. It is really no surprise that they struggled against UCM. They hadn’t been tested up to that point. And they struggled – heck they dang near lost. It was much closer than any Gorilla fan would have liked to see. So I’m not going to look at the stats and just shoot from the hip on this one.

On offense, it’s all going to come down to the Oline and QB play. If the Oline can hold off the pass rush and open up a few holes for the RB’s I will be ecstatic! The other part of that equation is the QB play. Adams is going to have to limit the turnovers. If he plays like he did against UCO/NSU the Bearcats win – but if he plays like he did against ECO/UCM it will be a LONG day for Northwest. I would not be surprised to see Bolles put in a few times to run a wildcat. I would love to see him take off running, just to pull up and connect with Shaw 40 yards down field! But NW has to do more than just hit that long ball. I would love to see some of the 8-12 yard slant routes – granted going against a D that includes Nate Dreiling at LB, those are a little difficult to come about. But NW is the underdog in this fight. I would not be surprised to see the offense throw out everything and the kitchen sink. I wouldn’t be surprised if both teams have some stuff in their playbook that they haven’t utilized in any game yet. This game will be won or lost in the trenches. I can not stress it enough that the Oline is going to need to have the game of their lives on Saturday. I would like to see a combination of what happened in the NSU and UCO games. Against NSU they were able to open up holes that Moe Dampeer could run thru, and against UCO they gave TA all day to throw. Hopefully this weekend we will see a meeting of both of those. If the Oline can open up some holes, I think we might see a coming out party for JF3. So far this year, Franklin has yet to break the century mark. This would be a great game to do that in. We’ve seen flashes of what we all witnessed last year – but it hasn’t been there all game yet. If given the opportunity, I believe that he still has it in him! I am hoping to see a lot of different WR’s with catches. There have been games where TA seems to focus on one or two receivers (usually Shaw and Young) – which if they do that, all the PSU D needs to do is focus on those two guys and they can effectively shut down the NW offense. But if they spread the ball around, the Gorilla D could have a LONG day!

For the umpteenth week in a row – all I’ve got to say for the D is to continue to do what you’ve been doing. When NW is on D – we will see a much different Pitt St offense than we are used to seeing. With the graduation of Zac Dickey – we are seeing the true passing offense that OC Rampy wants to run. Pitt St has always been a power run option football team, not so much anymore. They have gained 1537 yards thru the air, and only 888 on the ground. The key is going to be getting some pressure on their quarterback Anthony Abenoja who is setting all kinds of program records for passing. Rich Wright was overhead on the sidelines last week talking about how the UCO offense was all out of whack and had no idea where the coverage was coming from. The NW D doesn’t necessarily need to sack AA – just put pressure on him and get him out of his comfort zone. AA’s primary targets are John Brown, Luke Rampy, and Andrew Castanada.  All three have 14 or more receptions on the year, and are averaging 16.5+ yards per reception. Obviously their deadly weapon is John Brown – but their other WR’s are very dangerous too. It will be very interesting to see what kind of game plan Rich Wright and Kenny Gordon come up with to minimize their weapons. The LB’s need to keep doing what they are doing. I wish that there was some way that I could magically heal DJ Gnader, just seeing him walk/jog off the field makes my hip hurt. I can’t imagine what kind of pain he is in!

Like all big games, Special Teams may very well play a major role in this game. Heck, PSU won last year on a last second FG. Kyle Goodburn is currently ranked #3 in the nation for punting averaging 45 yards per punt (5 more than PSU’s) – and Todd Adolf has hit some great FG’s and his kick offs are nice and high allowing NW to get down and defend the KO. Both teams are dangerous in the return game – whether that be punt or KO return. John Brown fields most of those duties for PSU and we all know about him.

Overall, IF the Bearcats play like I think that they can play – NW will win this one. If they don’t, we could see a rehash of the meltdown in the Jungle. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. The Bearcats want revenge and should be playing loose since they are the underdogs. I think both teams are going to be able to score, but NW ends up scoring more. NW 34 – PSU 24

Game 6: NW vs UCO

Opening Thoughts:

     I just want to take a minute to salute the tailgating atmosphere at Northwest. It has become quite the atmosphere! I didn’t start tailgating myself until about 2008, but in those 5 years the scene at NW has changed quite a bit. I think tailgating in general has increased, as there seems to be more and more cool stuff for us tailgaters to use. This summer I was contacted by Tailgater Monthly magazine to be interviewed for an article that they were doing on tailgating at small schools. The article in Tailgater Monthly can be found here. They featured 7 schools, two of which were from D2 – NW and Pitt State. I directed them to Pitt State because in my opinion they have the overall best game day experience in D2. But I think that NW is closing that gap. But you have to remember that they’ve had a winning program for much longer than NW has. This last weekend there were tons of tailgaters – in fact I didn’t get there early enough and somebody had stolen my regular spot. Looks like I am going to have to start getting there a little bit earlier than I have been!

Last Week's Recap:

Now that is what I’m talking about! I haven’t seen the Bearcats play that kind of football since the second half of the Midwestern State game last year (5 games ago). And before that it was the Washburn game that they actually looked that good for the entire game (5 games before MSU.) I’m hoping that it doesn’t take another 5 games, because if it does, it will more than likely be in the 2013 season! I think that we may have seen what the 2012 NW football team has the potential to look like. And I LIKE it.

I haven’t watched a game like that since 2008 whoopin’ that the UCM Mules took. The Riverhawks came out and drove down the field and there really wasn’t anything that NW could do to stop them. Then NW turned around and did the same thing to them. I turned to my friend and said after NW’s first score that this game could be a barn burner. That was the last time that I thought that! It turned out to be a crazy long game, despite both teams essentially only rushing in the 4th quarter (I think that there were only like 4 passes) in order to just run out the clock. I honestly don’t remember the last time I was bored at a NW game. But I will take it! It’s a good problem to have!

It has been said that Trevor Adams looked amazing at the beginning of fall camp, and then all of a sudden it was like a switch went off and he was what we saw in the first two game. This tells me that it was something mental. So I am going to do my best to be an armchair psychologist – as well as an armchair QB and Monday morning coach. My best guess is that two weeks into camp, it dawned on TA that he was going to be THE MAN of the Bearcats. And that was a little bit too much for him, and he broke. Then the past two weeks he saw that he didn’t have to carry that load himself, that he has two capable backups and is surrounded by talented athletes. He was finally able to get over that mental hurdle, and he is back to the QB that we all saw last year. At least I hope that is what has happened.

I think there are several different things can account for why the NW team was so effective last week. 1) Trevor Adams – he finally played like we all know that he is capable of. 2) Offensive Line – the return of Cole Chevalier at center is big. I’m sure the Juice is a great guy – but he’s not the starter. The return of Chevalier as well as the rest of the guys gelling is really starting to turn the tide. I’m not sure how good they are – as NSU is not the greatest defense by any means, but they did allow less sacks (0) and tackles for loss (2) than Emporia, Washburn, or Pitt State. 3) Fervor – that is the best word that I could come up with to describe what I witnessed. Fervor is defined as a great intensity of feeling or belief. It seemed like the entire team (coaches and all) finally bought into who the 2012 NW Bearcats are. I thought that the playcalling played into the strengths of the offense and the offensive guys were excited for the defense, and vise versa.

I thought that with the exception of the first drive, the defense did an amazing job. The first drive the Riverhawks drove 88 yards. That was approximately 1/3rd of their total offensive output. That was their longest drive by far – their next longest drive was only 48 yards. NW rush defense was finally back to what we as fans are used to – only allowing 88 total yards on the ground. I thought that the secondary did a great job. There were a couple of times that a LB was lined up on a WR – which is never good, and they were able to capitalize on it. I believe that was the case with their TD. I also noticed that Brian Dixon is susceptible to the little double fake that WR’s do sometimes – it usually allows them to get behind them. But that is teachable. But I would be lying if I said that didn’t worry me a little when it comes to Pitt St!

This Week's Match Up:

I think that this is the ultimate trap game for the Bearcats. They just come off of their best performance last week, and next week they face the #1 team in the nation. If they aren’t careful, they will fall victim to the Broncos. But I have a feeling that the coaches know this danger, and will do their best to limit the possibility of that happening.

UCO has probably had the toughest schedule of any team in the MIAA. They’ve played MoSo (3-2) Pitt (4-0) Emporia (5-0) Washburn (4-1) and MoWest (5-0) : that’s a combined record of 21-3, and they beat Washburn two weeks ago 35-20. Talk about a welcome to the MIAA! I think that the key to this game (like most) will come down to the play of the OLine. If the Oline does well, the entire offense will do well. Last week, NW had 5 different players that all averaged 7+ yards per carry. That is directly related back to the OL as well as the WR’s making blocks down field.  I will definitely be keeping Franklin on my bench in Fantasy Football – as that seems to greatly increase his performance on the field. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that despite TA’s vast improvement last week, he still was locking in on his first intended target and not checking down. That works against subpar competition, but when NW starts facing good D’s – that could really bite them in the butt. That is something that TA and the coaches need to work on. The WR’s need to continue what they are doing. I’m hoping to see at least one long ball to Shaw, since that helps to open up the shorter stuff as well as the run game. I am hoping that the play calling is similar to what we saw last week.

On Defense – I know I say it every week but its true – they need to just keep doing what they’re doing. The Broncos are primarily a passing team, but their RB Josh Birmingham is pretty good and can hurt you on the ground. UCO is currently averaging 211 passing yards per game – and they have 5 different players that have 9 or more receptions on the year. Their top two receivers are a freshman and sophomore – so they will be around for a while. Bronco’s QB, Adrian Nelson, is not the most dangerous guy in the world. He is currently completing under 52% of his passes, and has more interceptions (7) than he does touchdowns (5). I am really hoping that the defense keeps up these numbers and continues their domination. If they do – NW wins this one handily.

Overall – I think NW’s success train is just getting out of the station. The momentum has started and it will continue to roll. NW wins this one 45-10.