Last Week’s Recap:
I believe that the technical term for what the UMD Bulldogs received is called a ‘whoopin’. I had told some people before the game that the game was either going to be extremely close, or it could end up being a lot like the Washburn game. It ended up being closer to the Washburn game than being extremely close. I think that there were essentially two game changing plays: the first was the goal line stand in the second quarter. I think that this really deflated a lot of the Bulldog sails, NW went on to score in their next two possessions before the end of the first half. The other was the pass interference call when UMD was on 3-24. The play prior that the Bulldogs were really dragging – and looked like they definitely did not want to be out on the field any more. The QB had just gotten sacked for the second time in a row and was very slow getting up. He looked very disgusted. The OLine was dragging their butt back to the line to get into position for the next play. Then the penalty happened – first and foremost there was some light contact between the two, it would have been pretty ticky-tacky to call – but the ball was not catchable at all. The injured guy sitting on the UMD bench had a better chance of catching that ball than the WR. Well, needless to say that was all it took to invigorate the UMD offense.
Offensively, I thought that NW came out rather flat. Part of that I think came from having a bye week, but the majority of it came from the play calling. The first couple of series are usually pretty scripted by the coaches ahead of time, and I’m sorry – they wrote the wrong script. It seemed to me that they were trying to go at UMD horizontally and try to get the edge. We saw the return of that stupid jet sweep – which worked about as well as it has all year: not at all. It wasn’t until Brady Bolles got in there and started passing the ball down field mixed with some QB runs, that the offense started to get going. I think coaches out think themselves some times; luckily they came to their senses and started running the offense like they have all year. TA looked good and bad all in the same game. He made some great throws – he also made some really terrible throws. The WR’s did a great job this week. Reuben Thomas has a career day – 8 catches, 154 yards, and 1 TD. He looked like he did in his highlight reel from JuCo. You can see why he was on the D1 route at one point and time. Utter continues to just make plays. He did have one time in the end zone where the turf monster got him, but he more than made up for it a couple of plays later when he made a great TD catch. The way NW is able to spread the ball around is a great asset. I keep getting more and more impressed with Marcus Wright at TE. NW did not have a lot of success early running the ball – which is not surprising going against the UMD rush D. I expect to see them increase their production this week. The OL did a great job of protecting the QB and giving them time to throw.
Defensively what can I say? Stifling. That would be a good word for it. The Bearcat D held the Bulldogs to their lowest rushing production all year – by quite a bit. Going into the game, the Bulldogs were averaging over 300 yards rushing per game: the Bearcats only allowed 98 yards. That is amazing. The LB’s performed amazingly. DJ Gnader and Eric Reimer continue to impress. The Dline did a great job overall. But it was an expensive win. Both Collin Bevins and Brandon Yost got hurt on the same play. Yost came back later in the game but Bevins never did. He was seen running along the sidelines but was later on crutches on the sideline. Rumor has it that he has a torn MCL and is probably done for the season. It looked like Yost sprained his ankle – he came back but wasn’t nearly as effective as he had been earlier in the game. The second half of the game, after NW had shut down their run game – UMD had to go to the pass. And like I said in the report last week, UMD passing versus the Bearcat secondary – NW is going to win that battle. NW secondary did a pretty good job, but did get burned a couple of times. Several teams have gone after Manning. It appears that he provides the softest coverage all the secondary. He got burned multiple times on the same little curl route. Don’t get me wrong, I think Manning is darn good defensive back. That is more of kudos to the entire secondary than a rub against Travis. Hats off to Bauer he did make a couple of good throws – one in particular was a great throw and an even better catch. Brandon Dixon did his best at knocking the ball down, as that was his only chance at defending the pass, but the WR made an amazing one handed catch – I think the ball was probably out of bounds when it came down and he was able to snag it. As a football fan - it was truly a thing of beauty.
Special Teams: The punt game was perfect. Two of UMD’s drives started within their own 5 yard line. They didn’t get a blocked punt, but those are hard to come by with a rugby punter. Hats off to UMD for executing two fake punts. NW is usually very aggressive, and it cost them on those plays.
This Week’s Game:
So I will be completely honest with you – St Cloud scares the crap out of me. They have an amazing QB in Phillip Klaphake (pronounced ClapHockey) is the real deal. Easily the best QB that NW has faced all year. I would say that he is a mixture of SVSU’s Jonathan Jennings and MSU’s Jon Wolf. He’s got a great arm, fast runner, can scramble, and hard to bring down. On top of that, he’s got receivers that can catch the ball. This game will be the biggest test for the NW secondary to date. I’m kinda worried that the NW secondary has lost some focus lately. They seem to be playing much more physical rather than smart football the past couple of weeks. The Huskies don’t seem to have much of a primary receiver, they do a very good job of spreading the ball around evenly. The secondary is going to be as focused and prepared as ever for this game. The DL is going to need to be able to stop the run as well as provide some pressure on Klaphake. Klaphake is the Huskies leading rusher, he does a lot of designed runs but can scramble too. When Klaphake isn’t the ball carrier, he usually hands it off to Michael Walker, who is averaging 4.7 yards per carry on 169 carries this season and has 19 touchdowns. This offense scares me.
St Cloud defense on the other hand does not scare me. They have given up a ton of points and yards the past couple of weeks. They like to blitz a lot – a LOT actually. And it burns them a lot. But their defense does seem to be very fast. I watched parts of the Mankato game, and St Cloud defense seemed to be very quick. They chased down Jon Wolf, and we all know how elusive he can be. Mankato did not seem to have a lot of success when trying to run on the edges (ie don’t try the jet sweep) but had more success going up the middle. They gave up almost 500 yards on the ground to UMD in their one loss – granted that game was played in crappy weather and neither teams passed hardly at all. I seriously doubt we see him, but I would love to see Phil Jackson given the opportunity to carry the ball more. If NW can have success pounding the rock, I think that they can exploit the St Cloud secondary. The Huskies #1 DB broke his collarbone in the last game of the regular season, so he is out, and their #2 DB has been suspended for this game after getting arrested Saturday night. With the number of blitzes that they like to run, that will make them more susceptible to the intermediate routes. I think Marcus Wright could have a really good day if given the opportunity.
I have a feeling that Special Teams are going to play a big role in this game. I expect to see at LEAST one blocked punt. I hope we can keep Goodburn on the sideline, but if called upon – I’m sure that he will deliver another great showing. The Great Dane seems to be getting better and better every week.
Overall, I think that the NW defense is better than the Husky defense and NW wins this one 55 – 35.
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