Game 3: NW vs Ft Hays

Opening Thoughts:

I’m sorry, but apparently UCM is not capable of putting together a decent game day experience. I want to thank everybody who parked in the visitors parking lot. And I want to thank UCM for allowing that to happen. In case you weren’t there, I’ll explain: somebody decided that it would be a good idea to have some sort of fair type setup in the street next to the stadium. It was several blocks long full of vendors of all kinds. Well, almost all of the vendors decided to park in the parking lot that was supposed to be set up for the visitors. I complained about it to one of the security guards that was strolling around on bikes, he said – don’t worry they will be gone before the game starts. I asked what time the fair ended, he said 12:30. Umm, hello dude the game starts at 1:30. If the fair ends at 12:30 it’s going to take the vendors at least 30 minutes to tear down. And in case you’ve never been into Walton Stadium, the visitors seating is a joke. You need to be in the stadium at least an hour before kickoff if you want any kind of seat that doesn’t totally suck. Oh well, I will get off of my soapbox for now… about that anyway.

Last Weeks Recap: 

Ugly. Disheartening. Frustrating. Disappointing. Those are all words that I could use to describe the game on Saturday, but I’m going to go with hopeful. You may think I’m crazy… and I may very well be. But I’ve decided to be the eternal optimist (for at least this week.) The first two thirds of the game, I was extremely frustrated. But everything changed with about 6 minutes left in the third quarter. But before we get into that – let’s talk about the frustrating stuff. It appeared to me that there were two things going on - the first being the play calling. It felt like they were playing not to lose rather than playing to win. I know that AD has made the statement multiple times that he wants to get NW back to a power run game like they had when XO and LC were there. The problem with that is NW doesn't have that kind of RB on their roster. What they do have is two RB's that can make a very dangerous duo. It seemed by watching the game that Coach AD and OC Charlie Flohr had made the decision that they were going to be able to run against UCM. And it didn't matter what the results showed, their mind was not going to be changed. It just didn't feel right. It felt like I was watching somebody try to shove a square peg in a round hole - it just doesn't work. But we have to realize that this only AD's second season as head coach - there are going to be some growing pains and lessons learned. For example, NW gets the ball back with :54 left in the half, down 17-7. Everybody and their dog knows that Mel Tjeerdsma is going to kneel on the ball and go into halftime down by 10 - no need to take the chance. AD is a bit more of a gambler - and it came back to bite him. Lesson learned, I bet that in the future we will see AD taking the knee in those types of circumstances. The second thing I noticed was that there was absolutely no spark, no motivation by the players. It reminded me of almost every game in 2010 - where the players would just show up and expect to win. The difference is that that year the Bearcats had some crazy offensive weapons in Bolles, Baker, and Soy. This team doesn't have those weapons. Midway thru the 3rd quarter, I saw and heard Tyler Shaw yelling at his teammates to get excited and get motivated. And it helped! I don't know if the first thing I saw caused the second, or vise versa - both things need to change. The coaches can't just blame the kids, and the kids can't blame the coaches.

Now lets talk about the offense a little bit. There were plenty of errors to go around - of course everyone is going to look at the game and say that TA is to blame, and he does carry a large portion of responsibility - but there is no I in team, and no 1 person wins or losses a game. I did see some improvement in him. We all saw what he could do last year, I have no reason to believe that he is not capable of doing it again. It almost seems like he has lost all confidence in his ability to throw the ball since the Pitt St game in the PO's. He is throwing ducks out there at times, and I honestly don't remember him doing that last year. He seems to go to the hot receiver every time, he never checks down. I don't know if that is what he is being told to do (which has been suggested to me) or if that is his own doing. Either way that has got to stop. He is telegraphing (heck more than telegraphing - he's broadcasting it to everyone in the stadium who he's going to be throwing it to. But I did see some smart play out of Adams. One play that caught my eye for no particular reason was a play that had Adams playing out of his own endzone. He was getting pressured and didn't have an open receiver - he made the smart move and threw the ball away. I know what you're saying - woopty doo, that's what he's supposed to do. Yes it is what he is supposed to do - and he did it. I'm not sure that he would have done that the week before. He stood in the pocket and didn't let the pressure phase him. Yes he did have two interceptions this game - and one was bad. But the other was a deflection off of the WR's hand (gotta catch those) and the UCM DB made a nice diving catch for it. Yes it wasn't a greatly thrown ball, but if WR can touch it, they should catch it. I don't blame TA for that one. I've heard a lot of people complaining about JF3, how he is slow and has lost a step. Which is true to some extent - but it doesn't help when his OL isn't being able to open up holes, and the WR's aren't blocking the LB's down field. Neither JF3 or Simmons is the type of back that is going to be able to get you 3 yards and a cloud of dust every play. They just aren't. The sooner everybody realizes that, the better. I think that there were several times where the NW receiver ran the wrong route - I think of one in particular, not sure who the WR was but the play was changed at the line of scrimmage and they ran across the field and turned back to the QB - but TA was expecting him to turn up the field and that is where he threw the ball. If he had done that, there was a lot of space in front of him! I'm not sure why we haven't seen much of the deep ball going to Shaw. They only called that play once - and he got interfered with but of course that wasn't called (another topic for discussion.) Now I haven't wanted to call them out - but the OL has been nothing short of pathetic in both games. NW is averaging 2.8 yards per carry. I'm not sure how the Oline can look at themselves in the mirror knowing that number. That is just not acceptable for a NW offensive line. What happened to Rod "The Wall" Williams? Looks more like Rod "The Folding Screen" Williams - but he's not the only one. They are all not pulling their weight - both literally and figuratively. 

As far as the defense goes - I thought that they did a darn good job. They really only allowed 2 long drives. Other than that, the only scoring drives that they had started at NW's 4 & 22 yard line. Rather difficult to stop a team with that kind of momentum. There was really only one major blown coverage that I saw (unfortunately UCM's QB saw it too) which resulted in a 62 yard TD pass. I thought that they did a really good job against the bubble screens  that burnt them a lot the week before. I will say that the Dline needs some work as well - but not nearly as much as the OL! I am not sure why they aren't able to get the pressure that they need to. They seem to be losing a lot of individual battles along the line. I am more and more impressed with NW's secondary all the time. I think that Brandon Dixon and Brian Dixon combined with Manning at Safety have the potential to be really special for NW.

Football is won or lost in the trenches. In the past, NW has never even had to worry about those battles. So much so that NW's former OL coach is now the Head Coach and the DLine coach is now the Defensive Coordinator. They both still coach those positions respectively. I'm not sure if their new duties in their new roles is too much for them to be focused on the Lines - but they better get those areas of concern turned around otherwise it will be a LONG season!

This Week’s Match up: 

Well, something is going to have to change, and quickly. Northwest now has 4 games of 'lesser' competition so they should be able to work out their kinks. But just because they are 'lesser' competition, to think that NW can't lose is just foolish. Any team in this league can beat any other team on any given Saturday. But the good part is that it gives the OL a chance to gel with all of the replacements due to injuries.

I would not be surprised to see a completely different lineup out there this week. AD needs to go thru and completely re-evaluate his OL and put the best 5 out there. With CJ Keeney breaking his fibula, I would imagine that he is probably done for the season - or at least most of it anyway. Chevalier may be back at center but was listed as a game time decision. I don't care if they put true freshman out there if they can produce some results! I know that AD has said that he's not putting out any depth chart for any position until Friday at the earliest. That leads me to believe that we may be seeing a change at QB. Whether that be due to injury or just not liking what they are seeing out of Adams - at the very least it should serve as a wake up call to Trevor Adams that no spot on the Bearcat team is a given. There are always backups that are trying to surpass you at all times and just might. It almost seems like TA has regressed from some of the great games that we saw him play in last year. No matter who the starting QB is come Saturday - the play MUST be better than it has been! From the receivers, I would love to see another WR step up to play along with Shaw and Young - or maybe I should say I would like to see another WR be given the opportunity to step up. The WR's are also going to need to do a better job of blocking down field - they have to do this to give the RB's a fighting chance! The RB's are going to need to do a better job of blocking for the QB to give him the time needed - in those situations. Overall the offense is going to need to be much better than they have been - and heaven forbid we see some emotion out of them! NW should be able to pass against Ft Hays - so far this year they have given up 672 yards thru the air (and 427 on the ground.) So NW should be able to move the ball and get some confidence! I would love to see the offense pick up where they left off in Warrensburg.

On Defense I would be happy with just more of the same. The Ft Hays offense is pretty balanced - they have run 69 rushing plays and 62 passing plays so far this year. They do a good job of spreading the ball around - they have 11 players with at least 1 catch and none with more than 5. When they are running the ball, their RB is a true freshman out of Denver - Addie Brown. I really don't have anything to say about what the defense needs to do - just keep kicking butt! I will be interested to see who all plays on the Dline. Hopefully Wright is able to find a couple of guys who are able to kick it into high gear!

Overall, NW should win this one. And the OL and the DL will probably look vastly improved. That doesn't mean that they are. Unless the NW QB has all day to throw, and they open up holes the size of Moe Dampeer to run thru I wouldn't consider it a win for the OL. And on the opposite side of the ball, unless the DL is able to get some pressure without the assistance of the LB's - I think that that would be considered a fail as well.

At the end of the day NW should win this one handily. It should be a blow out, and I hope that it is - but I'm not going to be able to predict it: NW 45 Ft Hays 20