What a beautiful day last Saturday was for some football. A little brisk in the morning, but in the afternoon the sun came out and the conditions were perfect. I really like the atmosphere at Washburn. The school gives visitors a great area to tailgate (it could use some Port O Johns since the arena is a bit of a hike) and it’s easy to get to – not a huge fan of toll roads, but if you don’t like them there are always around them. Saturday was their homecoming (Happy Homecoming, you got destroyed) – their parade route went right next to the parking lot that we were in, and it seemed like a nice parade. I even walked in it for a little while! That will make two parades in a row that I will be in. I will once again be riding on the NW Alumni Association float throwing out beads. That brings me to this week’s gripe – game day atmosphere at NW on Homecoming. I feel like the powers that be have done everything possible to ruin this day for us tailgaters. The newest thing that they’ve done is announce that they are not going to allow anyone into the largest parking lot – where the VAST majority of the tailgating takes place – until 11 o’clock. I don’t have a problem fighting others to get their early and get my regular spot, but when it feels like I have to take on the school as well, it is ridiculous. I know that I am not the only tailgater that feels this way – basically everyone that tailgates in that lot has shared their frustration with me about it. It seriously makes it such a headache to try to plan out, that it almost makes it not worth it. I hope that the powers that be take notice soon, but I doubt that they will. In the past, Dr Jasinski and AD Wren Baker always made it a point to come down and walk thru the tailgate area. That was really cool – and made NW feel unique. But not this year. I haven’t seen either one of them going thru the tailgate area meeting with people. Maybe they should! They are in the middle of a campaign – and there is a lot of money there, not a good time to start alienating yourselves!
Last Week's Recap
So this was a rather interesting game. Very frustrating at times. If you were as frustrated with the officiating crew as last week, you should have been – it was the same crew. And they hadn’t gotten any better in the week. It was also very frustrating watching the players make stupid mistakes and costly penalties. Those have to change. NW had 6 drives that they did not score on – three of those were in the 3rd and 4th quarters where NW had pulled all of their starters. The other three drives all had drive killing penalties in them. NW can get away with that with lesser competition (who would have thought that Washburn would be considered lesser competition) but against better teams, NW will have to get their act together.
I cannot say enough great things about this defense. If I had to pick one word to describe them this last week – that adjective would be SMOTHERING. While it is true that the front 4 aren’t quite as dominate as I would like – they are still getting better every week and are so very much better than they were in week 1. This secondary is easily the best secondary that I’ve ever seen at Northwest. Brian and Brandon Dixon are beasts and obviously anchor the secondary, but they aren’t alone by any means – whether it be Manning, Snodgrass, DeJong or Alleyne – I really don’t feel like there is a weak guy in the bunch. In the past there has been one really good cornerback or safety, but this year the entire secondary is amazing. There were several plays on Saturday where I could just tell the way that NW lined up and WU lined up, that NW was going to be in a good position to intercept the ball. As it was, they officially got 6 – should have been 7; Brandon Dixon’s pick6 was called back on a BS holding call. Really the only success that Washburn had of any kind was when all of the starters and the primary backups had been pulled.
So I mentioned it earlier, but this was the first time that it was frustrating for me to watch the offense – because of their execution. I have been frustrated in the past because of the play calling, but never because of their execution. I seemed to me like the offense was kinda half assin’ it at times. Even Tyler Shaw – who I am a huge fan of him and his leadership, seemed to not give some plays 100%. I was close to his family, and I could tell that his mom noticed it too and was frustrated at times. The one turnover seemed to be a total miscommunication – TA went to hand it off and Simmons had no idea that it was coming. Not sure what happened there – could have been a huge momentum swing for WU, but as it was the Defense pulled out another trick and got the ball back. I think all of Bearcat Nation heart dropped a little when we saw Brady Bolles get injured and carried off the field. I’ve never seen the head coach come over to the table to get briefed – but I have now. I, like most everyone, assumed from that type of hit and the amount of pain he seemed to be in – that it was a torn ACL or MCL and he would be done for the year and probably need surgery. The good news that I’ve heard is that the MRI didn’t show any tear. And everything that I’ve heard just keeps getting better and better. I don’t know if/when he will be back – but it is great news that there is no tear!
This Week's Match Up:
Here we are again. That time of year again - Homecoming.
Not sure I remember a time when Homecoming was the second to last game of the
year, but I’m kinda glad that it is this year. Being that it IS homecoming –
hopefully that will make the team stay focused. Because this does have the
potential to be a huge trap game – they could all be looking forward to next
week and the Griffons. But the Bearcats can’t afford to look ahead, they have
to take this one game at a time. The team is going to have to overcome the
Nixon Jinx. I think almost every game that Gov. Nixon has been to, the home
team has lost. I think he should stay at home!
Last week – at the time of me writing this anyway –
Emporia was still undefeated. But then they ran into some actual competition in
Western Missouri (kinda like Washburn did.)
Sr QB Tyler Eckenrode ran into the perfect storm – cold, wind, and a
good defense. In the first half his receivers weren’t helping him at all, when
he was getting the ball to them, they were dropping it. Watching that game, it
was similar to the NW/WU game, in that Eckenrode didn’t have any success until
MoWest pulled all of their first string defense. When they did that, ESU was
able to score, and score quick. Eckenrode does have a cannon for an arm, and
has some good receivers. But NW has some darn good CB’s and Safeties. I have
been looking forward to this matchup for some time. Unlike Pitt who was
probably the last really good passing QB that NW faced, ESU doesn’t really have
the running threat to contend with. Eckenrode is going to be able to score –
possibly on one or two deep balls, but I would not be surprised to see him get
picked off several times. I know that Brandon Dixon is hungry to get another
interception since the one last week was stolen away from him.
Watching last weeks game between MoWest and Emporia,
Emporia seemed very undersized compared to MoWest. What really impressed me
about MoWest was the way that they just bowled over ESU. The yards after
contact was amazing. So when NW has the ball, I expect them to be able to
score. I also expect them to take care of the problems that we saw last week. I
would be very disappointed to see them continue having those penalties that
they had. Just not acceptable. I would not be surprised to see JF3 go 100+ and
have multiple TD’s. I also liked how the coaches worked Creason in the play
book more – he is more of the bruiser RB on the team, and I think this is a
good opportunity to showcase those skills. I also would not be shocked if the
WR’s don’t light up the scoreboard.
Todd Adolf and Kyle Goodburn have been kicking butt
so far this year in the special teams. Goodburn even managed to register a
tackle last week. I expect them to continue this trend this weekend. If NW has
to punt, Goodburn will do what he does best, and I’m willing to bet that Adolf
has a heck of FG saved up for his final Homecoming game.
Final prediction: ESU is going to be able to score a
bit, but NW is going to score a bunch more. NW 59 ESU 20
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