What an absolutely beautiful day for a football game. It was a complete 180 degree different from the Fall Classic last year. And the parking lot Nazi’s seemed to not be as oppressive this year as they have in the past. Overall, I would say that this was probably the best experience that I’ve had at Arrowhead in the past couple of years. After last year I was glad to see the game coming to an end – the parking Nazi’s were absolutely terrible, but after this year – I would be happy to see the game extended. I would actually really like to see the game moved to Sporting Park; I think that that would be a great atmosphere to watch the game in 17,000 in a stadium that holds 18,000 looks much better than 17K in a stadium that holds 77K. But I understand that the allure for playing in an MLS stadium is not nearly what it is to play in an NFL stadium. This game brings a lot of exposure to both schools and is a great recruiting tool to both as well. I say as long as both schools want to continue the game and as long as it is profitable, I don’t see any reason to stop having the game there.
Last Week’s Recap:
If defense wins championships, I think NW has a good chance. That has got to be one of the best all-around performances by a defense that I’ve ever witnessed myself. I am not afraid to admit when I am wrong – and I was flat out wrong about this game. I thought both teams defense would struggle against very good offenses, when in fact it was the exact opposite – both teams offenses struggled against very good defenses. Pitts secondary was much better than I thought it was going to be, but NW did drop a lot of balls that could have been caught. So did Pitt for that matter.
TA was actually having a good game until he got hurt. I don’t know the severity of the injury – but hopefully it isn’t too bad. It looked like it was his shoulder that was in pain, and he was in a sling at the end of the game. Both TA and Bolles had some bad throws – throws that were thrown later that they should have been. My guess is that that is because of the defense. There was a much smaller window of opportunity in this game than there has been the past 4 weeks. As the season continues and into the PO’s, this is only going to continue. This is where Bolles has the advantage. He can throw the ball much quicker and puts a heck of a lot more zip on the ball than TA does. The late throws will go away as Bolles sees more significant playing time and gets more game reps against those good Defenses. It seemed to me that it took a couple of series for Bolles to settle down - I remember his brother usually took a series or two in the big games to do the same. I think that the play calling was very questionable at times. It was only during the third quarter that the play calling seemed similar to what we’ve seen the rest of the year. And the offense was getting good yards and points. And then once NW got the lead, the play calling went VERY conservative again. I seriously don’t understand all of the designed QB runs when you are already playing your ‘back up’ QB and you have a RB who is averaging 5.9 yards per carry. Just doesn’t make sense to me – especially the series where Bolles ran three times out of an empty backset. I really don’t understand why the coaches aren’t using the RB’s more than they are. But for that matter, I don’t understand why Creason is still the starting RB. I understand that he is a senior and has been super faithful to the program – but that doesn’t change the fact that he isn’t the best RB out there. Creason is really good if you have a big hole and need to get some yards. But he isn’t elusive at all and has no hips – can’t make the cuts necessary to make people miss. Now he can plow over some guys as he is a very powerful runner. But Burton is much more elusive and able to make the first guy miss and may be able to break the second tackle as well. Jackson seems to be a nice combination of the two; I was hoping to see him play more than just special teams. The Bearcat WR’s seemed to struggle in this game. Obviously part of that was due to the Gorilla defense, but they still had a lot of balls that they dropped that hit their hands. They also had a hard time getting away from the defender – like I said, that could be due to the Pitt St secondary. The OLine did a great job. They gave the QB a really good amount of time, as the QB was only sacked once and only ‘hurried’ 3 times. They did have some difficulties opening up holes for the runners, but they still managed to get NW 172 yards rushing.
Defense: one word – amazing, awesome, tremendous, prodigious. You take your pick. Here is a fact for you: in the past 23 quarters of football, the Bearcat defense has only given up 8 touchdowns. And boy was I wrong last week! Last week my comment about John Brown: “I don’t think that they are going to shut him down by any means, but I think that they will be able to limit him.” If 3 catches for a total of 17 yards and no TD’s isn’t shutting him down, I don’t know what is. Much of the success of the defense comes from the trenches. Yost and Bevins have become quite the fierce duo that the NW D has been missing for a while. Bevins requires a double team, which leaves Yost man on man – which he is going to win most of the time. Those two in the center allows the DE’s to be able to bring tremendous amounts of pressure on the QB. The linebackers were outstanding as normal – Eric Reimer continues to impress and I would say that he was easily the best LB on the field on Saturday, which is really saying something considering the LB’s on both teams! Secondary – great. Other than two brain farts on coverage – which a team like Pitt St is going to make you pay for – the cornerbacks and safeties did an amazing job. One thing I did notice was that John Brown does a great job of blocking downfield – there were times that he stopped Brandon Dixon from going and making the stop, which is quite the feat!
Special Teams – Great Job! I said that Special Teams usually play a big role in these games, and I wasn’t wrong. The Bearcats managed to block one punt and almost blocked several more. Kyle Goodburn did a great job punting – he pinned the Gorillas inside the 20 on four of his five punts. Ben Trewyn does a good job on kickoffs but has got to improve his field goals. His kicks take a long time to get in the air, which has allowed a lot of them to get blocked or at least tipped.
This Weeks Game:
This game has the potential to be a trap game for Northwest. After an emotional win against Pitt St last week, and looking forward to the upcoming weeks – Missouri Southern could be seen as an inferior team. I don’t think that the coaches or seniors on the team will allow that to happen though. Add in the fact that it is Homecoming, I think that will probably help to increase the teams focus.
The Missouri Southern Lions have improved from last year. But I don’t think that they have improved so much as to threaten NW too much. That being said – you can’t take anyone for granted in the MIAA. In almost every statistical category, the Lions are in the high middle / low top area within the MIAA. That usually means a pretty good all-around team. MSSU runs a triple option offense, so their rushing yards are off the charts: averaging 362.7 yards per game (6.3 yards per attempt.) Keep in mind that out of the 6 MIAA teams they have played five of them are in the absolute bottom of the conference in defending the rush: UCM, SWB, UCO, NSU, and LU. The only other team in the MIAA they’ve played is MoWest and for some reason the Lions always put a beating on MoWest. I’m really not to concerned with the Bearcats ability to defend the triple option. They did well last year, and this year’s defense is even better. They do have a better throwing QB – but that really isn’t saying much. They’ve only thrown the ball 73 times this year and have been picked off 3 times, including twice last week against MoWest. I have a feeling that NW will be able to play man on man against their receivers which will leave the LB’s and probably a safety to come in with run support. Last year Wrights defensive game plan against the triple option was to eliminate the pass threat and force the run – without giving up a big run. Basically make the teams consistently get 3-4 yards per play. Which ended up getting the teams a lot of yards, but they weren’t consistent enough to have those drives end in scores. My guess is that not much is going to change. I wouldn’t be surprise to see MoSo get more yards than we would like, but not have the points to go along with those yards.
I am really looking forward to seeing what Northwest does on offense. This will be Brady’s first game starting – which means it will be the first game that will have been game planned specifically for Brady’s talents. I think that will probably open up the playbook a little bit more, as I believe Bolles is a more versatile QB. That being said, with the starting QB injured, I am hoping that the amount of designed QB runs greatly diminishes. While I believe that Zimmerman is probably a good QB, I don’t want to have to rely on him at this point and time. NW has a full stable of RB’s that I would like to see play a lot. I am also sure that the WR’s are anxious to redeem themselves after last week. There were way to many drops, and I can guarantee you that Coach Osborn has been working with them a lot this week. With MSSU’s style of offense, they like to eat clock and keep their opponents offense off of the field as much as possible. But if NW’s offense is capable of scoring quickly when they have the ball, I don’t really see an issue in this. Also being a home game, there are more bodies to substitute in, so fatigue shouldn’t be a factor either.
Special teams will probably be fun to watch again this week – as they have been all along. I am really waiting to see Enyard or Fulks break off a KO return, that would be nice to see this game.
Overall, I think this will be a fun one to watch. Hopefully there are some butts in the seats. The Student Section has been absolutely terrible all year, and I don’t see it getting much better. I see Brady leading the team to a massive victory 52 – 24.
#freeBolles
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