SB Nation - Stephen Simmons

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: Northwestern Ends on a High Note Over Wisconsin, 33-31

hmlee — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:05:41 -0000

Well, that turned out to be quite the exciting game. I was rather shocked by the final score, though not by who won. Those of you who've been around since the beginning of the season know that this was a tough one for me, as I write about both Wisconsin and Northwestern for The Rivalry, Esq. I grew up a Badger fan and as a current Northwestern Law student also cheer quite hard for the Wildcats. While the Northwestern-Wisconsin rivalry isn't a blood feud like some others in this conference, it was still a difficult game for me. Every play was essentially both good and bad. I cheered and then felt despondent for the entirety of this game. That's not really a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

I had hoped earlier this season that things would shake out in such a way that this game would only be important to one team and thus I would be able to pick a side for the game and stick with it. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) this game held implications for both teams. Both teams gained bowl eligibility weeks ago, but the the narrative of their seasons was on the line. While the cheesehead in me is sad that the Badgers lost, I think, in the end I am happy that the game turned out the way it did. Frankly, Northwestern needed this game more.

That might seem to be an odd statement, but, looking at the reality of this conference it makes sense from both a bowl perspective and a recruiting perspective. The current Big 10 standings have three teams at 10-2 on the season, with Ohio State taking the championship based on their better in conference record. OSU will thus claim the Big 10's automatic BCS berth and head to Pasadena to take on the Pac-10 champ. As far as at large berths go, Iowa will probably claim another for the Big 10, and Penn State has an outside chance of grabbing one also. If they didn't get an at large, PSU would be slotted into the Capital One bowl vs. a SEC team.

Wisconsin, then, was priced out of the BCS a long time ago. Even at 10-2, it would have been unlikely for them to move from their slot in the Outback bowl, and at 9-3 (assuming a win in two weeks over Hawaii) they won't drop from that perch either. Further, Wisconsin's team is a young one. They have performed remarkably well for such a freshman-sophomore loaded squad, and I see only bright things ahead of them.

Northwestern was in a similar bowl game spot. With the upset of Iowa and the expected victory over Illinois, Northwestern had vaulted themselves to 7 wins and past the rest of the mushy middle of the Big 10 to claim a ticket to the Champs Sports bowl. The victory today gives them eight wins, but they still sit behind Wisconsin and unless the Badgers falter in Hawaii they will still have a worse record by a game. Because Michigan State lost to Penn State today, there is no team capable of leapfrogging the 'Cats. Northwestern is as stuck as Wisconsin.

So, then, we must look at this game from a recruiting perspective. Wisconsin will always do well in recruiting among Big 10 teams. They are a flagship state school known both for academics as well as athletics. They have the loyalty of an entire state, as well as a history of a great football team and will always be competitive with the upper tier Big 10 teams for recruits. A victory tonight wouldn't have altered that in any meaningful way.

Northwestern, by contrast, could gain a significant boost from this victory. With today's win they have sealed an eight win season after coming from virtually nowhere to reach nine wins last year. They will not only be going to a bowl two years in a row, but a warm weather bowl at that (no Pizza! Pizza! here). Despite the dismal beginning to this season, they defeated two of the three ranked teams they played against, and came one quarter away from upsetting the third when Penn State came to town. These upsets, if they can be combined with the 'Cats first bowl victory in 60 years, would seal the impression in recruits minds that Fitz is determined to build a consistently winning program in Evanston that will compete with the conference's upper tier.

Thus, the team that needed the victory most managed to pull it out, and I am at least moderately happy for that.

After the jump, I do a multiple personality recap of the action on the field...

Bama Hawkeye takes a look at the sweet goods on the line this weekend in the Big 10...

Graham and Law Buck engage in dueling coverage of the OSU and Michigan rivalry game...

The only way to really address the in game action today is for me to look at it both as a Northwestern fan and a Wisconsin fan. Because Northwestern comes first alphabetically, I'll start with them.

Northwestern:

It was good to see the 'Cats start this game off on all cylinders. I like this style of play much better than their "wait until we're down by an absurd margin and then mount a nail-biting comeback" gameplan.

Kafka lead the 'Cats on their opening drive from the Northwestern 25 yard line for a score. The defense then answered that by coming out of the gate and largely containing the John Clay led Badger offense and forcing them to punt away their first possession. Both teams then three and outed before Northwestern managed to end the quarter with a field goal to take a 10 point lead on Wisconsin.

Offense:

I was heartened by the fact that all of Northwestern's running backs - Scott Concannon, Stephen Simmons, and Arby Fields - managed to make contributions to Northwestern's game today. At least Concannon and Fields will be back next year, and I am unsure if Simmons, a senior with another year of eligibility, will stay as well. Even if Simmons is gone, the competition between Concannon and Fields during camp next year will only be a positive for Northwestern. It is true that Northwestern runs a spread offense from the shotgun, but having versatile running backs to compliment the mobile QBs will always make the receivers more dangerous.

The second quarter was not quite as kind to the 'Cats. Wisconsin carried over their drive from the 1st and converted it into a John Clay touchdown. Northwestern managed to get the ball back for all of one play before it was fumbled away by Scott Concannon and recovered by Wisconsin. While I never like to see turnovers, I can't put too much heat on Concannon as he has been quite sure handed for most of the games this year. Wisconsin went to their tight end for a TD to give Bucky a four point lead.

Stephen Simmons then broke off a great 64 yard kick return to put the 'Cats within smelling distance of the Badger redzone. Mike Kafka rattled off several passes to Drake Dunsmore, Zeke Markshausen, Arby Fields, and Andrew Brewer to once again take the lead at 17-14. I was happy to see Kafka playing in a much more mobile and healthy way than in the last few games, and it was great for him to end his last regular season on a winning note. Hopefully he can cap off his time at Northwestern with a bowl victory in a few weeks.

Northwestern's defense three and outed the Badgers and then on their next drive Kafka executed a great end-around pass to Markshausen who pitched it downfield to a wiiide open Sidney Stewart. The ball was perfectly thrown and took advantage of the Wisconsin secondary, which isn't exactly the most dominant in the Big 10.

Northwestern regained their 10 point lead 24-14 and never really looked back. Stefan Demos once again looked his automatic self and tacked on three more field goals for the remainder of the 'Cats 33 points.

Defense:

The final score of today's game really doesn't do the defense justice. Yes, the 'Cats let Bucky come unacceptably close to a comeback win, but the defense played a good game for all 60 minutes. Three different Wildcats had sacks - Brad Phillips, Corey Wootton, and Vince Browne. The 'Cats managed to hold John Clay to only 102 yards rushing and 1 TD, which is pretty good considering he's the best RB in the conference. They also managed to step up in the crucial moments, forcing two turnovers during the forth quarter. Brian Peters recovered a clay fumble, and Jordan Mabin ended the late Badger threat with a great interception of Tolzien in the final seconds.

All in all, a good way to end the season. I think with a healthy Kafka the Wildcats will be very competitive come bowl time, and I'm looking forward to a great Champs Sports Bowl match up.

Go U! NU!

Wisconsin:

Now, I'll let my slightly more depressed dairy state side take over. This really was a trap game for my Badgers. While they were coming off three wins, Purdue, Indiana, and Michigan aren't exactly formidable competition this year. Northwestern is a deceptive team who had only been getting better as the season has gone on. It seemed that the Badgers were in danger of looking past both Northwestern and Hawaii towards the bowl season, and I think that's just what they did.

The Badgers simply played sloppy football, and it cost them the game.

Offense:

The one bright spot on the white and red side of the ball was the offense. The Badgers executed a balanced gameplan that got more dangerous as the game went on. Yes, they started off slowly, but Clay managed another triple digit ground game with a score, and Scott Tolzien threw for 235 yards and 2 TDs - both to the newly full strength Garrett Graham. Nick Toon also showed why he's going to be a big threat for years to come, as he had 7 catches for 70 yards, a nice follow up to his 98 yard game at Michigan. I don't know that he will ever live up to his father's stats, but he is definitely a solid part of the Badger offense and has a good chance to be their top receiver for the next year or two.

For all his inconsistency this year, Tolzien had a solid game, throwing only one interception in the closing seconds on a last ditch effort to move the Badgers downfield. For someone who was presumed to be a career backup at best, this season has been a good one and I'm looking forward to next year. Wisconsin finally has a quarterback who can make both the short quick throws and the deep passes. I'd like to see a win against Hawaii and a bowl victory to cap off his first starting season... regardless of what happens in the next few weeks, the competition between him and Curt Phillips will make for an interesting camp next year.

Defense:

Unfortunately, this was not one of the defense's better efforts. They allowed the most points they have all season, even more than they did to Ohio State, and even my other half would agree that the 'Cats are most certainly not the Buckeyes. Frankly, the Wisconsin defense was just not equipped to handle the Northwestern spread. The secondary is the weakest part of the defense and it showed. Kafka burned the Wisconsin defense for 326 yards passing and 2 TDs. The defense also looked completely fooled by the end around to Zeke Markshausen... he's a receiver for goodness sakes! He shouldn't be able to throw a TD! Gah.

This was also only the third game of the entire season in which the Badgers had no interceptions (the other two were against Northern Illinois and Iowa). They did have one fumble recovery, but lost the turnover battle overall. Still.... this is a young unit and can only really get better next year. I just hope we don't draw a spread based team in a bowl game, or it could get ugly.

Special Teams:

Once again, the special teams was a Jekyll and Hyde unit. Two separate returns best show this.

In the second quarter, Isaac Anderson inexplicably picked up a kickoff in the end zone and ran the ball out... to the 5. Ugh. Wisconsin managed to get the ball out to their 18, but the resulting punt gave Northwestern great field position near midfield, and the Wildcats would convert that into a field goal. Sigh.

In the third quarter, though, the special teams partially managed to redeem themselves when David Gilreath returned a a punt 68 yards for a TD which pulled Wisconsin within 3 of Northwestern.

The kick coverage today was similarly mediocre. Northwestern managed one 60+ yard return and several 30 yard returns. Their shortest return was for 12 yards after a Welch field goal. That's not really a dominating performance.

The interesting thing about this game is that both Northwestern and Wisconsin have ST units coached by the head coaches. Northwestern, for the most part, manages to do it right. They constantly execute good returns and usually do not make stupid mistakes. Wisconsin, by contrast, is prone to such mistakes and to sloppily executed tackling on their return coverage. Simply put, as long as Bielema is still coaching that unit, you never know what you're going to get. Until he finally gets a full time coach, it will always be the Achilles heel of this squad. It is long past time for that change to happen.

Disappointing as all that was, I must give credit to the Badgers for not giving up. They fought hard and pulled within two points, taking the game down to the final seconds. They can still end the season strong in Hawaii, and a bowl victory would prove that an excess of youth does not necessarily spell doom in the NCAA. In truth, they can only get better from here.

So...

On to Hawaii, On to the regular season finale, and ON WISCONSIN!!!!

At least I was absurdly close on my predicted score.

Rodger Sherman — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:31:38 -0000

More photos » by Nam Y. Huh - AP

Penn State's Eric Latimore (56) feeds on Northwestern's Dan Persa (7) during the fourth quarter of an NCAA football game in Evanston, Ill.

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Seriously. 35-14? Man. I don't think I can ever predict NU to lose again if I'm that creepily accurate.

Moving on.

I think that game should end any speculation that Mike Kafka isn't a superb quarterback. Let it be noted, and marked down for Northwestern football history, that the 2009 Northwestern Wildcats offense is essentially just Mike Kafka. He's had his ups and downs, and he's got a tendency to come through with those weird picks from time to time, but, yesterday was shades of '08 Minnesota for a quarter and a half. No offense to C.J., who was also a good QB, but I think Northwestern is probably in a better place right now if Kafka had been starting since 2006, even if he clearly wasn't ready when he took the field back then.
Now on to Dan Persa: you can't be mad at the guy. All things considered, coming out in your first real college football experience and going 14/23 against Penn State and busting out some 20 yard runs is pretty good. Unfortunately, he isn't ready to be a quarterback at this level, and it's sad that he looks bad for coming in in that exact moment. The offense sputtered because he's not Mike Kafka, but you can't blame him: that's a terrible situtation for anybody to be in. If Persa learns to be a little more comfortable back there (and learns how to consistently hit guys on five yard routes accurately), I'm not concerned for the future. But as of now, he seems unsure as to how to recognize where the pass rush is at any given time and he's 90% on our dink-and-dunks, and because those are such short plays, you have to be 100% on them. It would've been nice to see him show a little bit of the confidence in his arm he showed in the last five minutes of the game for his entire time in the game, but, hey, you win some, you lose some by 21 in the final quarter.
No complaints with the NU defense. With Ricky Weina et. al. starting against a No. 12 opponent, the fact that we were somewhat dominant defensively for three quarters is really all you can ask. I'm not sure whether you attribute the complete falling apart in the last quarter to the fact that a) we sort of gave up after the first one b) Penn State adjusted to our defense and exploited it or c) our offense couldn't get a first down and left the de on the field for like 20 straight minutes, but whatever it was, I'll take it as a tragic anomaly from what was generally a good defensive day.
I mean, think about it: our defensive line constantly had pressure on Daryll Clark. Evan Royster and the vaunted Penn State ground game didn't bust out a run of more than five or six yards for the entire first three quarters, and generally didn't get past the line. And only on their touchdown drive were they consistently passing downfield. And then came the flood.
I wrote about this after Michigan State: it's absurd that there's nobody on this team capable of catching a kickoff. It doesn't have to be somebody fast back there. It just can't be Jeravin Matthews or Stephen Simmons. I'm not sure what happened to these guys, because they were both pretty good kick returners in years past, and Simmons busted out a good one today, but you need guys who can do the most basic aspect of the returning of kicks: the catching of kicks. I'd rather have an o-lineman back there catch it and sprint four yards to the 12 than a speedy RB who might bust out a 30 yard return, but might also drop it and have it picked up by the other team one in every ten times.
I thought I'd never see Stefan Demos complete a pass after the sideways sprinting 10-yard shovel pass of glory against MIami of Ohio, but the fates had different plans. Demos' heroics under fire will go down in kicker/punter history as one of the finest fluke plays in bobbled snap history. Demos turned what would have been Penn State 1st and goal and a play that would've ended the game early for the Cats into an NU first down. We who are about to watch you continue to kick rugby style punts salute you.

Anyways, I'm out of things to say, and deeply sad. If Kafka's back next week for Iowa...

Preview: Michigan State vs. Northwestern

LVS — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:36:02 -0000

[Sorry for the delayed posting. --LVS.]

Hey! Let's celebrate a big comeback which ended up meaning absolutely nothing in one of the worst MSU football seasons ever!

Your MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS vs. the NORTHWESTERN WILDCATS
SPARTAN STADIUM, EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN
NOON, ESPN2
WEATHER: PARTLY CLOUDY, 42-45 DEGREES

After a tremendously disappointing start to the season, in the last two weeks your Spartans have effectively turned things around, and at least left open the possibility for this to become a successful season. What the 3-game losing streak does mean, though, is that there is no more margin for error, and a game like Saturday's -- at home, against a less-talented team -- has gone from "should win" to "must win," lest our rehabilitated 3-3 record become 3-5 by next Saturday night. Northwestern has had quite a bit of success recently in East Lansing; they've won the last two, including a game in 2007 which stands as our poorest performance under Mark Dantonio. Our upperclassmen will remember that game too clearly to be looking ahead to Iowa. The line on this game, I believe, currently has MSU giving 12.5 points; I think that's awfully generous, but for our purposes, fortunately, beating Northwestern is more important than beating the spread. While we may not do the latter, we will do the former.

NORTHWESTERN SO FAR:

1 blowout against an overmatched 1-AA opponent (Towson);
1 very close call against an overmatched 1-A opponent (Eastern Michigan);
1 sleepwalk-type win against an overmatched 1-A opponent (Miami);
1 halfway-decent road win (but against a team which seems to find new, heartwrenching ways to lose each week -- Purdue);
1 home loss to Minnesota, an understandable defeat to a team that's roughly equivalent to MSU in talent;
1 completely inexcusable close road loss to Syracuse (Syracuse!).

Normally, it'd be difficult to say that a 4-2 record for Northwestern is disappointing, but LTP certainly is, and with some justification:

On the heels of our 9-3 2008 season buoyed by a stellar D, all signs pointed to the best D since 1995 and it has been an adventure to say the least. Our O-line was expected to be the strength of the offense with question marks at the skill positions. Mike Kafka has been a pleasant surprise with his passing and our WR corps is stellar, yet we lack a true Dell or Cunningham-like gamebreaker. Our line play has been weak and our rushing game non-existent. Essentially everything we thought would be great is not and almost vice versa. 5-1 was what we expected as a realistic worst case scenario as fans through those soft 6 games. It has been disappointing to say the least.

Still, 4-2 after 6 games certainly puts Northwestern in a position to play in a good bowl if they're able to pick up a key win or two from here forward. Presumably, Saturday would be one of the games they've circled on their calendar; despite the rough start, this is not a team that has reason to throw in the towel.

Mein bratwurst has a first name, it's "Zeke," mein bratwurst has a second name, it's "Markshausen" . . .

WHEN MICHIGAN STATE IS ON DEFENSE: . . . hold onto your hat; Northwestern is going to want to play fast. The Wildcats ran 93 offensive plays against MSU last season, and will frequently forego huddling up between snaps. In that regard, it's fortunate that we've already played Michigan: while the offenses aren't exactly the same (Northwestern's much more of a passing team than Michigan is), the Wolverines' frequent no-huddle drives should have prepared us for the pace NU would like to play at.

Northwestern's run game has been a disappointment. Take it away, LTP:

We've stunk. The original starter Stephen Simmons has been out most of the season with an injury and true frosh Arby Fields early-on appeared to be the guy who would get the ball and become our next 4-year RB. However, our line has been horrid and our RBs have yet to show they can elude defenders. Jacob Schmidt, a short yardage back and walk-on turned schollie this year is a feisty guy, but good for 3rd and 2 and not much more. He's got great hands and turned heads with an amazing catch last week though. I can't remember our run game being so much of a detriment.

Sippin' on Purple reports that Simmons is listed first on the NU depth chart for Saturday, so they "might actually see some semblance of a running game this week." Simmons certainly seems to be an improvement over the other options:

RUSHING	GP	Att	Gain	Loss	Net	Avg	TD	Long	Avg/G
Fields, Arby	6	53	210	20	190	3.6	4	25	31.7
Schmidt, Jacob	6	45	161	2	159	3.5	1	13	26.5
Simmons, Stephen	3	33	153	0	153	4.6	2	14	51.0

Limited sample size, of course, but compared to the other two, Simmons has picked up an extra yard per carry. Furthermore, QB Mike Kafka is a threat with his feet; he has 229 positive rushing yards through 6 games, and exploded into the Big Ten consciousness with a 217 yard (!) rushing effort at Minnesota last year. He's obviously reined in the rushing a bit so far this year, but given MSU's historic difficulties with rushing quarterbacks, I wouldn't be shocked to see some designed keeper plays.

Kafka's been more average passing the ball: he's currently 8th in the conference in passing efficiency (130.04, well behind Kirk Cousins' 141.81, and against lesser competition, of course), and is completing 67% of his passes, with 5 touchdowns against 4 interceptions. LTP says that Kafka "has a great arm, yet we never stretch the field and really go deep"; in my mind, that reinforces the perception that Northwestern is a team which lives and dies on the short passing game. We had tons of trouble with that type of attack against CMU, but we seemed to learn from those mistakes against Michigan.

Not surprisingly, NU's wideouts don't seem to be the deep-threat type: the top receiver is Zeke Markshausen (but can he catch frisbees in his mouth?), who has 34 catches, but for only 348 yards (10.2 average) and no touchdowns. He's not big (5'11", 185), nor fast, and he is white and a walk-on, so I believe he fully qualifies to be called "gritty" and "Welker/Chrebet-like." Drake Dunsmore (sounds like he should be sailing off of Cape Cod, no?) is the second leading receiver, and has remarkably similar numbers: 25 catches for 270 yards (10.8 average) and one touchdown. He's bigger, though: 6'3", 235. LTP also says to keep your eyes on . . .

I think Sidney Stewart might be our biggest threat (had 7 rec last year vs Sparty mostly when game was out of hand). However, I'm a big fan of Jeravin Matthews a tweener WR/RB whoseemingly makes big things happen on every touch ,yet we don't use him NEARLY enough.

. . . so, yeah. Pay attention to those guys, too.

For our defense, expect to see us play a slew of different linebackers, in an attempt to keep fresh through Northwestern's breakneck pace. Chris Norman figures heavily in the plans:

Because the Spartans are expecting more of the same, players such as true freshman outside linebacker Chris Norman better plan to have an expanded role. [ . . . ]

"The other reason is we’re going to have to play multiple people. One of Northwestern’s goals is to wear you down. But when we have athletes like Chris, who can give guys like (starter Brandon) Denson a break, we’re going to use that."

Norman already has one start, against Notre Dame, to his credit, but only six tackles. Junior Jon Misch, who backs up Eric Gordon on the other side, also figures into Tressel’s plans.

Also worth noting: NU has allowed 14 sacks through 6 games against poor competition. Their offensive line is not good. We have 10 in the past two games. We could easily make that 15 or 16 through three games by tomorrow night.

YTMND.

WHEN MICHIGAN STATE IS ON OFFENSE: Kirk Cousins is your quarterback and Larry Caper is your running back. Sounds pretty nice, eh?

LTP says that the Northwestern secondary is the team's best unit:

Our secondary was banged up and still is. It is our strongest unit though. Sherrick McManis has made some incredible picks and is finally at the lockdown mode we expected him to be after missing a couple of games due to injury. Safety Brendan Smith left last week's game, but his replacement, Brian Peters played extremely well. Jordan Mabin at the other corner is the real deal and can hit hard and Brad Phillips has been up and down, but seemst to have regained his '08 form. It is a solid unit when healthy.

. . . but statistics seem to show that they're a very average unit, albeit one that forces a lot of turnovers. They've been giving up 218 yards per game so far this season (almost 12 yards per completion), and have allowed 10 touchdown passes. But, they do have 10 interceptions, including 3 in the past 3 games for the aforementioned Sherrick McManis (who got the fluffy treatment from Teddy Greenstein in yesterday's Chicago Tribune). I'll suggest the same thing that I did before the Michigan game:

But as to the ~~Donovan Warren~~ Sherrick McManis thing: yeah, given our depth at wide receiver, we should just write off whomever he's covering and go elsewhere.

Furthermore, LTP said that Northwestern is already worried about the deep threat posed by Mark Dell and B.J. Cunningham (and I'll throw in Keshawn Martin for good measure); this can't help:

The degree of difficulty increased for Northwestern on Thursday night with the announcement that veteran starting safety Brendan Smith will not play at Michigan State because of a thumb injury.

Smith -- one of only eight players in NU history to be named a co-captain in repeat seasons -- has started 38 games, including the last 19. He also is the leading punt returner for the Cats with an average of 6.6 yards, fourth best in the Big Ten.

With Smith out, Brian Peters will likely make the third start of his career.

Yeah, let's try to take some shots downfield, plz.

Against the rush, Northwestern has been better: they've allowed 716 yards through six games (119 per game), and only 3.48 yards per carry. So, this shouldn't be like it was against Illinois, where (at least in the first half, when we were making a full effort) we could hand the ball off and pretty much be guaranteed somewhere between 6-8 yards. This should be a better test for the offensive line, and for Larry Caper; if we can get solid contributions from the running game, 1) we're going to win this game, and 2) it portends good things for next week, when Iowa will be an even sterner test.

Finally, even though Corey Wootton has been more or less a non-factor so far this year, Northwestern still has 19 sacks on the season, including 4 for linebacker Quentin Davie, and 2 each for LB David Arnold, safety Brad Phillips, and defensive linemen Vince Browne, Corbin Bryant, and Kevin Watt. (The substantial number of sacks from the linebackers and secondary suggest a blitz-happy defense.) We lead the league with only six sacks allowed, and this would be a good week to keep that up, given the Cousins' slight remaining injury, Nichol's injury, and the desire not to burn Andrew Maxwell's redshirt. Honestly, I think we should be all right: the only two players who have really hurt us consistently on the rush are O'Brien Schofield and Brandon Graham, and they're the two best defensive linemen in the conference. If Wootton was healthy, he'd be in that class too, but nothing suggests that he'll be a major threat on Saturday.

THE OBLIGATORY PREDICTION: Wherein I cheat by posting something that I've already written!

The team's play has improved, and Kirk Cousins' return should be a major spark for the team. One thing you didn't mention that may be a factor: I understand that NU's offensive line has been a problem, and that plays right into our hands. MSU had 10 sacks and 18 TFLs against Michigan and Illinois, and the interior of our defensive line has been blasting into the backfield right on the snap.

Honestly, I'm shocked that the line on this game is this high. Everyone remembers what happened the last time NU came to East Lansing, so I'm sure the team and the coaching staff aren't going to be looking past this game. (Many fans, on the other hand, may already have moved their thoughts onto the Iowa game, so the stadium atmosphere may be somewhat lacking.) I think it should be an entertaining game, like most in this series have been, but our defense has really stepped up the past two weeks and I think that trend will continue. 27-17, MSU.

Your thoughts?

I hate when the other team is good at football.

Rodger Sherman — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:07:51 -0000

So, third post of the day. (scroll down. The other two are still there.) Anyway, the most important thing I can say in this post is drop by for the game thread tomorrow. Two weeks ago, for the road game, we had a genuinely good discussion between five or six of us that generated about 150 comments, so let's try that again. I can say pretty confidently that I'll never have the best Northwestern sports blog out there - lookin at you, LTP - but I do hope to make the game threads here bangin', because the fact that your comments update automatically is just too good. So even if you hate everything else I ever do, comment along tomorrow.. It should be good.

By the way, check out SBNation's MSU blog, The Only Colors, for an MSU perspective. (those only colors are green and white by the way, in case you were wondering.

Anyway, on to the previewin'.

Oh, goodness, we're screwed, aren't we.

When we got the ball: Pass. Pass pass pass. Pass pass pass, pass pass pass.

We might have Stephen Simmons back, but, let's be real. Mike Kafka is our only hope for a productive offense. It's not so much that I don't trust our running backs - although, I don't - it's that Michigan State's run defense is absolutely stout, and our running attack, quite frankly isn't. Blame injuries, blame our o-line, blame Tyrell Sutton if you want, but we can't trust us to get us a W at this point in the year against a good team.

When they got the ball: I know that I know nothing about football, but I also know that we're not a good enough defense to do anything good if we're not aggressive, and never will this be truer than against a team with two rookie injured quarterbacks and a running back who is essentially out there by himself for the very first time. Blitz early, blitz often.

People I'm watching:

Offense: Andrew Brewer. Brew started off the year as our #1 target, but he's sort of disappeared as of late. Since Syracuse, I don't remember him making any big play outside of drawing some downfield pass interference calls. We're going to be passing a lot, and although Markshausen and Dunsmore have been great for that short stuff, who's our big play target? Last week, it was, uh, Jacob Schmidt. Get open, big man.

Defense: Brian Peters. Duh. We're playing our biggest opponent yet, and one of our three best defensive players is out with an injury. Peters has looked meh up until last week against Miami - last week was the first time I've ever seen him tackle somebody, let alone make multiple great defensive plays. If he doesn't get burned deep once, I'll consider his performance a success, and we might have ourselves a game.

Pick in a mascot fight to the death: The Spartan has two arms, two legs, lots of armor, a shield, a sword, a spear, and decades of military training. The Wildcat is a cat with sharper teeth than those of your average domestic house cat, but whose diet still consists of small rodents. Game, MSU. (mascot death fight records: MSU, 7-0, NU, 2-5. It should be noted that they're 4-0 on the field in games I've said their mascot would lose the mascot death fight, so that's a good sign.)

Prediction:

After the jump!

Michigan State, 34, Northwestern, 24

You remember that one scene in 300 where the guy is like "Hey, dude from that other city, what is your profession?" and that other guy is like "well, sir, I'm a potter." and then he turns to the Spartans and they're way more jacked and then he's like "you see, I did bring more soldiers!"

I have a funny feeling we're the potters here. We haven't really played any good opponents. I mean, not one. MSU is our first real toughy, and they really want this win to prevent from sinking below .500, plus it's at home, plus it's homecoming, plus they seem way better than us. This is the first time I've picked the other team, so let's hope they prove me wrong.

Conversations with the Enemy: Talking Northwestern with Lake The Posts

LVS — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:12:54 -0000

More photos » by Nam Y. Huh - AP

2 months ago: Northwestern's Corbin Bryant, right, sacks Minnesota quarterback Adam Webber during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game in Evanston, Ill., Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009.(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

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I traded a few questions about Saturday's game with Lake The Posts, the original (but no longer only!) Northwestern football blog. My answers to his questions will be posted on his site shortly.

Below, I'm in bold:

Despite its 4-2 record, Northwestern hasn't been receiving a whole lot of accolades for its performance in the first half of the season. The Wildcats lost to Syracuse, barely scraped by against Eastern Michigan, and didn't get the blowout most expected against Miami last week, but the win at Purdue clearly was huge for the team's bowl hopes. Generally speaking, how satisfied are you with the first half of the NU's season?

I'm not. Most of Wildcat Nation is not. We were missing four defensive starters in the Syracuse team and our lack of depth showed immensely. This has been the most bizarro season since 2001 at Northwestern. On the heels of our 9-3 2008 season buoyed by a stellar D, all signs pointed to the best D since 1995 and it has been an adventure to say the least. Our O-line was expected to be the strength of the offense with question marks at the skill positions. Mike Kafka has been a pleasant surprise with his passing and our WR corps is stellar, yet we lack a true Dell or Cunningham-like gamebreaker. Our line play has been weak and our rushing game non-existent. Essentially everything we thought would be great is not and almost vice versa. 5-1 was what we expected as a realistic worst case scenario as fans through those soft 6 games. It has been disappointing to say the least.

More, after the jump.

Corey Wootton was expected to be one of the best defensive performers in the conference, but many have said that it looks like he's still being hampered by his ACL problems. How has he looked this season, and how important is his play to your defense?

He hasn't been much of a factor. We all feel for the kid as he was a terrorizing gamechanger last season, and he played one series last week due to an ankle injury. When he was "healthy" he simply has seemed tentative. He's clearly not "back". He did draw some early season double-teams, but he's not the All-American he was expected to be. Not even close.

When most non-Northwestern fans last noticed Mike Kafka, he was busy rushing for about 874 yards in your wild win at the Metrodome last year. Is he still a major running threat? More generally, what can we expect to see from Kafka? ( . . .resisting the urge to make obvious literary jokes . . . )

Great question. Fans have been squawking about our lack of using Kafka as the RB. He's the best short yardage "back" we have, yet we're rotating a slew of RBs who haven't made much of a difference. We're at a loss as NU ALWAYS has a stellar RB. Mike has a great arm, yet we never stretch the field and really go deep which I believe hampers our rushing attack. You can expect to see 40+ passes from him and when he's on - watch-out. He makes much better decisions than CJ [Bacher --ed.] did, but he does tend to hold on to the ball a tad too long. He's slowly been running more each week. Most of us would be happy to have him throw 50+ this week and rush 10-12 times.

Northwestern, like MSU, has had to rework its running game this season after graduating a multi-year starter at tailback. It seems like NU has taken the running-back-by-committee approach, and statistics indicate that
the results have been fairly meh. Is that the case?

You're being generous. We've stunk. The original starter Stephen Simmons has been out most of the season with an injury and true frosh Arby Fields early-on appeared to be the guy who would get the ball and become our next 4-year RB. However, our line has been horrid and our RBs have yet to show they can elude defenders. Jacob Schmidt, a short yardage back and walk-on turned schollie this year is a feisty guy, but good for 3rd and 2 and not much more. He's got great hands and turned heads with an amazing catch last week though. I can't remember our run game being so much of a detriment.

Unlike in previous years, the current MSU offense is built around the passing game, and we've been fairly successful at it this season. How has the Northwestern secondary looked so far?

Our secondary was banged up and still is. It is our strongest unit though. Sherrick McManis has made some incredible picks and is finally at the lockdown mode we expected him to be after missing a couple of games due to injury. Safety Brendan Smith left last week's game, but his replacement, Brian Peters played extremely well. Jordan Mabin at the other corner is the real deal and can hit hard and Brad Phillips has been up and down, but seemst to have regained his '08 form. It is a solid unit when healthy. We've had a slew of INTs and fumble-inducing hits in the past two weeks and the 'Cats will need to win the TO margin game to beat Sparty in my mind.

Is there anyone on either side of the ball for Northwestern who MSU fans probably aren't aware of, but should keep an eye on?

Zeke Markshausen - a walk-on WR turned scholarship guy has become our clutch receiver. He's been fantastic. As mentioned, we've got 6-7 WRs that are solid. I think Sidney Stewart might be our biggest threat (had 7 rec last year vs Sparty mostly when game was out of hand). However, I'm a big fan of Jeravin Matthews a tweener WR/RB who
seemingly makes big things happen on every touch ,yet we don't use him NEARLY enough.

Finally, your score prediction please:

Michigan State 30 NU 24 - As usual, this one comes down to who has the ball last...

Thanks, LTP, and for the next three days, I hate you!

Oh, THEY'RE the 0-5 team

Rodger Sherman — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:16:02 -0000

Once, Northwestern was the team that lost games for years in a row, but that doesn't mean we'll feel bad about beating somebody else.

Anyway, I normally link to a blog of the team we're playing against, but, no dice for Miami (OH), because you couldn't pay me to blog about Miami (OH). (side note: anybody want to pay me to blog about Miami (OH). I'll do it if the price is right.) Instead, you get a link to the game page and the Sporting News preview, so, enjoy it.

This is what happens when you google image search "Miami Ohio basketball". Just pretend Jack McClinton's left arm has a tattoo that says "OF" and this will make sense.

When we got the ball: Miami has a pretty bad rush defense, and for the first time in a long time, we have Stephen Simmons. I'd like to see us go back to our first few weeks game plan of trying to figure out how to run the ball, because we can afford to try it out against a team we're better than.

I'm not saying "don't let Kafka pass", though. In fact, I'd like to see Kafka pass, but, none of the short easy stuff which he's been completing with great ease even against Big Ten secondaries. We know we got that. I'd like to see him throwing deep, because he hasn't shown he can yet, outside of one pass to Jeremy Ebert against Minnesota last year. Air it out.

You see, yesterday, I was playing pickup ball. I'm 6'2, but most of my game is reliant on a shaky mid-range and the reverse layup, because most pickup ball defenders don't really guard you baseline. I have the height to play in the post, but have literally no moves. But yesterday, I was matched up against a scrawny 5'6 or so kid. I could've just bullied over him and gotten my fair share of uncontested two footers, and I did this a few times, but I realized this was no fun. Instead, I used the opportunity to use some post moves I don't try against defenders who aren't mismatches against me - I busted out the dream shake and spin baseline, I busted out a turnaround fadeaway, and a variety of ugly hook shots. In doing so, I realized that the ugly hook shots, although they're ugly, are actually something I can rely on in the post against people that are actually my size if I don't telegraph it too much, and that I can pretty reliably bank it in from the right block, whereas the dream shake, while it looked good when Hakeem did it, is really likely to see me lose the ball. I realized what worked and what didn't, and my team won both games easily. (I also hit three threes in one game and two in the other, but that's less because I'm a good shooter than it is because I jack up a crapload of shots.)

If Mike does his 5-8 yard in routes that he does every other goddamn week against a team we should romp over like Miami, that's the equivalent of matching up against that 5'6 kid and shooting uncontested one footers because you can and you'll win the game. We have to take this opportunity of getting real game reps against a weak opponent to let Kafka test out his arm and see if he actually can hit Brewer on a go route like he did in the spring game and against Syracuse, or maybe if Sidney Stewart or some other player is a better deep ball receiver than Brew. We have a chance to essentially practice in an actual game. Take advantage of it, Coach McCall.

Defense: Last week we saw our defense unit the way we'd like to see them. They got after the ball-carrier, whacked him, and got him to lose the ball a lot of the time. For about 40 minutes, our defense absolutely dominated Purdue's offense.

Let's pick up where we left off. Our games against Towson and Eastern Michigan were notable for how our defense sleepwalked through them and still won quite handily, so, let's not do that. I know this isn't insightful at all, but, hey, this team doesn't really have much of anything going for them.

People I'm watching: Corbin Bryant, Marshall Thomas, Niko Mafuli, and Adam Hahn: These are the four defensive tackles in our lineup. Before last week, they'd done a pretty bad job all year long, letting the first four teams we'd played essentially run over us, even ones with weak rushing attacks. This week, they face off against a very weak Miami (OH) rushing offense, one that they barely use, opting to pass about 40-50 times a game.

But when they do run, I expect to see these four - Bryant and Thomas took the majority of the snaps until Mafuli and Hahn played a lot and very well last week - do big things. I'm looking for Miami to have a yards-per-carry in the 3.5 or under range, or else we're dealing with the same defensive issues we saw in the first four games.

Pick in a mascot fight to the death: A lot like our matchup against the EMU Eagles, we have a classic bird-of-prey versus small land mammal fight. And no matter how ferocious that small land mammal is, it has none of the tactical advantages that a bird that can fly really fast and has big talons has. Game, Miami. (Wildcats death fight record: 2-4. Notice that so far, the real life Wildcats are 0-2 in games I've said their mascot counterpart would win, and 3-0 in matches I said the mascot would lose. I'm looking for this to hold true again this week.)

Prediction:

Northwestern, 38, Miami, 10. Yeah, I like us against the ridiculously large spread. Miami hardly deserves being being +18 - they've lost by more than 18 in all but one game. Then again, I've been awful at predicting actual scores, and have picked NU in all six of their games this season, so, don't listen to me.

This is the last post til tomorrow's game thread, which I expect to be relatively laid-back, considering nobody will be near a computer, because ANY NORTHWESTERN FAN SHOULD BE AT RYAN FIELD TOMORROW IF THEY ARE WITHIN A REASONABLE DISTANCE OF THE STADIUM. People are talking about this being one of the lowest attended games in NU history, considering we only drew 22,000 vs. Minnesota, so, please, go, if for nothing else, so that it's less depressing looking out from what will probably be a very full student section. I might comment via iPhone if enough people are commenting, so, stop by if you live somewhere outside of a two-hour radius of Evanston, but otherwise, drop by.

Northwestern Preview

BoilerTMill — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:00:20 -0000

I am trying to decide which I should use cliché to begin this preview. Do I call it a must-win? A turning point game? Regardless, Purdue can still salvage this season and make a bowl game, but that task will become more difficult with a loss to the Wildcats. I don't think I am alone in thinking wins over Northwestern, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan State, and Indiana would not be major upsets. That five game stretch, like any five game stretch, looks quite daunting at the moment. If we take things one game at a time, however, I think we can pull it off and maybe even spring an upset of Ohio State, Michigan, or Wisconsin.

I get the feeling that this Purdue team needs just one positive thing to get one a bit of a roll. That positive can come with a win this week. Those that are comparing Danny Hope to Jim Colletto are jumping the gun. Danny hope understands that an offense is supposed to move the ball. Danny Hope understands that a tie is not as good as a win (not that we can have ties anymore). After four games I am willing to be patient because I have seen some very good signs. The most prominent sign is that this team has had fight in it when past teams would have folded each of the last three weeks. It has come down to execution and mental mistakes, which can be corrected. We will need to correct them against a team that is suffering from many of the same issues.

2008 Record: 9-4

2009 Record: 2-2 (0-1)

Bowl result: Lost to Missouri 30-23 OT in Alamo Bowl

Blog Representation: Lake the Posts, Sippin' on Purple

Series with Purdue: Purdue leads 49-26-1

Last Purdue win: 10/27/07 at Purdue 35-17

Last Northwestern win: 10/18/08 at Northwestern 48-26

Notable preview links so far: Sippin on Purple Name of the Week, Lake the Posts: Purdue Week Linkfest

Northwestern making a rare tackle against Minnesota.

This year so far for the Wildcats:

Except for a week 1 blowout over Towson, things have not been comfortable for Northwestern. There were signs of panic when it took a last second field goal to beat Eastern Michigan. They fought back from an early 17-0 deficit to lose on a last second field goal at Syracuse. Finally, they did what Big Ten bowl teams hope not to do, and that is lose a league game at home 35-24 to Minnesota.

Clearly, this is a team that is reeling a bit like us. LTP said the Eastern Michigan game felt like a loss even though it was a win. Everyone else in the conference is now looking at Northwestern and thinking W again. This is a perception the Wildcats have fought for decades. It appeared to be gone coming into this year, but other than next week's game against an awful Miami (OH) team, everyone in the league sees Northwestern as a win toward bowl hopes.

Northwestern offense:

The Wildcats' offensive numbers are skewed a bit after putting up 47 points and 485 yards against Towson in the opener. Those numbers, especially the rushing numbers are not indicative of what Northwestern has done in the three games hence. Northwestern gained 221 of its season rushing total of 522 yards. The passing game has been much more effective, churning out a little more than 250 yards per game.

I think a major reason that Northwestern has struggled somewhat is that they have gone away from quarterback Mike Kafka's strengths as a runner. Kafka is 96 of 133 as a passer for a very good 72% completion percentage. He has 1,049 yards, five touchdowns, and three interceptions on the year. The timing on those picks has been a bigger issue. A late interception set up Syracuse's winning field goal. Three of those five TD's came against Towson. As a running threat, Kafka has gained 102 yards, but has lost 95 on 10 sacks.

The 10 sacks is an issue we must take advantage of. The Wildcat offensive line has struggled mightily this year. Unfortunately, I question our ability to exploit this if we didn't attack a wounded quarterback last week. The line has to be considered a major disappointment based on what I wrote during my summer preview:

The main thing that will help Northwestern's offense with so few returning playmakers is its offensive line. Four starters come back from a line that gave up 18 sacks and paved the way for 1,800 yards rushing. It is a young line too, with just one senior. Desmond Taylor, Doug Bartels, Al Netter, and Ben Burkett all return to a line that has every projected starter under 300 pounds. That is very rare in the Big Ten, but it is helpful to Northwestern's hurry-up style of offense. They are a group more inclined to be athletic and quick rather than giant road-grinders. They really only need to give Kafka enough time to throw and holes to run through.

The Northwestern running game does not have one featured back we need to key on. Instead, we will see Stephen Simmons (150 yards, 2 TD's), Jacob Schmidt (128-1), and Arby Fields (120-3). Northwestern's longest run from scrimmage is a mere 25 yards, so there has not been a huge big play threat. ED Note: Simmons is now out according to Sippin' on Purple and has been out the last two weeks.

Much like last year, Northwestern will look to spread the ball around to multiple receivers. Zeke Markshausen (19 catches, 224 yards, 0 TD's) leads in receptions while Andrew Brewer (15-280-3) leads in yards and scores. Brewer has also thrown a 24 yard TD pass against Syracuse, so he is the Keith Smith of their offense. He is a big play threat with a 72 yard scoring reception against Towson. Drake Dunsmore (17-190-1) and Demetrius Fields (16-137-1) are solid possession receivers. We shouldn't have to guard as much against the big play as much as in past weeks. Brewer's 72 yard play against Towson in the offense's only play that has gone for more than 30 yards all year.

Northwestern defense:

If you are looking for a unit that was supposed to be a strength but has so far disappointed, especially in the fourth quarter, you don't need to look at our own defense anymore. The Wildcat D has given up 24 points in each of the first three quarters so far, but has surrendered 38 points when the game is on the line in the final period. The numbers are even worse when you consider they shut out Towson in the final quarter. Against Minnesota, the Wildcats led 24-21 going into the 4^th quarter, but gave up two touchdowns in the last nine minutes.

Northwestern has had a decent pass rush, collecting 8 sacks even though pass-rushing specialist Corey Wootton has been limited to 6 tackles and no sacks. The eight sacks have also come from eight different players, so they do like to mix it up on the pass rush.

Linebacker Ben Johnson has been the most versatile player on the defense so far. At 6'4" and 220 pounds he has good size for a linebacker. He also has 14 tackles, a sack, a fumble recovery, and 70 yard interception return for a touchdown. Fellow linebacker Quentin Davie leads the team with 30 tackles.

Joey Elliott will have to continue to watch his interceptions, as the Wildcats have six team interceptions from six different players. Safety Brad Phillips (24 tackles) has a pick and a sack to go with his tackling expertise. Fellow safety Brendan Smith (29 tackles) is also decent in pass coverage. Still, it is not a good sign when your two safeties are among the top three in tackles.

Northwestern's run defense has given up 132 yards per game. Minnesota's Duane Bennett had 89 yards and three scores last week, so Ralph Bolden should find some holes to run through. Northwestern is also giving up two rushing touchdowns per game. Thanks to Maize N' Brew's excellent work, we know that No one in the Big Ten has given up more touchdowns than Purdue and Northwestern.

Northwestern Special Teams:

Stefan Demos may be one of the worst punters in the nation statistically with an average of 36.9 per kick. While he doesn't have a huge leg, this can present problems for us. That means the coverage can get down field faster and recover any punts we might drop. Aaron Valentin might have an area to exploit here if he can hold on to the ball since teams are averaging 7.3 yards per return against Northwestern. The kickoff coverage is not much better, giving up 21.6 yards per return.

Northwestern's return game has not been much of a threat. Simmons is averaging 23.8 yards per return, while Brendan Smith averages 4.6 yards per punt return. The kicking game has been hard to judge as Demos has been pulling double duty. He is 4 for 4 on field goals with a long of 49 yards, but he has missed an extra point.

Intangibles:

This is a team that is almost a mirror image of our own. They have an experienced but underachieving defense. They have an offense led by a senior at quarterback that has waited for his turn behind a more experienced player before finally getting his full shot. They have talented running backs and receivers, but they are also young players. Both teams are also lacking confidence because of an inability to finish games. As a result, both teams could be 4-0 right now, but have only themselves to blame.

This game will come down to which team gets over its issues first. Both teams need it. If Purdue wins, it will revive bowl hopes and make fans feel like a reset button has been pushed. Yes we're 1-3, but a 1-0 conference record is just as good as anyone else's 1-0 conference record. A Northwestern win revives their own bowl hopes and allows them to build a bit of a run before a brutal conference schedule.

Keys for Purdue:

Run until they prove they can stop the run
Limit turnovers and mistakes in the passing game
Take advantage of their shaky offensive line
Improve time of possession
Imrpove group coverage on multiple receiving targets.

Out-gunned: Northwestern fails the Greg Paulus challenge in loss vs. Syracuse

hmlee — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:37:59 -0000

More photos » by Kevin Rivoli - AP

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In the immortal words of Ron Santo, "Boy oh boy..." This one was a hard one to watch as a Northwestern fan. I had been mostly confident going in, even despite last week's near collapse. I actually thought that such a close win would perhaps light a fire under the defense for this week. Instead, it looks like they never even got off the bus, much like the Bears' passing game of old.

It was a real shame too, because it ruined a career day by Mike Kafka who - get this - threw for 393 yards and 3 TDs (in the process completing 35 of his 42 passes), ran for a TD, and had a 24 yard reception (from Andrew Brewer, who, not withstanding his backup QB status is primarily a WR) for a TD. Oh, and he also broke a Northwestern record when he completed his first 16 passes in a row (the previous record being 15 in 1962). Yet, it all comes to naught because the defense also allowed Greg Paulus to throw for 346 yards and 2 TDs and let Delone Carter rush for 84 and 6 points of his own.

I do give the Northwestern offense as a whole immense credit for making this game as close as it was. It really seems like it shouldn't have been, as Northwestern managed to go down 17-0 within the first 10 minutes. The notes I took while watching the first quarter look something like this:

Missed tackle. Missed tackle. Turnover on first offensive play. More missed tackles. Sack. Dumb penalty. Dumb penalty x2. Bad punt. Missed tackle. Non-existent secondary. Sack AND dumb penalty.

Fortunately, football consists of four quarters and the Wildcats proved this admirably when they came out roaring in the second...

My week 2 coverage of Northwestern's close win against Eastern Michigan...

A recap of NU's offensive explosion in the season opener vs. Towson...

They put up 21 points in 11 minutes and took their first lead of the game. This was largely due to a switch over to a hurry-up offense and quite a few short-to-medium distance throws by Kafka. Watching the 'Cats put up those points really demonstrated to me how much Kafka's arm has improved. The last TD of that 21 point rush also showed his other side, as he managed to run it in himself. If he can continue to play like he did in this game for the rest of the season, then Northwestern is going to be a real threat in conference play. Provided, of course, that the defense shows up.

You'll notice that I wrote above that the 21 point surge gave NU its first lead of the day - this would be because just about every time the NU offense put together a scoring drive, the NU defense and special teams were busy coughing it right back up again. A large portion of this was due to what seemed like an endless stream of penalties. Across both the offense and the defense, NU was penalized 7 times for 57 yards - that's way too much. Granted, we're not talking triple digits here, but those penalties killed more NU drives and aborted more stops of Syracuse than I care to remember.

A quick aside here - if I ever hear the name "Greg Paulus" again I think I might throw one of my casebooks through my TV. The announcing crew on the ESPN 360 feed was so in love with him that for a second I thought Donovan McNabb had healed his cracked rib and decided to return to New York for one last NCAA game. I didn't think it was possible for Paulus to become MORE annoying after leaving Duke, but I guess I was wrong.

The rest of the game continued the see-saw nature of the first two quarters - NU would score when they went to a pass-first hurry-up offense, and they would stagnate when they tried to endlessly run the ball up the middle. I'm not sure if the lack of a good run game was because of the Orange defense or because of the absence of injured starting RB Stephen Simmons, but Jacob Schmidt managed to rush for only 30 yards on 10 touches. Contrast this with Arby Fields' 24 yards on 2 attempts, and I wonder if maybe it was just use of the wrong player.

The lack of Fields' presence in the game - though, I'd be remiss if I didn't quickly congratulate the other Fields (Demetrius Fields, for those of you keeping track) on his first career TD reception - as well as the mysterious disappearance of the modified no-huddle offense for stretches of time are real head scratchers for me. No one will ever mistake me for a grand football strategist, but if something is working for you - especially to the tune of 21 points in 11 minutes - why not keep using it until that stops being the case?

I really wish this game had been a win. If it had, I could have nominated Northwestern's wacky play which scored their fourth TD of the game for the Big 10 play of the week. After the NU defense sacked Paulus and forced a fumble, Kafka took a snap at around the 20 yard line. He lateraled the ball to Andrew Brewer, who then threw it back to him for a 24 yard TD reception. It was quite creative, and possibly the strangest play I have seen in college football. If the rest of NU's still mostly-secret play book is as intriguing as that, perhaps at the very least I'll be entertained while watching the rest of this season's games.

I don't even know what else can really be said about tonight. Kafka had a career day but it was all undone by a lackluster defensive effort and a single bad decision (his only INT of the game with :56 in the 4th quarter which set up the winning FG for Syracuse). Sure, the 'Cats were playing with a lot of injuries and it is true that they fought back from a 17 point deficit... but... if they don't find a way to figure out their defensive problems, and quickly, we could be looking at a serious regression from 2008.

Well, that's all she wrote (literally) for the 3rd week of Wildcat football. Join me next time as I bring my slightly deflated cheer of "Go U! NU!" to Ryan Field for the conference opener against the always pesky Golden Gophers...

Kafka-esque: Northwestern wins a squeeker

hmlee — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:45:29 -0000

More photos » by David Banks - AP

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No, this isn't a post about nightmaresh situations involving faceless buearucrats. Rather, it is about watching a team metamorphasize (see what I did there?) from a dominating force during one half into one that was either asleep, afraid of contact, or both during the other. The day started out well enough - it was a beautiful late summer day here in Chicago, and as my friend (a nominal Eastern Michigan fan) and I set out for the game I thought to myself, "What better way to spend such a bright and (mildly) hungover morning than by relaxing in the student section of Ryan Field as I watch the Wildcats crush another easy team..." Well, it didn't exactly work out that way.

The first half was a great start, though. After a scary opening drive by EMU, which ended with what appeared to be a blocked FG attempt, Northwestern came out looking like the team that stomped all over Towson during the season opener. They quickly put up 21 points while allowing only a measily (unblocked, this time) FG to the Eagles. The students who had already arrived in Evanston, ahead of the start of Northwestern's academic year, were quite jubilant, and the small contingent of Eastern fans were reduced to cheering only when their team actually managed to acheive a first down.

Mike Kafka, while not as impressive as last week, looked at least to be a dependable QB, though both of Northwestern's offensive TDs were scored on the ground after runs by Stephen Simmons, who had a day like that of Arby Fields last week. The defense even capped off its great first half play with a TD of its own on a 70 yard interception return.

After the half, all was not well on the north shore however...

Week 1 recap of the action vs. Towson

My season introduction for Northwestern

To be honest, I still am somewhat mystified by the conclusion of today's game. I expect performances like this from the Cubs at times, but Northwestern? It really looked like the Wildcats entered the locker room at the end of the 1st and last week's Hawkeyes came out in their place for the 2nd.

All of a sudden, EMU developed a running game, and those short little throws that the defense had handled up until then magically turned into 18 yard gains. A poor execution by special teams on a punt resulted in the Eagle's having possession about 30 yards from the end zone. The resulting TD would end up being the jolt Eastern needed as it was followed up by two more after a horrible intereception on a ball that Kafka really should not have thrown, and a few quite spectacular runs by Dwayne Priest.

As this was going on, the stands got rather quiet rather quickly. At times it seemed as though Northwestern was in for the upset of the week - and all I could think was how much I wished Fitz would say or do something that would get the team back on track. The game ended up coming down to a 49 yarder by Stefan Demos, and a (slightly) redeeming interception by the defense on EMU's last try. I was quite happy to not have to sit through overtime, but still left the stadium feeling a bit unsettled.

I think Kafka's arm and accuracy are improved, but I am somewhat concerned about the decision making. He was really lucky to have only the one INT today, as there were a few dropsies on the part of the Eagles that could have turned the game into a really ugly affair. I also want to know why the defense, for two weeks in a row, seems to tune out when the offense scorse a couple times. Memo to the D/ST: NU gets big leads BECAUSE you guys play with heart through the first quarter or two, not because you fall asleep and blow your coverages. Keep your head in the game and keep your opponents down. You're better than this.

Next week the 'Cats are away against Syracuse, and I'd really like to see a big lead early (maybe with a TD pass or two from Kafka?) turn into a big lead late as the defense plays the entirety of the game. A win like that would put Northwestern at 3-0 and in a good position going into the huge conference opener against Minnesota at the end of the month. For now though, I'm just happy for small miracles and long field goals.

Go U! NU!

An early look at the Northwestern Wildcats.

John M (The Crimson Quarry) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:00:11 -0000

More photos » by Stephen J. Carrera - AP

Why this photo, AP? We won!

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Northwestern Wildcats
Last meeting: 10/24/2008 (IU 21, NU 19 in Bloomington)
Last NU win: 11/10/2007 (NU 31, IU 28 in Evanston)
Series: Northwestern leads 42-34-1
Coach: Pat Fitzgerald (4th year, 19-18)

Northwestern is the only Big Ten team on the schedule that owes IU any revenge. Thanks to last year's carnage and our historical futility against Michigan and Ohio State, IU is on a losing streak against 9 of 10 conference opponents. Last season, IU provided one of the few disappointing moments in Northwestern's 9-win season by upsetting the Wildcats 21-19 in Bloomington. The 2008 game was the fifth consecutive IU-NU game decided by a touchdown or less, but the first of those five that IU managed to win.

How did we do it? Here's the game in a nutshell:

The box score reveals a fairly even game statistically, although Northwestern's five turnovers certainly stand out. Still, IU modestly outgained the Wildcats (319-316). NU ran the ball more effectively than IU, but neither was great: NU ran for 152 yards and 3.2 per carry; IU managed only 72 yards and 2 yards per carry. Both teams were 22-35 passing, but IU threw for 247 yards and no interceptions, while NU passed for 164 yards and threw two interceptions. Kellen Lewis was dressed but did not play. Chappell went the distance. Also, IU was without senior WR Andrew Means.

Obviously, the most encouraging aspect of the IU-NU game was the fine performance of Ben Chappell. The Illinois game that I recapped yesterday was one of Ben's worst days as a Hoosier, but last year's NU game was his best so far. It must have been sweet revenge for Chappell: as a redshirt freshman, Chappell saw his first meaningful game action with 5 minutes left in the first half at Northwestern when Kellen Lewis missed a play because he was shaken up. IU led 14-3 and faced 3rd down and 6 to go. Instead of playing it safe, the coaching staff allowed Chappell to throw the ball downfield. He locked onto James Hardy and threw an interception that NU returned to the house. That play was 99 percent the coaching staff's fault, but because of that play I'm sure it was gratifying for Chappell to get his first Big Ten win against NU.

The Northwestern offense, like IU's, will be replacing several key players at the offensive skill positions. Quarterback CJ Bacher is gone, and Mike Kafka will be the starter. Kafka played late in the IU game because of an injury to Bacher and played poorly. Late in the game, while trying to avoid a sack, Kafka threw the ball away--backwards. It was, of course, a live ball, and ended up as a 24 yard loss for NU. Kafka fumbled on the next play, and IU recovered, effectively sealing IU's victory. Nevertheless, Kafka started the next two games and played reasonably well, particularly in a win at Minnesota, in which he completed 12 of 16 passes and also ran for 217 yards, so he's no pushover. At tailback, NU loses the excellent Tyrell Sutton and replaces him with Stephen Simmons, who was injured and less-than-impressive last season. NU also is breaking in a new crop of receivers, but the O-line is experienced. Like IU's, the defense is NU's more experienced unit, and most starters, including the entire secondary, return. Here is NU's NCAA stat report. The Wildcats were particularly effective at rushing the passer.

NU will be seeking revenge, but hopefully IU isn't done exacting payback for the four heartbreakers that preceded last year's win.