Upon Further Review
By Lake The Posts on
Happy Labor Day everyone! Now that week one’s win is in the rear view mirror, I thought a day or two of emotions under the bridge might provide some clearer insights as we prep for week two and the clearly potent Illinois State offense. MORE AFTER THE JUMP…
Happy Labor Day everyone! Now that week one’s win is in the rear view mirror, I thought a day or two of emotions under the bridge might provide some clearer insights as we prep for week two and the clearly potent Illinois State offense. There are several tangible and intangible notes of interest I picked up after going back and watching the second half again (yes, I did) last night. Wildcat Nation’s mindset is somewhere teetering back and forth between “take the road win in SEC territory and run” and “man, if we don’t course correct our line play and RB play it’s going to be a loooong season”.
Let’s get into it:
- New Approach Fitz? Our feisty leader was a mellow presence all night long. At one point, as Vandy was driving for what turned-out-to-be a missed 46-yard FG drive, he looked downright Lou Holtz-esque, squatted over picking grass likely as some sort of supertitious activity. Overall, the fist-pumping, in-your-face approach was squelched perhaps as he finds a modified approach.
- Pass/Run Mix: My playcalling fear came to fruition as we continued to try and prove to ourselves that we’re a running team. Despite the fact Fitz went on record saying his belief in our OL and run game improvement will be there b/c they focused on it all off-season, it was clear we’ve got some issues here. Look, you simply can’t pass every down and expect to win, but the fact we had 26 NON Dan Persa rushing attempts (Persa had 17) is inexplicable when you consider Persa’s completion percentage (19/21). If you’re doing something successful 90% of the time, keep doing it.
- Keep It Tight: One no-brainer improvement is to not pitch to Arby Fields on the option. Fields repeatedly went the wrong way when faced with no holes on the option to the outside. After reviewing the tape NU clearly had more success – again, all relative – keeping it between the tackles. I didn’t break down the option runs vs the between the tackles runs, but it was a significant plus for keeping it tight.
- Persa On The Run: It’s quite amazing looking back and seeing all of the throws Persa made while rolling. The announcers mentioned it and you can tell, Dan feels more comfortable when rolling than staying in the pocket. His impressive game was even more impressive when you go back and break down these plays.
- Under Wraps: It’ll be interesting to see how Fitz handles Jacob Schmidt this week. The veteran RB had two fumbles on the day both recovered by NU. One came deep in our own territory that would’ve been disaster on the final drive.
- OL Improvement:As a unit the OL was a major disappointment. Yes, they blocked well on Persa keepers, but they did a poor job of opening holes and got beat time after time on assignments on option plays. We also surrendered four sacks on the night.
- Most Amazing Play: Dan Persa’s fake handoff and scramble on the 4th quarter TD drive. He simply made Vandy player after Vandy player whiff as he bolted, bounced and juked his way to a 20+ yard scramble.
- The Play That Was Huge That You Won’t Remember: Sidney Stewart’s grab on third down that he went up and got. I love this kid as he makes the acrobatic and difficult seem so easy.
- TV Coverage: I thought the Comcast Sports Net South coverage was brutal. The down and distance info was almost never right, often times on the wrong down. The camera angles were poor and Matt Stewart repeatedly had the wrong NU player including Drake Dunsmore’s TD catch which he attributed to Demetrius Fields. Moreover, the SEC propaganda about speed and how much faster Vanderbilt was was nonsense. It was hilarious as he was giving the speed “win” to Vandy, Persa blitzed several “fast LBs” on that very play to secure a key first down.
BREAKING…
Just received the BTN notification that Pat Fitzgerald was named Big Ten Icon #41. He will be profiled along with Penn State’s Curt Warner sometime in September after the show launches on September 18. Also, the Big Ten named Denard Robinson as the offensive player of the week.
Non-Conference Opponents:
We’ll be spending most of the week breaking down Illinois State, but as usual a top-level look at NU’s 2010 non-conference opponents in week one:
Illinois State
The good news for ‘Cats fans is our next opponent – ISU – gave up 54 points to a Division II school – Central Missouri State. The bad news is that Illinois State put up 55 points so you know they can move the rock. The Redbirds got gouged for 605 yards of offense, but managed to win thanks to QB Matt Brown’s (Marion, IL) 303 yd, 3 TD, O INT day. Brown was an efficient 24/31 on the day.
Rice
The biggest non-conference news of the weekend was our September 18 opponent Rice and their stingy play against #5 Texas. Yes, they lost 34-17 and also gave up 24 2nd quarter points, but they played tough and raised a few eyebrows that they won’t be an easy out. Rice mustered only 88 rushing yards as the Sam McGuffie era began with a 14 carry, 47 yard day.
Central Michigan
The Chippewas pounded Hampton 33-0 as Ryan Radcliff looked OK passing for 242 yds and 1 TD on 20/34 passing in his debut. 
Regarding “Persa on the run…” DP looked very comfortable in the pocket on the TD pass to Ebert. Given his height, he has to make sure that he gets a clear throwing lane.
My thoughts on the nonconference schedule:
1.) Like you said, Central Missouri (omit the “State”; I checked and it’s technically incorrect) is a Division II team. What I also found is that Central Missouri put up school records for passing offense against ISU during that game, including passing yards and passing TDs in a game (granted, a lot of these records were set a week before). And remember that all of this happened with ISU playing at home. All of this screams “find a receiver!” for the ‘Cats next Saturday. While I agree that their offense could pose some trouble, we should still get the win, as there’s no excuse not to hang about 40 points on this team, assuming good weather.
2.) Texas gave up two touchdowns to Rice. From what I could gather, the first TD was due to a lucky tipped ball and two blown tackles by Texas right at the end of the half. Texas was caught off-guard; it looked well enough that Rice was very content with letting the clock run out. The second TD came on a 20-yard drive in garbage time, right after Texas’ punt returner muffed the catch. Rice put up only 219 yards on Texas, at home, while Texas was breaking in QB Garrett Gilbert, who had a passable day. I guess I’m saying that their offense looked anemic.
3.) Central Michigan’s offense looks like a cause for concern. Not sure about the defense, because Hampton’s offensive numbers looked absolutely awful for a team that, on inspection, much prefers running the ball and spent most of the game having to pass. I’m certainly glad that we get these guys at home.
Like most everyone else, I was impressed with Venric Mark’s speed. I know he is listed as a backup wide receiver, but why can’t they switch him to running back?
How do you win without a running back? Fields is terrible and Persa’s days are numbered if he continues to try to do what he got away with against Vanderbilt. Is there no one else on the team that they can’t try at running back? How about Venric Mark or one of the receivers? Persa’s passing success was at least part due to the fact that they thought NU was trying to run the ball. If the defense doesn’t respect the run and keys on Persa and worst blitzes more then it may be a long season. I also wasn’t impressed with the defense so the offense is going to have to really step up but can Persa do this all by himself like he did against Vandy? The conference is much improved and I think they lose one of the out of conference games so eight wins is going to be tough.
I think you’ll see Fitz make more of a concerted effort to get energize the sideline this week. In Skip’s article today, there were references to how dead the NU sideline was all night. I don’t expect that to last long, even with a lifeless non-conference game crowd in Evanston.
@John – Didn’t mean to imply he wasn’t good in the pocket – the guy was magnificent all night long. Just pointing out the fact how amazing he was while rolling. As for the option runs – indeed, there may not have been much there, but Fields HAS to turn up field and not run backwards. Makes you wonder if we’ll see Adonis Smith this week against ISU. My hunch is that Venric will get many more touches on PR this week with a safer environment. Hopefully some deep balls at WR as well.
Maybe the TV coverage didn’t do it justice, but Fitz looked as pumped as I’ve ever seen him following the penalty to end the game. He ran about 20 yards down the field and did a huge fist pump. Also, there was a penalty early in the game where Vandy hit our punt returner and Fitz ran half way across the field and looked like he wanted the vandy player ejected.
Dumb Question D’Jour: How can an NCAA/Big Ten team be allowed to have two players with the same number? (Dan Persa and Hunter Bates both wear #7)? If that’s OK, what’s the point of having numbers at all?
I would say the option runs had more variance, not that they were more unsuccessful on average. I remember Persa getting a bunch of yards on option runs, which we generally got 0-3 yards on runs up the middle.
This site is a walk-through for all the information you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Look here, and you’ll definitely find it.
TV Coverage:
I agree it was bad, but it was better than a complete in-house production (e.g. Duke in 2008), which we’ll likely get to experience again against Rice on Sept. 18 (right now only video access is through their PPV online service). Remember that ESPN Regional runs those “SEC Network” broadcasts with local announcers, hence the homer-ism. I thought they came up with names of NU players pretty well given the complete lack of familiarity. They tried to give equal coverage but it was clear that they were biased and at times just sounded dumb (especially when they were talking up “SEC speed” on the same play that Persa took off for a first down gain, running by at least 3-4 Vandy defenders).
Running Game:
PLEASE STOP BLAMING THIS ON THE RUNNING BACKS EXCLUSIVELY. Throw the offensive line AND coaches’ play calling under the bus, too, while you’re at it – in my view they all deserve about equal blame. Plus, Persa admitted himself that he made some bad decisions on the option at times and a couple times completely screwed over Arby by tossing him the ball as he was already surrounded by defenders and had no chance while he was 5 yards deep in the backfield. Yes, NU doesn’t have a standout running back, but it’s not like the coaches/offensive line/quarterback are doing the guys that are playing any favors.
Non-Conf Opponents:
Illinois State is bad and NU should beat them even with a vanilla run-based attack that you know Fitz will go to this week. Good FCS teams don’t have to come back to beat a Division II school 55-54.
Rice is better than they were last year, but it’s not like Texas was pulling out all the guns to beat them. As mentioned earlier, one of their TDs was on a fluke bounce into the hands of a receiver just before the half. I expect this will be NU’s toughest remaining test of the non-conference slate, though.
It’s really hard to gauge Central Michigan after beating Hampton. Talk to me again after their game this week against Temple who has a rather solid team despite being pushed by FCS Villanova last week.
[...] Disasters Averted. Northwestern took on an undermanned Vanderbilt in Nashville and barely escaped with a victory. Same with Minnesota at Middle Tennessee State. Even Wisconsin allowed UNLV to hang around before [...]
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I have to agree about the disappointing quality of the broadcast from Vanderbilt. The camera work was barely up to par for a high school conference game.
While I have concerns about Northwestern, particularly the running game and special teams play, I will withhold judgment as this was only Week One. Usually, good teams improve after the opener.
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