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Awful

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gocatsgo2003

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Mar 30, 2006
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Despite the score, that was an awful first half. Saved by the fact that this EIU team doesn't have the personnel to hang with a BCS team and some truly awful decisions by their coaching staff.

This offensive line needs to figure things out quickly. If we put forth that kind of offensive effort against Duke, we would be lucky to score 10 points.
 
If its awful then our awful this year is a lot better than the awful of the previous two years.

The O-line is the weakest unit, is certainly below average and absolutely not awful. I doubt Fitz opens up the playbook early in the season so the running game will need to beat 8 men boxes. So far they have produced 412 yards rushing in six quarters.
 
chariots said:
If its awful then our awful this year is a lot better than the awful of the previous two years.

The O-line is the weakest unit, is certainly below average and absolutely not awful. I doubt Fitz opens up the playbook early in the season so the running game will need to beat 8 men boxes. So far they have produced 412 yards rushing in six quarters.
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Against EIU, we are running in spite of the OL, not because of it. They're VERY soft in both run and pass blocking today.
 
Turk said:
Whats the defense doing? I cant imagine eiu having many first downs.
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Fitz seemed pretty content w/ the how the D played heading into the locker room.


chariots said:
If its awful then our awful this year is a lot better than the awful of the previous two years.

The O-line is the weakest unit, is certainly below average and absolutely not awful. I doubt Fitz opens up the playbook early in the season so the running game will need to beat 8 men boxes. So far they have produced 412 yards rushing in six quarters.
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Say what you want about the injury-riddled past 2 seasons, but despite a couple of blow-out losses to conference foes, didn't have a bad loss like the Army, UNH, Duke, etc. losses.

Would like to see a TD scoring drive where at least half of the plays are passes; can keep to vanilla playcalling (the receivers should be able to get separation).

And while Thorson needs the work - would still like to see the back-up QB play the 4th in order to gain some game experience (and let him pass the ball some - otherwise, what would be the point).


gocatsgo2003 said:
Against EIU, we are running in spite of the OL, not because of it. They're VERY soft in both run and pass blocking today.
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Yep - the O-line was getting a better push against Stanford's D-line, which is why JJ has hardly had any room to run (bench that guy - Long and Roberts are better!).

The O-line, again, seems to be a big worry for the season, esp. if a couple of those guys don't return by next week.
 
definitely a little worried about the OL, but I'll take this display of awful today. Hopefully they'll get healthy and ready for Duke. I also think we'll open the playbook a little more against Duke, we've been pretty predictable the first half, but we did open it a bit with this first drive of the 2nd half and call some first down passes.
 
Last I looked, Maryland got 42 points laid on them by Bowling Green in the second half, Minnesota was losing to Colorado State, Rutgers was losing to a Washington State team that was defeated by Portland State last week, Penn State scuffled to a lousy win over Buffalo, Ohio State was having trouble moving the ball against powerful Hawaii and Iowa is looking like crap yet again against Iowa State. I don't think I'm that unhappy with our awful 41-0 lead against Eastern Illinois.
 
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I agree. Not a ton to get excited about except Thorson had good pocket presence and crisp accurate passes for the most part.

Our OL did not open up great holes against a bad FCS DL, our own run D was scary at times, kickoffs were short, kick coverage was awful (a good power 5 team would've had some huge runbacks).
 
FanatiCat said:
I agree. Not a ton to get excited about...
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EIU's offense is not bad and they have some speed. I did not see the final stat but at one point they were 0-10 on 3rd downs. The EIU offense was much more settled against us than they were against WIU last week. Our D not only kept them off the scoreboard but totally dominated in stats. I am not unhappy with the defensive game at all.

The offense used this as a prep game to get some of the back-ups on offensive line that are playing now some time to gel. Given the early season injuries at O-Line. I am glad to see it. This was exactly the game they needed at the time they needed it.

When was the last time that we were playing against a lesser team that we were supposed to dominate and we actually did? We were hoping to see second and third string on the field in the fourth quarter and we did.

I am pretty happy overall.
 
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GlideCat said:
EIU's offense is not bad and they have some speed. I did not see the final stat but at one point they were 0-10 on 3rd downs. The EIU offense was much more settled against us than they were against WIU last week. Our D not only kept them off the scoreboard but totally dominated in stats. I am not unhappy with the defensive game at all.

The offense used this as a prep game to get some of the back-ups on offensive line that are playing now some time to gel. Given the early season injuries at O-Line. I am glad to see it. This was exactly the game they needed at the time they needed it.

When was the last time that we were playing against a lesser team that we were supposed to dominate and we actually did? We were hoping to see second and third string on the field in the fourth quarter and we did.

I am pretty happy overall.
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EIU's offense was bad.
 
gocatsgo2003 said:
EIU's offense was bad.
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You seem to be starting with the assumption that we are bad and therefore anyone who we look good against must be worse.

EIU's offense committed very few penalties during the game and they radically reduced the number of turnovers from last week. Last week they put up all sorts of offensive numbers on offense against WIU (not a top caliper team) but did not capitalize due to mistakes and turnovers. Against us their quarterback play was mediocre but their line play was solid (although their players were undersized) and they appeared to be well coached. They had at least one player that appeared to have very good speed although he was small.

They will probably not make the FCS play-offs and will be about a 50/50 team at the FCS level. So I am not claiming that they are great. But our defensive line had a work-out against their o-line and was able to get push into their backfield.

The win does not prove much other than we dominated a team that a middle-of-the-pack B1G team should dominate. But after two years of not being able to do that, it is good to see the team on the right track.

We match up too well against Duke. Their strength is their offense. Our strength is our defense. We will see if this defense is good enough to shut them down and we will see if our presently semi-one-dimensional offense can score on their somewhat weak defense. We might be an underdog against them. You may get your wish and see our first loss to prove your assumptions right.

I will remain thoroughly pollyanna and expect a Cats victory. Which should solidify us in the lower end of the top 25.
 
GlideCat said:
You seem to be starting with the assumption that we are bad and therefore anyone who we look good against must be worse.

EIU's offense committed very few penalties during the game and they radically reduced the number of turnovers from last week. Last week they put up all sorts of offensive numbers on offense against WIU (not a top caliper team) but did not capitalize due to mistakes and turnovers. Against us their quarterback play was mediocre but their line play was solid (although their players were undersized) and they appeared to be well coached. They had at least one player that appeared to have very good speed although he was small.

They will probably not make the FCS play-offs and will be about a 50/50 team at the FCS level. So I am not claiming that they are great. But our defensive line had a work-out against their o-line and was able to get push into their backfield.

The win does not prove much other than we dominated a team that a middle-of-the-pack B1G team should dominate. But after two years of not being able to do that, it is good to see the team on the right track.

We match up too well against Duke. Their strength is their offense. Our strength is our defense. We will see if this defense is good enough to shut them down and we will see if our presently semi-one-dimensional offense can score on their somewhat weak defense. We might be an underdog against them. You may get your wish and see our first loss to prove your assumptions right.

I will remain thoroughly pollyanna and expect a Cats victory. Which should solidify us in the lower end of the top 25.
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YUP! We were supposed to dominate and we did. It is hard dominate another team perfectly because they are uncooperative in live play. This is our live scrimmage.
Really happy with the shutout. O and 10 on 3rd downs means we rose up and did the job in the critical moments.
NU's offense needed this kind of work and got it. Lots of guys got reps, Lots of tape to study to see our weaknesses. When does class start?
We might beat Duke but how many times have we lost to the EIUs on our schedule? Too Many!
 
I thought Hank kept it pretty vanilla on defense. I think we'll see a few more wrinkles next week (i.e. blitzes) like we saw vs. Stanford. Seeing Kuhar get some reps was of one of the highlights of the day for me. We have a solid rotation of ten along the DL now. The front four on obvious passing downs has been IO and Gibson at DE with Dean and Chapman inside. Chapman is much more effective when he doesn't have to worry about stuffing the run. We'll need contributions from all in order to shut down the Duke offense.
 
GlideCat said:
You seem to be starting with the assumption that we are bad and therefore anyone who we look good against must be worse.

EIU's offense committed very few penalties during the game and they radically reduced the number of turnovers from last week. Last week they put up all sorts of offensive numbers on offense against WIU (not a top caliper team) but did not capitalize due to mistakes and turnovers. Against us their quarterback play was mediocre but their line play was solid (although their players were undersized) and they appeared to be well coached. They had at least one player that appeared to have very good speed although he was small.

They will probably not make the FCS play-offs and will be about a 50/50 team at the FCS level. So I am not claiming that they are great. But our defensive line had a work-out against their o-line and was able to get push into their backfield.

The win does not prove much other than we dominated a team that a middle-of-the-pack B1G team should dominate. But after two years of not being able to do that, it is good to see the team on the right track.

We match up too well against Duke. Their strength is their offense. Our strength is our defense. We will see if this defense is good enough to shut them down and we will see if our presently semi-one-dimensional offense can score on their somewhat weak defense. We might be an underdog against them. You may get your wish and see our first loss to prove your assumptions right.

I will remain thoroughly pollyanna and expect a Cats victory. Which should solidify us in the lower end of the top 25.
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You can try to talk yourself into it all you want, but that EIU team was dreadful. Probably the worst team to play at Ryan Field in 15+ years.
 
pawildcat said:
Last I looked, Maryland got 42 points laid on them by Bowling Green in the second half, Minnesota was losing to Colorado State, Rutgers was losing to a Washington State team that was defeated by Portland State last week, Penn State scuffled to a lousy win over Buffalo, Ohio State was having trouble moving the ball against powerful Hawaii and Iowa is looking like crap yet again against Iowa State. I don't think I'm that unhappy with our awful 41-0 lead against Eastern Illinois.
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You would have been un-happy if you had to sit through a sloppy, unimaginative performance by the team, especially the coaches.
 
willycat said:
You would have been un-happy if you had to sit through a sloppy, unimaginative performance by the team, especially the coaches.
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Huh? This is amazing, we win 41-0, play our reserves, and we get a bunch of people bitching. What do you expect? Of course, EIU is terrible and the coaches aren't going to show new wrinkles that Duke can prepare for. I suggest next time we have an obviously overmatched opponent at home, you save your gas money, mow your lawn, and cook out with your family, because you are bound to continue your frustrations.
 
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Purple Pile Driver said:
Huh? This is amazing, we win 41-0, play our reserves, and we get a bunch of people bitching. What do you expect? Of course, EIU is terrible and the coaches aren't going to show new wrinkles that Duke can prepare for. I suggest next time we have an obviously overmatched opponent at home, you save your gas money, mow your lawn, and cook out with your family, because you are bound to continue your frustrations.
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Well said. It really is pointless to play these FCS games though. No one feels great after a win, and losing a player like DePietro would be a shame in a meaningless game. His injury didn't look good.
 
willycat said:
You would have been un-happy if you had to sit through a sloppy, unimaginative performance by the team, especially the coaches.
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Nah, I saw us lose against a mediocre Army team a couple of years back at West Point. We've lost to New Hampshire and gave Duke its only win of the year in their 1-11 season a few years back. I think I'll take the sloppy, unimaginative 41-0 win. Northwestern has to have the most down-in-the-dumps fan base I've ever encountered.
 
NJCat said:
Well said. It really is pointless to play these FCS games though. No one feels great after a win, and losing a player like DePietro would be a shame in a meaningless game. His injury didn't look good.
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Is next year's Illinois State game the last time we will play an FCS team? With alternating five BIG road games every other year, it will be tough to get to seven home games each season if you are always giving 1-for-1 home and road games to non-con opponents. At least we are giving some in-state schools a chance to experience big time football and there were 28 Chicago area players on Eastern. The problem is these teams are very up-and-down, especially offensively, and when you don't have an offense, the defense gets worn out. A few years ago with Garropolo, EIU was very respectable (almost beat Northern and gave us a decent game a few years ago).
 
Catreporter said:
Is next year's Illinois State game the last time we will play an FCS team? With alternating five BIG road games every other year, it will be tough to get to seven home games each season if you are always giving 1-for-1 home and road games to non-con opponents. At least we are giving some in-state schools a chance to experience big time football and there were 28 Chicago area players on Eastern. The problem is these teams are very up-and-down, especially offensively, and when you don't have an offense, the defense gets worn out. A few years ago with Garropolo, EIU was very respectable (almost beat Northern and gave us a decent game a few years ago).
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Cats stil have WIU on the 2017 schedule. Illinois State is no push over.

http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa-17/2017-northwestern-wildcats-football-schedule.php
 
willycat said:
You would have been un-happy if you had to sit through a sloppy, unimaginative performance by the team, especially the coaches.
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Willy, I was there and had a great time! Nice weather (though a little chilly) and lots of fun watching our young guys play. And that was our first pick-six TD in forever, so we got to see that too.
 
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