Cats Defense Solid; NU Bowl Eligible

Two touchdown passes from Persa to Ebert and two Demos field goals set the table for an outstanding defensive performance.  IU’s late touchdown made the final score much closer than the reality, but the Cats are now “bowl eligible” for the fourth consecutive year and the seventh time in the last eight seasons.

I spent yesterday driving home from Bloomington and I spent today reviewing emails, which provided mixed interpretations of the victory.  So I have had plenty of time to digest both my trip and the game.  The game was not particularly exciting.  What was expected to be a high scoring affair was a defensive struggle.  Neither team ever took a stronghold of the momentum, but the Cats in the second half took the lead, and then just turned it over to their defense.

Before getting into the details of the game, the win itself had some significance.  It was the sixth consecutive road win, which is the longest NU road streak in 80 years.  And while “bowl eligible” is in many ways a code word for just mediocre, it is the consistency of six-win seasons that continues to demonstrate that this is truly a new era of Northwestern football. 

If you simply look at Ben Chappell’s passing stats, it is hard to understand why the defense was the star of this game.  Chappell was 30-56 for 308 yards and a late touchdown.  But most of Chappell’s passing happened between his own 20 and NU’s 40.  Once IU got to midfield, the Cats’ defense took over and stymied the Hoosiers.  IU only crossed midfield five times and ran plays inside the 35 on only two drives – one which resulted in a critical missed field goal.

The NU run defense was very strong, giving up only 65 yards on 21 carries.  Trea Burgess was the leading Hoosier runner with 37 yards, most of which came on a 15 yard run.  IU is certainly a one-dimensional team, but so is Minnesota and the Gophers ran well against NU.  NU’s front four stood its ground and allowed the linebackers to do their jobs.  Bryce McNaul had another monster game with 13 tackles.  NU consistently was ready for IU’s misdirection runs and end around attempts – a run attempt by WR Tandon Doss was stopped for a loss of three.

Coach Hank took an interesting approach to the passing game.  He did not put on much of a pass rush and the Cats did not sack Chappell even once. And the Cats gave up a lot of passing yards on the sidelines, again mostly between the IU 20 and the Cats 40.  But once IU crossed onto NU’s side of the field, the secondary stepped up and made plays, consistently.  Chappell had far more success throwing to his right as Jordan Mabin completely shut down Tandon Doss, who only managed four catches for 34 yards.  Curiously, NU lined up Quentin Davie at defensive end for at least a dozen plays.  Despite no sacks, he recorded three hurries coming off Chappell’s right side, which may explain some of his troubles throwing to his left.

In the end, this was the textbook depiction of “bend but don’t break.”  The Cats did not have to be too aggressive at any point, they kept the offensive in front of them, and they did not give up many big plays – only two above 20 yards.  This is the best the Cats have played against a spread offense in two years; and while most expected NU to win, hardly anyone expected them to hold IU to 17 points.

On offense, the story of the game was Mike Trumpy and the continued improvements of the running game.  Trumpy ran 21 times for 110 yards – more than five yards per carry.  Smith and Fields saw a few carries, but Trumpy was the workhorse and may have finally solidified his spot as the feature back that NU has been looking for since Tyrell Sutton graduated.  Trumpy’s running was especially important in the fourth quarter when the Cats were salting the game away. 

But this team still lives and dies by the play of Dan Persa and the passing game.  It is no coincidence that NU is 6-0 when Persa throws a touchdown pass and 0-2 when he does not.  Persa continues to thrill NU fans and confound opposing defenses with his accuracy and his ability to evade the pass rush.  His run and throw on the first touchdown pass to Ebert was one of the most athletic plays he has made all season.  And his third quarter touchdown pass to Ebert was probably the most accurate pass he threw all game.  He was not quite as efficient at 18-28 passing, but in his defense, the wind was brutal – I would say worse than the MSU game.  

Persa left the game midway through the fourth quarter with a concussion, apparently.  It was announced today that he is expected to play against Penn State as long as he practices on Wednesday.

Speaking of the wind, the special teams had no problems with it – as this unit played the best game of the year.  Where to begin?  Stephan Demos made two field goals including a fantastic kick into the wind to seal the win in the fourth quarter.  Brandon Williams averaged 37 yards per kick, and that included an inexplicable 20-yard punt WITH the wind (the only special teams faux pas).  He also managed to give Tandon Doss only one chance to return a punt, which the coverage team stopped for only nine yards.  Kevin Watt partially blocked a punt, which helped to set up the final Demos FG.

But it was the difference in kick returns that was the “behind the numbers” key to the game.  NU kicked off four times, averaging 68.5 yards per kick, with two touchbacks.  IU averaged 22.5 yards on the two kicks they returned for an average start on the 23-yard line.  This allowed the defense plenty of room to play its game without worrying that one big play would put the Hoosiers in FG range.  And when IU kicked off, Venric Mark looked like a guy ready to explode.  He is going to break one soon.

The atmosphere in Bloomington was tense for this game.  IU really needed this win to have a chance at bowl eligibility.  The Indiana student newspaper displayed the headline “Revenge?” in a nod to last years’ 25-point NU comeback.  IU is a school that is trying really hard to be a football school, and for that reason, the fans and the team were fired up for this game.  Fortunately, the Cats were up for the challenge.

Now, I have read a lot of emails today about the disappointment that the Cats were only able to beat IU by three; pointing primarily to the penalties as a primary reason.  And my first reaction was to say, “a win is a win; and now the Cats are bowl eligible.”  But now I realize that this is too simplistic.  The fact is, that when it comes down to it, this is a team that is lead by defense; and the defense is finally coming into that role.  And winning with defense is winning ugly sometimes; and often that means close games against inferior teams.

I know that there are fans out there who are upset about the margin of victory in this game.  This is hard for me to understand – winning on the road in the Big Ten is hard enough without having to worry about running up the score.  There are still a lot of challenges ahead for this team.  But this game, especially the defensive performance, is a huge stepping-stone for the Cats return to New Years Day.

Go Cats!

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Sunday Morning Superback

Epic Fail

Northwestern struggled in all aspects of the game Saturday night; losing their first game of the year to an injury-riddled Purdue team.  Major failures at key times in the game were the Cats downfall, despite competent offense and (relatively) decent defense.

But first, credit where credit is due.  I hate when NU pulls off an upset and all the commentators do is talk about how poorly the favored team played – I refuse to play that game.  Purdue used its two weeks well.  It had a great game plan on defense; using All-world defensive end Ryan Kerrigan to put pressure on Persa, but keeping the D-Tackles back to cover Persa’s scrambling.  Persa’s longest run was only 9 yards tied for NU’s longest run of the game.  The rest of Purdue’s defensive strategy was a solid bend-but-don’t break philosophy, which yielded only 17 points despite giving up 389 yards of total offense.  The result was forcing special teams opportunities, which were the Achilles heal for NU.

On offense, Purdue took a play out of Minnesota’s playbook and ran the ball directly at the NU defense.  Purdue ran for 255 yards, although 128 of this were on two longs runs.  They did not need to pass the ball – and that is a good thing for them because Rob Henry was only 6-18 passing.  All in all, Purdue was well-prepared and opportunistic.

So what went wrong?

On offense, it is difficult to point to a true reason for the lack of scoring.  The yardage total was not huge, but Persa racked up another 300-yard passing performance and once again spread the ball around to eight different receivers.  The offense did not turn the ball over as the only fumble was on a special teams gaff.  But three of the six punts were taken from Purdue territory.  Add the two missed field goals, and NU scored only three times in eight visits to Purdue’s half of the field.  The issue here was not the inability to execute, but the inability to finish.

It certainly seemed like Persa had a poor game.  But he went 30-41 for 305 and ran for a touchdown.  He was, however sacked five times.  On his actual running plays, Dan gained 51 yards on 15 carries.  The Purdue contain defense gave Persa only 3.4 yards per carry on run plays and 1.2 overall once you include the sacks.

The offensive player of the game had to be Jeremy Ebert, who seemed to catch every one of Persa’s passes.  He finished with 11 catches for 124 yards and continues to have an All-Conference-type season.  But he was unable to hook up with Persa in the end zone. 

The rest of the NU running game was non-existent, as Schmidt, Trumpy, and Adonis Smith combined for a mere 60 yards on 22 carries.  Yes, that is less than three yards per carry.  I guess it is back to the drawing board there.

But the key failure of the game was the holding penalty on Ben Burkett in the closing minutes of the game.  NU was third and five from the Purdue 26.  Jacob Schmidt took a quick hitter from Persa for 22 yards – which would have been the longest NU run of the game by double.  The Cats would have been first and goal from the four with less than two minutes left.  Instead the penalty gave them a third and long where the only reasonable option was to play for field goal range and the tie.  It was a clear hold, but an unfortunate penalty at that.

Defensively, it is hard to put a finger on just what went wrong.  Purdue only gained 279 yards, with 128 coming on the two long runs and 75 coming on the last drive.  This means that Purdue gained only 76 yards on their other 44 plays.  Henry was only 6 of 18 for only 47 yards passing with a brutal interception.  The Boilers were 3 of 13 on third down (the Cats were 8 of 18).  NU had an eight-minute advantage in time of possession. 

But it was the lapses in key situations that killed the Cats in the end.  The long run by Henry on the last play of the first quarter set up Purdue’s first score after being unable to move the ball in the first fifteen (Purdue had 44 yards up to that point).  The quick pitch to Keith Carlos midway through the third quarter set up another field goal and broke another offensive drought (Purdue had only 56 yards between the two long runs, which occurred 23 minutes apart).  Then, finally, in the fourth quarter, Purdue executed the best drive of the game going 75 yards in 14 plays (Purdue had lost 6 yards since the Carlos run).  Purdue went for it on fourth and one from the seven and scored on a little run by Dan Dierking.

Seriously defense.  It is fourth and one in a clutch situation against a team that has not been successful throwing all game.  Put nine in the box and force the throw to beat you – do not give up a running touchdown on that play.

But the story of this game was the epic failures on special teams.  A misplay on a kickoff after Purdue’s first touchdown buried the offense at Purdue’s five.  The Cats punted after gaining 12 yards.  Hunter Bates’ fumble on a second quarter field goal lead directly to a field goal.  A poorly played kickoff after Purdue’s second field goal forced the Cats to start at the 16 – a drive which fizzled out at midfield. The lone bright spot in the return game was a nice return of the second half kickoff by Simmons.  This lead to the Cats second touchdown.  There certainly is a causal relationship between success on special teams and the ability to score.

Brandon Williams had another strong outing, but a 15-yard disaster of a rugby punt was saved only by an equally brutal Henry interception.  When you have a punter of Williams’ quality, you wonder why the rugby punt is necessary?

In the end, the lasting memory of Purdue-NU 2010 will be the continuing struggles of Stefan Demos.  After drilling a field goal in the second quarter, he had a try blocked with 8:13 remaining.  The snap on this kick was fine, but he kicked it way too low.  Demos certainly has the range from 41-yards and there was no reason to kick the line drive.  The miss on the final attempt was primarily the result of a high snap, but Williams recovered and made a good hold – looked like Demos just panicked after the bad snap.  Again, the kick was a line drive, which was again not necessary.  Demos has been the hero and goat many times in the last 15 months.  Cat fans left the stadium wondering whether Stefan has the goods to finish out his senior year, or whether it is time to give one of the younger guys a chance.

So where do the Cats go from here?  First, the failures on offense and defense are not world changing.  There is very little reason for concern here; it was just a bad game.  Especially considering the Cats will not face Pryor or Robinson, i.e., the games against the really mobile QBs are past. 

But special teams does win and lose games.  And NU continues to fail to pay enough attention to special teams and it will continue to be a risk factor until they do.  Were they losing the kicks and punts in the lights?  Who knows – but you would think that is something they would practice.  Also, why call for a rugby punt in that situation?  Or why not practice it to the point where your traditional-style punter is competent with the task.  And finally, when your long-snapper is skipping halftime to practice snaps during the band show, there is obviously a problem. 

This Northwestern team now has the same two-week period that Purdue did – to prepare for a team that is clearly better than them.  But if NU does not work on focus and execution, October 23 could be an ugly game.

Go Cats!