FB: Northwest Conference

[shane falco]

Good game today at the Catdome.  The Cobber's were tough and were not intimidated by the Cat's.

Uncharacteristic turnovers for the Cat's which is good in a way because they overcame that adversity and still came out of it.  Without the to's the Cat's might have exploded but credit the Cobber's for playing tough.

I'm sure that'll be a huge point of emphasis this week in practice, to SECURE the ball.

Now it looks like the Cat's will face the #2 team in the nation now.  Our bracket is ridiculous.  It's almost like the D3 committe doesn't want Linfield back in  the Stagg.   Well, one game at a time Cat's!

Cobber's, congrats on your great season, you guy's have a tough team.

[bulk19]

wildcatinwi, swede, retagent:
We're so lame at posting this weekend because this is our big weekend for gathering with all our cousins and stuff, as you reminded us earlier about our habits here in Wisconsin:


"Swede,

   Before you promise something, go to the WIAC board and read how the cheeseheads (which I became as of April this year) are crying that posters from MIAC, and NWC are polluting the sanctity of their pristine board. I guess they don't want to hear from other D-3 FOOTBALL fans, only from their close knit inbred family."

[Lever Street]

Just got home from Maxwell.    I saw 2 different games today.

1st half - Concordia dominated.  CATS were lucky to only be down 7 at half.  Cobbers must be a fine team to make Linfield look so bad.

2nd half - The Linfield we know an love came through.  Passing every play.  3 CAT TD's.   Concordia missed 2 FG's which would have built the lead to 10 points.

That was a big test for Linfield.  We faced some difficuties but rised above.  To many turnovers and penalties for the CATS.

Enough said, let's move on to next week!

[Foss]

Lever Street, I agree with what you said. We had a tough time stopping them in the 1st half, but after second half adjustments the salty D shut them down.

This might have been the best thing in the world that could have happened to the 'Cats. You can't fumble 3 times on good looking drives, gift wrap an INT in the end zone and expect things to be easy at this point in the season against these kinds of opponents. It was gut check time and we proved why we are the defending national champs. We need to cut down on the turnovers. The team we are playing next Saturday beat St. Johns by 27 and a big reason was due to numerous turnovers. We hang onto the ball and we'll be fine.

Great win 'Cats! You proved you can get it done when faced with adversity! Take it to Whitewater this Saturday!

[MonroviaCat]

Just looking ahead to Whitewater and they will be a challenge.  They have what looks like a good balanced offense that can hurt you with the run or the pass.  However, it looks like they'd rather run which means if the Cats can shut that down then we might force some TOs on the pass.  Looking at the common opponent (UWSP) it could be a pretty even match (but of course common opponents don't mean much especially when you consider that UWW plays UWSP all the time....).  Nonetheless, next week looks like the true Stagg Bowl!!!!

GO CATS!!!!!

[Wildcat'64]

First it was #6, next it was #9, next will be #2....No "cupcakes" in the West bracket this year!

#1 vs. #2 should be one Titanic Battle!

[swede]

i dont want to wreck our chances but i've been in here saying it all along

whats that you were saying?

[swede]

Cobbers are for real. WOW! Adjustments will be huge. Cats get the ball to start the 2nd half.

What adjustments would YOU make??? Cover thge pass and give up big run? Cover Schu and leave Cory open??? You're looking at a very difficult situation.

PS Remember how I said Ball control was crucial?

Indeed it was, in the end the cats controlled both the ball and scoreboard.

['Cats Fa Natic]

Just got back from the game and, for what it's worth, I thought I would share my thoughts and impressions for those who couldn't attend:

* The Cobbers did much better than I expected--kudos to them--and we did way worse than expected.  After Allen and Hazenburgh had crisp 200+ yard games last week, they looked equally as sloppy for the first 2-1/2  quarters.

* This Cobbers team was far better than reports said and they are also a very young team. Many offensiver players were sophomores. I expect the Cobbers to come back bigger and stronger next year. Their time may be coming.

* Scrambling QBs just seem to drive us nuts.

* For the life of me, I cannot figure out what we were doing running the ball five straight plays to open the game. I guess we were trying to show we can run the ball too but our pass is what opens it up. Maybe they were trying to set something up but in the next game, I would much rather see them come out firing. Worry about establishing the run after we're up 14 points.

* The three straight incompletions on the next series told me right away we were in for a long game. I was shocked at the terribly sloppy play, and that's being kind, by our two best receivers.  Allen had a ball flat out stolen from him in the end zone and I have never seen that. Hazenburg, who is about as sure-handed as Mike Haas, flat out dropped one. It hit him in the chest like he'd had his eyes closed. Fortunately, they both got the ice out of their fingers in the second half.  I blame too much turkey.

* The first half, we were too hesitant. I guess some of this is just trying to figure out the other team but we were hesitant and even acted a little jittery on both sides of the ball. We did not have our normal fire.  I don't think it was overconfidence. It was just... hesitant.

* I have always said that if we're close at half, we'll find a way to win.  Our coaching staff and their half-time adjustments are simply phenomenal. The coaches won the game for us. I'm convinced of that.

* The D did some fantastic adjustments in the second half. They started paying more attention to their lanes, trusting the other guy to make the play, and shut them down. ZERO points and only 103 yards or so in the second half. Tackles were better, and they seemed to follow the ball better.

* I feel badly for the Cobbers fans.  My wife was in line for the restroom at half and she said a lot of Cobber women were on their cells busily calling family and friends saying they thought they had the game. They have a very, very long bus ride ahead of them.

* If we play as sloppy on the offensive side next week as we did this week, don't be surprised if we're the ones with the sad rides home.

* The game felt closer than it ended up. Casey was intercepted in the endzone, and we had another hard drive to close out the first half. Had we scored there, the end score would have been a much more "respectable" 42-14.

* The turning point of the game was when the D finally figured something out about three or four minutes to go in the first half.  We got the ball back and we were driving when we fumbled the ball with about 50 seconds to go. But you could sense a change in both the D and in the crowd. Still a lot of worry but when the D started stuffing them, you could sense the winds changing.

* Inexplicably, the Cobbers stopped consistently rushing a LB.  They had good pressure on Elliot the first half, perhaps as good as I've seen against us, and yet in the second half, for some strange reason, they started dropping the LBs back off the line and started rushing only the four down linemen. Dropping the LBs back into coverage did nothing to stop the passes because we simply torched them over the middle for 7 or 8 yards per play.

* Allen is known for his speed but he made some fantastic runs after catches today.

*Inexplicably, we did not throw a single deep ball. Not once. Didn't even try.  The safeties played deep but we didn't even send a man deep once to see if it could be done. Strange.

* Our offense gets all the attention but, in my mind, today's game solidified the defense as the heart and soul of this team. Our D was getting beat, we had HUGE gaps in zone coverage, we could not get the scrambling QB buttoned down, and our DBs looked confused at times, as though they were overplaying the run and seemed almost surprised when the ball sailed over their heads. Despite that, they overcame their failings and managed to turn the tide. The offense seemed to sense this and responded with 21 straight points.

* Some of the WORST officiating I have seen in a long, long time.  Yes, we earned a number of those flags--some blatant falsestarts on our part--but that "fumble" by Elliot in the 4th quarter was no fumble.  His arm was clearly going forward. My father-in-law, who is an ex-player and coached for years, says it was the worst call he's seen. (I loved his comment after the game about the refs: "Well, they're from California, what do they know?")  The refs consistently missed holding calls on the Cobbers. At one point, our D-lineman had burned the left tackle and the OT had to throw a stranglehold on him. His arm was across his neck, our D-lineman was clearly past him, bent over backwards and being dragged down but the ref, who was standing five yards away completely missed it. We got flagged for a late hit out of bounds when the play was still going and the offensive player trying to run forward. Also, I saw something I have never seen before: a "face-mask" called on a player when our defensive player had a hold of the back of the offensive player's jersey. Apparently, the facemask area now somehow includes the back of the collar?

* The Cobbers simply could not seem to adjust.  The ball-control run-oriented game they're used to playing--and was highly touted here by their fans--simply failed them.  That type of ball is only effective if you either have a lead or are sitting on a tie and you're driving for the go-ahead score. They held the ball 8 minutes longer than we did but still lost by 14 and had we not consistently shot ourselves in the foot, they could have easily ended the game down by either 28 or 35. Each TO killed an otherwise strong drive.  They could not and did not stop us on offense and slowing the game down only killed their chances, limiting their own opportunities.

* Along these lines, the end of the game was simply bizarre. Inexplicably, they were STILL trying to control the ball and run it with less than five minutes to go and down two scores. With 4:40 to go, their first play is a rushing play taken from their first-half play book. They then threw the ball and it was intercepted. We then "fumbled" it (see above) and they got the ball back. With 2:22 on the clock and down two scores, what do they do? Rush for one yard, pass, rush for loss of two. These were not designed draw plays or a screen of some sort that you set up when the other team is expecting a pass. They were simple running plays. They were acting like they had no clue that time was simply going to run out on them and burned 1:52 off the clock. I didn't feel like they had given up, it was like they didn't know what else to do.

Good game, far closer than expected. I feel this was a good game for us. We needed to be played close because we need to keep in mind that one loss and you're done. We didn't have that urgency today until the second half. Next week, let's start with it.

Go 'Cats!

[bluenote]

Holy Cow, that was one heck of a game. The Cobbers were a very tough team, to say the least. Before the game, I couldn't imagine that they would be able to control the ball like they did in the first half. They really almost played flawlessly in the first half. The type of offense they run really had us on our heals in that first half, we had to cover the run and all the deception and then it seemed when they passed their receivers were wide open. I think I agree with DensLa...this was our clinker. We started out running the ball and were 3 and out twice having the ball only about 3 minutes in the first quarter. I'm not trying to sound patronizing but Concordia really played well in that first half and Linfield was definately off. It didn't seem like we could do anything right. Then when we came out in the 2nd half and were driving, I thought to myself...OK....now we're alive...then we fumble and give it right back to them.....jeez, I was an emotional wreck. I had brought some lunch with me to eat during the game....sorry, I couldn't eat it. I was sick to my stomach. But you know what, we came through with all the diversity, kept our composure and won the 2nd half in a big way. But I will NEVER take a team like Concordia lightly again! I'd like to see us come out against UW-WW and do what we do best...pass the ball and LIMIT the turnovers to zero!!!

['Cats Fa Natic]

Cobbers are for real. WOW! Adjustments will be huge. Cats get the ball to start the 2nd half.

What adjustments would YOU make??? Cover thge pass and give up big run? Cover Schu and leave Cory open??? You're looking at a very difficult situation.

PS Remember how I said Ball control was crucial?

Hmmmm, nothing but silence from him. That was ten pages ago and nothing. I wonder if he'll have the guts to come back and say something?

He's right: Ball control WAS crucial. It killed their chance of a comeback.

['Cats Fa Natic]

But I will NEVER take a team like Concordia lightly again! I'd like to see us come out against UW-WW and do what we do best...pass the ball and LIMIT the turnovers to zero!!!

I agree. Turnovers nearly killed us today. And look at the teams that lost who should have won. Turnovers killed them.

'Cats players pay attention!

[bluenote]

'Cats Fa Natic....great analysis! I agreed with everything you posted! Awesome job! Hope to see you down at the ELKS CLUB next Friday 7:00pm for our weekly pre-game pow-wow.

[wc2viking]

Thanks for the info Catfanatic.  I suppose it's good that the 'Cats can win even with subpar execution.  They WILL have to execute against UWW next week, though.  I expect that this game woke them up and they will have a better focus next week.

[wc2viking]

Did anyone else catch the Elliot pre-taped interview during the postgame show?  It was pretty interesting after Aune finally got through asking about comparing Utah to Linfield.  (I, for one, don't really care about the DI/DIII comparisons.)  Anyway, it was interesting that Elliot admitted that it had been harder for the team to get up for games this year - he specifically mentioned Menlo and PLU.  He was glad that the playoffs had started and he felt 'butterflies' before the Oxy game.

He also said that it would be more relief than excitement if the Wildcats win this year.    Perhaps this means that the team is a little tight this year compared to last.  Hopefully, the tough game with the Cobbers gives the team a shot in the arm for the rest of the playoffs.