FB: Northwest Conference

[MonroviaCat]

And in other news:  WOU is no longer undefeated.

Humboldt State......  0  3  7 19  - 29       Record: (4-1)
Western Oregon......  7  0 14  0  - 21       Record: (4-1)

[pineconefan]

Monrovia - APU's QB went down in the Whitworth game and the back up cannot throw the ball.  They may not win again this year (their only win was an impressive one over Malone, now ranked in NAIA top 20).  They are on one of those slides that teams sometimes get on.

[pineconefan]

Regarding today's Whitworth game at PLU - it was not as close as the score indicates.  The Pirate defense never let PLU get into its game.  The only Lute score came after a trick play, which was actually well covered, but well executed by PLU.  Other than that the Lutes never came CLOSE to scoring.

The Pirates lost a chance to score on a very questionable interception in the PLU endzone (looked a lot like the ball bounced on the turf). 

I give PLU's defense credit for the goal line stand early in the fourth quarter, but the Lutes called an option (really an option!) play on their one inch line and Reed was stopped in the endzone before he fumbled forward to the one.  Should've been a safety.

Best news is no injuries today on the carpet.  So with the Bye (I mean L&C) next week, the team has a chance to get healthy again.

[CamCat]

Congrats Cats on getting your Groove back with back-2-back wins!

Johnnies woke up and played some football today.

Hope our boys meet again this fall!

It might be best if we took a year off from the rivalry to build up a little more steam as you did the last 2 years. My guess is we'd be in a better position to give you a game next year.  We both have had to do some Elliott recovery.

[(509)Rat]

Pineconefan is right.  The game wasn't as close as the score indicated.  As of late Whitworth's offense has had some trouble finding the endzone, but the D has been nasty the last few games.  Part of the problem this game was the loss of starting center jon erlenmeyer against APU.  Whitworth started a freshman at tackle and moved steve honeyman (the starting tackle) to center, and the o-line had some troubles picking up some of the blitzes ran by PLU's D.  PLU's SID did a pretty good jobe of describing the game

http://www.whitworth.edu/Athletics/Teams/Football/Releases/2006/PLU.htm

Overall though good game for the pirates.  Whitworth will be very good when the offense begins scoring again.  Gone are the days where Whitworth has to put up 30-40 points to win the game, 10-20 will do just fine for the next few weeks.

[cawcdad]

I agree. No way. No freakin' way. 2 KO's in a game? No way. Has that ever happened. I doubt it.

I just finished reading the game stories and all of the posts. Great stuff guys. This must be a year of kickoff returns. Two for the Cats yesterday and Travis Masters has two in the 4 games. Friday night I saw three KOs returned for TDs. The opening kick in each half and the opposing team returned one for the game winner after we scored with 14 seconds left to take a 20-18 lead. We have a kid with three KO returns for TD in 5 games. There has been at least one in each ot he 5 H.S. games I've seen this year. I read read the Menlo-L&C story and the Oaks returned a KO for a TD. What's happened to return coverage? One last one, SOU beat Menlo earlier this year on a KO return for a TD on the last play of the game.

[MonroviaCat]

Pineconefan:  Thanks for the info on the APU QB.  That makes some sense.  I was not trying to slight Whitworth but only making the point that we had assumed that victories over APU and UW-Stout were big victories over good teams.  I think the Pirates have continued to show the ability to win even when the offense is not playing up to its potential but I don't think the APU win was as big as we all thought nor has Stout turned out to be quite a good as they looked early on (they lost again yesterday).  What does appear to be very true, however, is that Whitworth finds a way to win and has a lot of heart which is why they are undefeated despite games with too many turnovers or a lack of offensive firepower.    But seriously now, would you have ever predicted that SOU would have put up 57 pts on APU even with a bunch of turnovers.  Heck, they nearly doubled their scoring total for the season in one game!  I certainly hope they return to their previous scoring pattern this week

[MonroviaCat]

Moving on:  Looking ahead to next Saturday (already)....  there are actually some good matchups this week that are harder to call.  I'm intrigued especially by the UPS-Willamette game.  They both play similar games (run heavy with a sprinkling of pass though I think Willamette has more of a passing game).  Also, the PLU-Menlo game could be interesting.  Depends which teams show up there. Obviously Whitworth has a chance to clean up their offense and get fat this week and Linfield is at home against SOU who, until yesterday had a very anemic offense (but a bunch of turovers will certainly change that in a hurry).  Predictions later in the week but here is the schedule! 

Pacific Lutheran at Menlo     

Lewis and Clark at Whitworth     

Southern Oregon at Linfield     

Puget Sound at Willamette

[spiritof86]

Wow guys, back off of Penns. He admits they were outmatched, got a beat down, and you try to bury his face in the dirt? He makes a valid observation about the game (from what I read on here during) and you can't even take that? Come on.  No wonder we can't keep posters from the other nwc's on here.

Ahhh come on, it is all in good fun. I was simply saying that ups has been in this same mode for 10 years- great effort, not a ton of results. I am not denegrating the school or the players, just saying that they talk a lot about what "will" happen and then the results stay the same.

Everyone is welcome in my mind. I love all. Especially penns. And you.

[Tuxguy]

 Nice Job yesterday CATS!!
All round good team effort!  And how about those 2 kick returns for Td's, I believe special teams are Coached by Ad Rutschman.

TDT,

If I remember right, 
It was your johnnies who didn't make It far enough in the  playoffs the last 2 years to meet up with the Cats! Lets hope they meet this year and The Cats can even up the series a bit! 


CamCat,
Concerning Coach Locey,
From my source with the Beavers, At OSU Many Coach's are hired by the AD, Not always does a new Head Coach bring in all new coordinator's. I believe Coach Locey will be the new Defensive Coordinator with in a year. No matter what happens with Mike Riley.  The current DC plans to retire soon. I believe That's why, not only because they were good friends, but He had some job security going in, even if Riley is let go. The Beavers still have a lot of games left, but need to get it into gear soon.

[MonroviaCat]

So, they could end up with with Linfield OC and DC (Danny Langsdorf is still there right?)....

[Tuxguy]

MC,
Yes for now, No job is totally secure.  And if your not putting up points.......well.

That would be interesting, The Linfield connection is defenatly at OSU right now! Should have better results, don't you think?

[coco]

Tuxguy,

We were thinking the same thing about the special teams and Coach Rutschman. The 'Cats are lucky to have him still contributing.

We weren't able to make it up to Tacoma yesterday, but listened to the D&D show. They still send Eve out for scores every few minutes, but never any D3 updates.

Good job, 'Cats!

Next up, SOC. There should be a good crowd, with it being Family Weekend.

[Wildcat'64]

It appears the Cats might be in for a catfight this coming weekend.... I think SOU is improving dramatically by the week after they decimated APU yesterday. The Raiders played three good quarters a couple of weeks ago against Humboldt and then lost it in the 4th quarter.  Humboldt handed WOU their first loss yesterday.....so it appears that the Cats are in for another tough game this Saturday.

Just take them one game at a time....and it will be nice to be in the friendly confines of the Catdome.

[Foss]

Gotta like Sharer's stats the first two games:

21 for 29 for 338 yards w/ 3 TDs (plus 1 rushing) and 1 INT against Willamette
18 for 27 for 270 yards w/ 3 TDS and 0 INT against FedExpress

Keep it rollin, Cats!

Whitworth is getting it done this year, but definitely with defense more than offense, which I think is a surprise to us all. Last year they were scoring 38/game and giving up 29. So far this year, they are scoring 23/game, but the defense is only allowing 10.5. Whether this style of play will continue remains to be seen.