FB: Northwest Conference

[whitpirate]

I read this board and the only Wildcat fan crying is Lever Street. Hey man it was a good game on both sides so Whitworth didnt need 300 yrd to beat Linfield. I have been watching Pirate football for about 8 years now and this is a big win. I hope both teams make the playoffs sp the Pirates can prove this was not a fluke.

Hey Linfield My respect goes out to all the posters here. Thanks for letting me put my 2 cents in. Good Luck onthe rest of the season.

Friend in Spokane

[speedybigboy]

Logdawg:

Your player breaks your schools records while running up the score on a team and you expect other posters here to react favorably?

I wouldn't call Lee a joke, or any other player for that matter.  The players do what the coaches tell them too.  Your coach on the other hand is another story.  There is no excuse for playing your starting running back that late in a game when it's already wrapped up, especially in D3!  UWW loss of their star back should have taught some coaches that lesson this year.

The better teams seem to realize that getting your back ups into the game early builds for the future.  Maybe that's one reason Linfield has 50+ winning seasons in a row and UPS doesn't.

PennstLBU,  Do current players actually read these boards??  We didn't when I played but then again that was before Al Gore invented the internet. 

[speedybigboy]

While reading the web write up on the game I was struck by how young Linfield is.  (maybe not young but not Seniors) It wasn't until the last guy mentioned, most tackles for the game, that a senior appeared.  How about your O and D lines, do you graduate many?  I hope so.    Otherwise, lookout for the Cats again in '07.

[hatchetman75]

PennstLBU,  Do current players actually read these boards??  We didn't when I played but then again that was before Al Gore invented the internet. 

Yes they do. I know many UPS players that frequent often.

[Lever Street]

The weather conditions were terrible.  (I stood there 3 hours soaked).  The wind was worse than the rain.  All points in the game were scored by the team with the wind at their back.  I believe that both teams were equally impacted by this awful weather.  I don't think the bad weather favored either team.  However, there were not a lot of people at Maxwell.  I was surprised by the poor turnout for such a big game.

I'm not blaming the 7 Linfield TO's on the weather.  I'm blaming it on the players who dropped the ball.  Without the turnovers, Linfield would have won by 4 or 5 TD's.  In fact, Whitworth would not have scored if it had not been for the turnovers.

Linfield gave the game away.  There's no doubt about it.  It was a Christmas present to the Pirates.  Argh.

Best of luck to Whitworth in the playoffs.  Represent the NWC!

[wildcat11]

speedy,

Linfield will return all of their skills players on offense (except one of the WR's) but lose both tackels and guards.  Defense returns the whole defense backfield and defense ends with significan starting time.  Will have to replace LB's and our great DT's.  Me thinks next year's Linfield squad will be pretty darn good.

[George Thompson]

Saturday's weird football game:
   First downs:  Linfield - 16, Whitworth - 5
   Total yards gained:  Linfield - 329, Whitworth - 85
   Punts: Linfield only 2, Whitworth - 8

Linfield totally dominated the game.     Yet... final score,
   Whitworth 17, Linfield 13

Unbelievable, if I hadn't seen it myself.    In several decades of attending college and high school football, I have never seen a team totally dominate a game----and still lose it!    I suppose that is why this level of football is so fun and exciting.    You can not predict what will happen.

Linfield's defense played their best game in many years.  The offense kept moving the ball.   But, 5 fumbles and 2 interceptions gave Whitworth all of their 17 points and prevented Linfield from adding 14 or more of their own points.   If you didn't see the turnovers, you would swear Linfield won by 28-0 or so.   But, no excuses.   The final score tells it all.

Congratulations, Whitworth Pirates.  Your defense was quck and alert.   You took advantage of those Linfield miscues and scored just enough points to win the game.  And, that is what counts.   Whitworth, win next week and you have earned the conference championship.

Surprisingly, Joel Clark was not nearly as dangerous as the last two years.   I don't know if Linfield's defense was just that much improved or if something is wrong with Whitworth's offense.   In the end, though he did score the winning touchdown.   

Linfield, next year.   And, we could be pretty good.    Hopefully, this was a rebuilding year.
 

[George Thompson]

Downtown 48,

I agree 100% with your comments about comparing any of Linfield's running backs with David Russell.   Of course, a David Russell doesn't come along very often.    He was the best running back I have seen at Linfield in 22 years.

I do think our running game wasn't that bad this year.    It seemed to get better and better all year long.    And the backs are young.

But, all year long, this Linfield team, as a whole,  had far too many penalties, interceptions  and fumbles.   That is ultimately what did this team in.   Eliminate all of those season-long mistakes, and this could have been an excellent team.    You can have 4-5 turnovers and 75+ penality yards against a weak team; but, not against a playoff caliber team.

The coaches really have to work on eliminating those errors next year.

[downtown48]

George,

I agree that the running game wasn't all that bad during the year.  I think we've been a bit spoiled with some of the guys that have come through here over the years and some of the blocking in front of them.  My issue is with force feeding a guy that obviously isn't ready to be the full time guy.  Now he could be the guy in the future but he's not now.  The coaches need to put the players in the best possible position to succeed and when you've got a guy that carries the ball on his hip and can't execute the most basic of blocks on a QB rollout that's not putting him in a great position.  And it's not his fault, he's obviously a great athlete, he might have started at LB this year.  It just goes to show you, being a great athlete doesn't always compensate for not knowing the offense like the back of your hand and actually running the plays in a game.  But I don't think games with the season on the line are a good forum to learn the offense and learn how to cut the end man on the LOS. 

Trust me, I've got no attachment to the other two guys that were playing.  All three of them worked hard all year and the other two deserved a better fate than taking a backseat to a guy that was playing just because he was big and fast and could break a big run if the play was blocked up perfectly.  I would imagine they've got some damage control to do with the young kid that didn't do anything but look solid and execute when he got into the games.  He just doesn't look like Tarzan so he has to sit down.  Looking like Tarzan and having all the measurables doesn't make the player, some guys just have a knack for getting it done. 

By the way...I think a playoff caliber team beats Linfield by three touchdowns yesterday if they have a +6 turnover margin.     

[OregonCityCat99]

'Rats-

You're welcome for the early XMas present. 

Good luck in the playoffs..............represent!!

[NWFan]

I try to stay out of juvenille discussions when possible but why is UPS getting ripped for running up the score and giving Rory the ball all the time?  Did you look at the stats?  28 carries is not a lot of carries in a game, it just happened that Rory averaged 11 yards a carry.  My grandfather taught me that you can respect a guy without liking him so even if you don't like Rory, you should be able to respect his performance.

As for running up the score, I don't think Linfield has ANY room to talk, especially when it comes to UPS.  The object of a football offense is to score and if the opposing defense can't stop the team, oh well.  Even when a team is trying not to run up the score, they put the ball in the running backs hands, just like the Loggers did.

Grow some humility and realize that the Wildcats aren't the only football team in the Northwest. 

[downtown48]

They're getting ripped because Lee was in the game with 8:00 left in a 42-0 game.  You're right all they can do is put it in the running backs hands...the 3rd string running back.  That's why.


Camcat...you're right, amazing what knocking off the #2 team in the country will do for a team's confidence.  The Beavs could end up like 9-4.  Funny that two weeks ago everybody wanted Riley's head on a platter...

[hatchetman75]

As his final home game of his senior year, I think Coach Willenbrock had every right to keep Lee in the game as long as he did. Another thing that many people don't know is that Lee had a fairly severe ankle sprain through games 2-5 this year. That would include the Linfield and PLU game.

Now I won't make excuses for the rest of the team and say that those games shouldn't have been closer/or won by the Loggers, but it seems to Rory has finally gotten his legs under him. Again, saying the Rory Lee is a joke, or shouldn't be respected for his achievements is incredibly insulting.

For those PLU fans that have chimed in about the quality of Coach Willenbrock's coaching style, once again lets turn back the clock to the PLU UPS game of 2002. While Coach Westering did play his substitutes, he also had the gall to play his defensive players on offense, giving some of the lineman the ball and letting them run.....which is something you might see in a HS football game. Then, after the game, Westering came in to the Logger locker room and wanted to tell the Loggers just how much they'd improved and how wonderful it was to have them playing so hard. What an idiotic thing to do, after you just trounced the opposing team. Give them the space they desreve, tell the Coach his team played hard after the game, then leave the other team alone. Nobody likes to have someone tell them "how hard they tried".

Anyway, I think the "shock" many are showing over this game is rather silly. UPS isn't going to the playoffs, the Logger's weren't 50-60 points ahead, and it was the final home game for the seniors. Many underclassman got the chance to play against LC (in fact all of them did) so why not let the seniors play? Let's move on and allow next week's game to determine the caliber of both UPS and Whitworth.

[wildcat11]

Anyway, I think the "shock" many are showing over this game is rather silly.

Good call...who cares about the Loggers..

[ClassicCat]

I, like all the Cats on this board, am very frustrated over the outcome of yesterday's game against Whitworth. I don't know any of the Cat players, but I do know some of the coaches. To a man, I suspect, did not wake up Saturday morning and think about going out and losing a football game. 

However, this loss will be remembered in Cat history for uniqueness. Never in the course of human events has a team limited a Top Ten caliber team to 85 yards total offense, made them punt 8 times, yet manage to lose the game. Linfield played great defense, Clark, Allan, and the rest of the Rats were ineffective. Future Rat opponents this year will love to get their hands on the video for Linfield put on a clinic on how to stop the Whitworth O.

The Cat offense is being judged for occasionally having lack of focus, lack of discipline, lack of concentration because these maladies are the root of the problem. To my knowledge, twice, while inside the 10, our players lost the ball while running. Another lost the ball allowing it to be stripped from his grasp while being gang tackled. Coaches must not overlook the importance of fundamentals in the late season, but a lot of them do. Tucking the football is often overlooked, especially in late season and Linfield paid the price.

As spectators, there is nothing we can do in preparation and outcome of a football game.  We wear our emotions proudly and sometimes painfully. Linfield is still the high-class, dominating football program that it has been for 51 years. This team has honorably carried the torch of greatness established in 1956 and who knows, as Dandy Don said, "it ain't over til it's over.

Whitworth, we can't forget you. A sign of a great team is having flexibility, being able to bend but not break. While having the ball stuffed down your throats must of the time, you managed to tighten up when you had no other choice.  In order to succeed in the playoffs, you better burn all copies of this game video.