FB: Northwest Conference

[pennstlbu]

I agree. Who cares about a UPS-Menlo game. But one last thing about what Hatchetman said about the UPS-PLU games in '01 and '02. I was on the UPS teams during those two years when we played PLU. Our team dealt with a lot of tough blowouts and such. But what PLU did in '02 made me lose a lot of respect of their coaching staff. I still have a tremendous amount of respect for their program, their fans, and their players, but that game made me sick. Not only did they have offensive guys playing defense and defensive guys play offense, but they were driving to score with under a minute left and called a timeout. I mean the game was about 42-0, and they put the game away in the first quarter, jumping out to a 28 or 35 to nothing lead. That was much worse than any game where teams had their starters in during the fourth quarter in a blowout against us.

[Tuxguy]

Ouch! 

O.K.
Here I go.   
It took me all night to think about what just happened. First I'll give credit to the piRATS  for hanging in and pulling off the Big victory at the Catdome yesterday. It's not always who plays the best, but who makes the fewest mistakes.


If I had not been at the game yesterday and opened the Oregonian today, I probably wouldn't believe the box score, 329 yards of Offense to 85? 17-13? 7 turnovers to 1? My oh my!
I guess that's Football some days.


I'm not sure which game was played in worse conditions, the miracle in the mud, or yesterdays water polo game? At least today we have a nice green turf field and could tell who was who after the game was over. The wind and rain was incredible, a little over 1 inch in less than 16 hrs yesterday, now that's some water coming  down. Players on both teams were quoted as saying it was probably the worst conditions they had ever played in!!!


The crowed was great, very loud at  times , and quite at the right times for once. Talk about an emotional roller coaster ride. I'm not sure how many times I high 5'd Bluenote and others and then had to hang my head in disbelief. To their credit, the fumbles I saw came out on hard hits,  right at the ball. And you can't blame  the pirates for tugging at the ball on every play. After the last couple of weeks, why not.
The Wildcats yesterday never gave up, and never stopped trying, Tuxguys Top-Hat comes off to this team.   New Coach's, New Qb's, new at almost every  position and they showed  us improvement each and every week. .....THANK YOU!

Well,......the pio's next week  , and then will see what happens.
                                                     GO WILDCATS
                                                          BELIEVE

[Foss]

I'm with Tuxguy, I wouldn't have believed what I read today if I hadn't seen it with my own eyeballs. Heck, even George Thompson, probably the 'Cats most humble poster, said he's never seen a Linfield team dominate a game like that and lose. I'll give one more stat: Joel Clark was held to 9 yards rushing, yes 9. Even with his TD run, when his negative runs were factored in his net rushing was 9 total yards.

I hate to give anyone false hope but I have to ask the question:

Pat, did any of the losses that some of the ranked East teams experienced (some of them playoff hopefulls) at all increase the (very small) chance Linfield has of getting a Pool B/C playoff bid, or not really?

[Pat Coleman]

I don't think Linfield has much of a chance in Pool C, not at .667 regional winning percentage and a 9.500 QOWI. You have a better shot at Pool B. Root for W&J and Carnegie Mellon to lose, especially W&J. That's Linfield's best shot, I'd say.

Also, Linfield's QOWI will actually go down with a win at L&C.

[Foss]

Thanks, Pat. I see W&J has a QOWI ranking of #33 (10.00), Linfield is #38 (9.50). Although the 'Cat's QOWI will go down with a win vs. L&C, W&J would go down even more if they lose to a 4-5 Bethany team, right? If Linfield wins and W&J loses, their QOWI would be pretty close and BOTH would have 2 in-region losses, right? Although I'm assuming Linfield's regional win percentage will still be lower.

Regardless, I will never root harder for an East team to win then I will for Bethany to beat W&J this Saturday.

[Foss]

Well, I guess Bethany is technically in the South.

[George Thompson]

Wow, what fascinating comments today!

Downtown 48  -   I agree with your comments.    Do you know why Montalvo didn't play at all yesterday?   His average gain per play for the year is 2nd only to Regan.    Considering the weather, I can only assume the coach thought rushing was safer than passing yesterday.   

My main point all year has been the Wildcat penalties, fumbles and interceptions.   Yesterday was the worst of a bad year for these miscues.

NWFan - I agree with you.   I have thought for years that Linfield keeps the first team offense in one series too many.   I remember Brett Elliott getting
clobbered in the Rowan game two years ago, after we had a 35-0 lead, late in the game.    That could have been disaster if he had been hurt for the Stagg Bowl.    I know why the coaches do it

Foss -  It wasn't just Linfield I was referring to.    I have never seen a live game where any team lost, after so dominating the game.    And, believe me, I have seen more games in person than most posters here.    I saw my first college game live 5 decades ago. 

[downtown48]

George...politics plain and simple.  They moved a starting LB to the offense and found out he wasn't ready.  So kind of like in pro baseball where you have a 1st round draft pick that may not be performing as well as the 35th round draft pick and there's one spot left in the minor leagues; the guy that they have 10 million dollars invested in gets the nod.  I guess they figured they needed to justify moving a defensive starter to the other side of the ball at some point.   

[hatchetman75]

NWFan - I agree with you.   I have thought for years that Linfield keeps the first team offense in one series too many.   I remember Brett Elliott getting
clobbered in the Rowan game two years ago, after we had a 35-0 lead, late in the game.    That could have been disaster if he had been hurt for the Stagg Bowl.    I know why the coaches do it

Thanks George. I was actually going to bring up Brett, in a good way, but you beat me to it. Thanks again.

[(509)Rat]

And after God rested on the 7th day he took a dump and called it mcminville...but all kidding aside.  Just got back from the game and while I too was a little dissapointed with the crowd turnout, the atmosphere was great as always at the catdome (too bad it isn't really a dome, then I wouldn't have gotten so frickin wet) and My Rats came through.  I pretty much agree with what all of the Linfield posters have been saying.  7 Turnovers is THE reason you lost that game, and the Whitorth defense was the cause of almost all of them.  The rats were hitting hard and actively stripping the ball...the rain helped, but most of them still would have happened in a completely dry game.  Despite Linfield's total yardage the whitworth defense played very well.  They only gave up 4.9 yards per play to linfield, only a couple tenths more than they have averaged all season, and less yards per play than the La Verne game.  And the offense struggled (what else is new) but scored during that one drive in the third quarter when they absolutely had to.  Linfield's D was great.  But I do disagree with this...

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

While they held whitworth to 85 yards of offense, it was a very limited offense (in terms of play calling) because of the score through most of the game and the weather conditions.  Whitworth only attempted 10 passes, completed 2, with linfield being the reason for only about two or three of the incompletions.  The rest were just bad balls from Joel Clark.  Linfield really just stacked the line of scrimmage and doubled Mike Allen, which is great if its as tough as it was yesterday to throw the ball...but in semi normal weather conditions the Priates will air it out a little more.  And plus what Linfield did was what teams have been trying to do all year, its not some big secret that no one has firgured out...no one has had the athletes yet that linfield has that can actually pull it off.

The Linfield RB wasn't very good IMO, and with the size and strength of Linfield's O-line, to not have a running game is bad.  I have no idea who the guy you are comparing him to is but I have seen one former Wildcat RB play.  Thomas Ford played for the tri-city fever (along with sante wong and hazenburg for awhile), and was much better at a higher level of competition that the RB yesterday.  I say can him, but that may just be a Whitworth fan trying to stir up some controversy in Cat Land.

P.S.  I heard many cell phone towers were out in Mcminville the other day and rumors were confirmed when I watched a frantic GHC attempting to PHONE IT IN all game long, to no avail.

[wildcat11]

7 Turnovers is THE reason you lost that game, and the Whitorth defense was the cause of almost all of them.  The rats were hitting hard and actively stripping the ball...the rain helped, but most of them still would have happened in a completely dry game.

I'll give Whitworth credit for 3 of the 5 fumbles. 

The first one with Trevor, he exchanged hands when he was scrambling and the ball just popped loose.  The second fumble the Rat defender tackled Regan from behind and stripped him clean.  The 3rd strip/TD was again a defender taking the ball away from the RB.  The forth lost fumble (which led to the Rats only offensive TD) was a fumble on the QB/RB exchange when it came squirting out.  The last fumble at the 5 yard line was a helmet on the ball.

If it's dry then I doubt that Clark looses that snap in the last minutes and Masters drops that wide open TD in the second quarter.

Trying not to be too insulting but that was probably the worst team Linfield has lost to since 1998 (EOU).  (99-PLU, SOU, Willamette, 2000-Central, 2001-SOU, PLU, 2002-SJU, 2003- SJU, 2005-Whitwater, 2006-WOU, HSU, and Whitworth).   However, Whitworth did come into our house, in weather they don't see and held onto the ball way better than we did.  Now get your offense in gear or it could be a quick playoff run. 

[(509)Rat]

Trying not to be too insulting but that was probably the worst team Linfield has lost to since 1998 (EOU).  (99-PLU, SOU, Willamette, 2000-Central, 2001-SOU, PLU, 2002-SJU, 2003- SJU, 2005-Whitwater, 2006-WOU, HSU, and Whitworth).   However, Whitworth did come into our house, in weather they don't see and held onto the ball way better than we did.  Now get your offense in gear or it could be a quick playoff run.

Don't worry, you didn't offend this guy.  Not sure if I completely agree with it, but I'm guessing you've seen most if not all of these games so its very valid.  I think this Whitworth team is better than the team was in 2001, the same 2001 team that beat PLU, and could have beaten Linfield if it weren't for that punt return.  I think this Whitworth team is better than that 2001 PLU team, but thats just my opinion.  Can't get mad at any of the other ones though, all of those losses were against scholarship schools, or national powerhouses...no sweat off my sack.  I think the offense will do much better this week against UPS and the following weeks...mainly because that can't get any worse.  This is a completely different team than Whitworth has had in the past.  No way would anyone would believe you a few years ago if you said whitworth cold win games by only scoring, 14, 17, and 19 points.

[Touchdown Tommy]

WC11: Appreciate the phone call back... 

3 losses and still in the Top 25??  That is rediculous and a flat kick in the balls to those teams who are "receiving votes".

[(509)Rat]

3 losses and still in the Top 25??  That is rediculous and a flat kick in the balls to those teams who are "receiving votes".

Only 2 of those losses really count...and the other two were to the number 7 and 9 teams in the country.  Plus, they could have easily beaten Whitworth, and it sounds like have been much improved (excpet for the whole turnover thing) since UMHS.  I guarantee Linfield is better than several undefeated teams in the country, and almost all of the 1 and 2 loss teams.

Did I just defend the Widcats?  I don't feel so good.

[Foss]

TDT,

I agree with (509)Rat. After what I saw yesterday, if the 'Cats play like that, and DON"T turn the ball over, I would honestly pick them as the favorite over any other team in the West right now except for your Johnnies and UW-Whitewater. I don't care if they had to play these teams on the road, either. I truly feel that way. If others disagree, I'm sure they'll say it. I wasn't sure at the beginning of the season, but I now know the 'Cats are at least top 25, and probably top 15 IF they don't turn the ball over.