FB: Northwest Conference

[D O.C.]

Speaking of punts...how good was the Whitworth punter?!  I believe, using thumbnail calculations, he got off a 70 yard spiral.

[pineconefan]

A great ball game yesterday at the Dome.  The Pirates certainly had their chances, but couldn't get a first down in the fourth quarter.

As they said on the radio, the team is showing improvement every week.  I expect them to win out, finish 6-3 and build momentum for next season.  With Peck at QB, this team will only lose a couple of starters on each side of the ball.

I do enjoy listening to Bob Castle call a game, but I will agree with a couple of previous posts that when he gets excited, he is harder to understand.  When Stone returned the int for a touchdown, I don't think we heard who it was until he was in the endzone, 92 yards later.  But at least he's equal opportunity for excitement - he was also tough to follow during the Linfield int for a TD.

Finally, Bob did mention that Linfield was dancing to celebrate the win following the game.  He didn't talk about it like they were trying to show up Whitworth, just that they were excited about a hard fought win.  If anything I took that to mean a lot about where this Whitworth program is now.  In my day, Linfield NEVER would have celebrated a three-point win at home over Whitworth.

[MonroviaCat]

Speaking of punts...how good was the Whitworth punter?!  I believe, using thumbnail calculations, he got off a 70 yard spiral.

he also had one that went only 11 yds (corrected)

[Foss]

pineconefan, I didn't see the celebration, but then again I left right as the clock struck 0:00. You're right, it has a lot to do with how Whitworth is viewed nowadays. In your day, Linfield wouldn't have been too excited about the win because Whitworth was simply weak. These days, that's not the case, Whitworth is no longer a gimmie. Far from it, in fact. And for the kids on the '08 Linfield team, until yesterday some of them were 1-2 or even 0-2 against the 'Rats, and so for them it was a much bigger deal than for long time fans.

[MonroviaCat]

pineconefan, I didn't see the celebration, but then again I left right as the clock struck 0:00. You're right, it has a lot to do with how Whitworth is viewed nowadays. In your day, Linfield wouldn't have been too excited about the win because Whitworth was simply weak. These days, that's not the case, Whitworth is no longer a gimmie. Far from it, in fact. And for the kids on the '08 Linfield team, until yesterday some of them were 1-2 or even 0-2 against the 'Rats, and so for them it was a much bigger deal than for long time fans.

Yeah===no doubt the Rats have come a long way.  I remember visiting Whitworth when I was "college shopping".  I was a 5 foot 7 155 pound high school Sr.  I remember telling the students who were giving us a tour that I played football and their immediate response was something like "well, our team can sure use you!".  Granted these guys were not on the team (I don't think) and likely were instructed to be friendly and encouraging but I remember thinking at the time, "really,  how bad is this program".  Not anymore for sure---beating the Rats was a big win of Linfield this year after two very frustrating losses.  This win was also big because it had the potential of going down like the last two years with all of the Cat turnovers.....

[Foss]

Just watched the Raider's Janikowski miss a 59 yarder at the half. Made me think of a moment during yesterday's game. In the 1st half the 'Cats were 3rd and about 7 on the 'Rats 43. I wondered to myself if we were about to watch Birkhofer try a 60 yarder if we came up with a no gainer on 3rd down. Forget exactly what happened, but I think the 'Cats ended up getting a 1st down.

[coco]

What a game. It was great to see the 'Cats in person, finally, and see a win. And the tailgating was awesome.

We're looking good with so many young players, and this game should have been a real confidence-builder for them. Anderson is a load, but our big D handled him.
The coaches will have the team ready for Willamette, too.

Hey, Warty!
Congrats on your win yesterday.

[GrizzTheLogger]

In looking at the Loggers' stats against Menlo, it looks like it is a little more fair to say that the Oaks won as opposed to UPS lost.  The Loggers gave away two ball, including a fumble return for a touchdown, which it sounds like was on a questionable no-call by the officials.  Without the big fumble, the Loggers could have probably snuck out of Atherton with a win but now they will just regroup and try to focus on Whitworth next week.

I'll be interested to see how Menlo does against the rest of the NWC this season.  Are they going to be able to get wins against PLU and Whitworth and end up in the top half of the conference?  It's fun having such a competitive conference, even if the Loggers don't end up on the winning end.

[bluenote]

I actually kind of like it.  It is very strong up the middle which is where most punt blocks come from.  It forces the defenders to come off/around the ends which lengthens the distance they need to cover and allows the punter to step up into a pocket kind of like a QB on a drop back pass.....

I must be seeing something different. I looked closely several times and everytime all the heat was coming from right up the middle...NOT the corners. There are at least 3-4 guys who don't even get touched at the line that come right up the middle. It also seems like the ball has a very arrow path to follow from the snapper to the punter with that thicket of 3 guys back there. It scares the living pants off me!

Wildcat11....thanks for the explanation and I know we've been doing great on our punt coverage... but it still scares the bajeebees out of me.

[RedandPurple]

It was a great win for the Wildcats. They never quit and showed great team effort.
Even the stretchnet broadcast worked well!

[Pat Coleman]

I do enjoy listening to Bob Castle call a game, but I will agree with a couple of previous posts that when he gets excited, he is harder to understand.  When Stone returned the int for a touchdown, I don't think we heard who it was until he was in the endzone, 92 yards later.  But at least he's equal opportunity for excitement - he was also tough to follow during the Linfield int for a TD.

I'll say this -- as a play-by-play guy I can tell you that picking up who intercepted the pass is really difficult, and it's hard to pick up the name of the defender off your spotting chart while you're also in the middle of calling the runback.

The offensive guys you should know fairly easily by the time you get a couple possessions into the game. But you don't call a cornerback's name every time down the field, so picking that name out of your memory bank is easier said than done.

[coco]

I went to the last half of the alumni game today and saw some Linfield legends in action. They took it to the young cats 44 t0 0.  I enjoyed watching the old combos of Elliott to Carter and Elliott to Allen. Hazenberg still has his elusive moves as well, and the defense was, well, the DEFENSE!

It was good to see so many younger players get game time, especially against these guys. This may be the best team they'll face this year.

[cawcdad]

WOW! I've just spent the last hour reading 15 pages of the in game updates plus all the posts on this and the SCIAC board. I also now have the Pick 'em standings updated.

I would like to give a huge THANK YOU!! to Monroviacat for texting me updates that I discreetly peeked at while at a retreat with my wife. Someone saw me and asked me the score of the baseball playoffs. "I don't know, but Linfield won!!!"

[MonroviaCat]

WOW! I've just spent the last hour reading 15 pages of the in game updates plus all the posts on this and the SCIAC board. I also now have the Pick 'em standings updated.

I would like to give a huge THANK YOU!! to Monroviacat for texting me updates that I discreetly peeked at while at a retreat with my wife. Someone saw me and asked me the score of the baseball playoffs. "I don't know, but Linfield won!!!"

you are welcome.  sorry if i overdid it but wanted to keep you posted on all the games

[pineconefan]

Foss and MC, I appreciate you taking my post in the right spirit.  You are right, Whitworth's program was in the dumps for a long time.  Back in my day our head coach was a part time employee at Whitworth and ran his own restaurants as his 'real' job.

I am proud of how the program has developed, but getting an 'outsiders' perspective is also encouraging.  I am glad it meant a lot to Linfield to beat Whitworth.

Of course next year we'll be hopin' for a little Pirate jig