The first is from NU Highlights. It is a fantastic collection of 'Cats-centered highlights, using WGN's commentary. Password is berkeley2013.
And now for something completely different from Glopknar (Warning: language).
With the highlights out of the way, let's go into a point-by-point breakdown of the game.
Injuries
Injuries may be the most-discussed aspect of this game. First, it became apparent that Venric Mark was not 100% when he did not appear on kick returns and had a very limited role in the run game. This affected both our special teams, including a kickoff return fumble, and our running game, although Treyvon Green stepped up more than adequately. Next, Colter got rocked on the first two plays from scrimmage, having to sit out the rest of the game, evidently with a concussion. Siemian was forced to play the rest of the game, limiting the size of our workable playbook and severely affecting our gameplan. Backup, true fresman corner Matt Harris also went down with an unspecified injury on the opening kickoff. All three palyers are listed as day-to-day and appear on the week 2 depth chart (although Mark is not listed as the starting punt returner). That being said, it is unclear what role they actually will play against Syracuse. It may be a near-game time decision.
The most serious injury was that of Daniel Jones, who is out for the year with a knee injury. It's a huge shame because he was really settling into the role and looking like a good option at corner. Dwight White took over and struggled. He did look better as the game went on, but that's not saying too much. Hopefully, he'll be able to settle into the starting role for week 2 and beyond. If there is any silver lining to all this, Jones got injured early enough that he will almost certainly be able to receive a medical redshirt.
This also seems to be a good place for me to address the flopping allegations leveled against our players. For those who missed it, Cal fans, coach Sonny Dykes, and even ESPN commentators all accused our players of faking injuries to slow the tempo of the Cal offense. Indeed, it did appear suspicious for three of our players to go down on three consecutive plays, so I will admit I was at first questioning the injuries' legitimacy. However, two players with "fake" injuries were Damien Proby and Chi Chi Ariguzo. Why would we handicap ourselves by forcing two of our most valuable players out of the game? The more logical answer to me is this: they had cramps or fatigue issues. Cal ran 99 plays against us Saturday; it is very reasonable that some of our players would have problems. A case may be made that our players could have made it off the field without stopping the game, and under normal circumstances, this would likely be true, but the pace of the offense was such that we could not even substitute out healthy players early in the game. The only way for our guys to get off the field was to go down. So when faced with the option of leaving injured or severely fatigued guys in the game, or having them go down and get checked on, it seems our team made the logical choice.
Trevor Siemian
A lot was asked of Siemian in Colter's absence, and it became a tale of two halves for him. In the first half, he looked outstanding, accurately completing deep passes to the middle of the field with regularity. His biggest mistake, an interception, clearly came on a blown pass-interference call, and he missed few other passes. However, he seemed to be benefiting from the element of surprise, as the Cal defense had prepared for more of a rush attack, a benefit he did not have in the second half. In said second half, he looked more rattled, often throwing passes into coverage. He showed an unwillingness to check down to short receivers, an issue in a Northwestern offense that succeeds in large part due to a nickel and dime passing attack. That being said, if Colter is unable to start again, the gameplan will be more Siemian-oriented, and he is likely to look more comfortable.
Treyvon Green
In Venric Mark's near-absence, Green was asked to be Northwestern's feature back, and, in that role, he looked like the player we all once hoped he could be. While not notably fast or electric, Green ran smart and ran hard, going between the tackles and shedding hits for a 16 carry, 129 yard, 2 TD day. This is likely not sustainable for him, but he looked like a legitimate second option to a healthy Venric, something I did not expect going into the season.
Dan Vitale
Vitale's similarities to Dunsmore are truly uncanny, but I'm growing to be of the opinion that Vitale may end up being an even better player. Dan looked phenomenal and proved to be an extremely tough matchup for Cal, running good routes, showing good hands, and proving very difficult to bring down, on his way to a terrific 5 catch, 101 yard day.
Christian Jones
Jones looked like a solid first option at receiver. He always seemed to be open in the middle of the field and simply outclassed the Cal secondary while using his size to his advantage en route to a 5 catch, 94 yard game.
Tony Jones
Jones was very frustrating last year due to his tendency to drop passes. He looked much more sure handed this Saturday, adding 5 catches for 70 yards, including a very impressive touchdown grab.
Rashad Lawrence
Rashad was, surprisingly, a non-factor in this game. Lawrence has tended to be a favorite receiver of Siemian's due to the fact that the two were high school teammates, but I don't think Rashad had a single target in the game (somebody please correct me if I'm wrong). At first, I thought he may have been injured, but I later noticed him in the highlights. Bizarre.
Offensive Line
We got our first look at this new, inexperienced offensive line, and I don't really have any complaints. They provided good protection for Trevor, allowing him to be sacked only once, while being hurried twice. Typically, he had a great deal of time to sit in the pocket. The 'Cats also usually had good lanes to run through. While there were a couple times Northwestern backs ran into a wall, this was not the norm. Overall, based on this very small sample size, the Northwestern line looks very comparable to last year's.
Colin Ellis
What a game for Ellis. Wow. He was listed as ESPN's Big Ten defensive player of the week, and for good reason. Most people will notice his two interceptions returned for touchdowns, and, without a doubt, that's impressive, but what impressed me even more was his ability to diagnose plays and react. He was incredible at sniffing out screens and blowing them up. He certainly was not a disappointment in his first game as a starter.
Pass Rush
I have mixed feelings about our pass rush in this game. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the defensive ends and not as happy with the tackles. The tackles typically failed to get a good push up the middle and it allowed Goff too solid of a pocket. On the other hand, our various ends gave trouble to their tackles all game. Tyler Scott looked like his old self; both Lowry and Gibson looked solid; and while Odenigbo may not yet be a fundamentally solid all-around DE, he was a very impressive outside pass rusher. All four ends tallied exactly one sack apiece in the game.
Run Defense
At the very beginning of the game, the Northwestern run defense looked shaky to say the least, giving up a combined 55 yards on the first 3 plays. Things certainly settled down after that, allowing only 38 yards on the next 32 carries. Removing sacks from the equation, Cal still only picked up 62 yards on 36 carries following that first drive. Once the 'Cats defense found their footing, the Northwestern defense performed exceptionally well against the run.
Pass Defense
The pass defense was another story. Goff did not look like a true freshman quarterback, completing 61% of his passes for 455 yards and 3 TDs. Quite simply, teams don't win many games when they allow that many yards. There is a silver lining we can take from this, however. First, the 'Cats grabbed 3 INTs. Granted, a couple of these were lucky, but it still showed an ability to take advantage of the opportunities given to them. Second, despite 455 being a heck of a lot of yards, that amounted to only 7.1 yards per attempt, which would have only been good enough for 70th in the country last year. Furthermore, the allowed QB rating of 126.75 would have only been good for 80th last year. On top of this, much of Cal's success came from exploiting Dwight White. While White may not be great this year, he will almost certainly be more comfortable in later games than he was this weekend. Finally, Cal is almost certainly the biggest passing threat Northwestern will face this entire season, so it's all an improvement from here.
Kicking Game
Brandon Williams looked very solid punting in this game, kicking relatively deep and allowing no return yards. I'll be very happy if we get that from him every week. Jeff Budzien looked like his typical, almost-boringly effective self, putting all three of his field goals and all five of his PATs dead center. Budzien also looked solid kicking off--perhaps even a step up from Flaherty.
The Commentators
Just terrible. I don't watch many NU games on TV, as I typically attend them, but wow, now I really never want to.
Bottom Line
Definitely more to like than to not like from this game. Northwestern played well, even if they had some cobwebs to shake free. Injuries were the biggest issue, and the state of the secondary does scare me a little bit, but it should scare our opponents even more that we could only unleash half our playbook, while lacking our two most electric offensive players, and we were still top 25 this week in yards per play. Look out folks, this will be an exciting year.
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