I want to begin this post with a humble plea to my fellow Wildcat fans: Stop freaking out. I have to say, the sort of pessimistic, reactionary attitude I see from so many fellow fans is somewhat confusing to me. Why is it that when we play like a top-10 team one week and then like garbage the next, everyone assumes the bad week is the true showing of who we are while the good week is an aberration? I would like to remind everyone that we saw a similar trend last year; it just happened to be against much-inferior teams. We came out and crushed Indiana in week one of conference play and then struggled horribly against PSU the next week. Nonetheless, we ended with a pretty solid year. So fear not, this season is far from over. After this paragraph, I'm going to take a much more negative tone, but keep in mind my feelings about the game are in no way reflective of my feelings about the season, and I remain fairly optimistic.
With that PSA out of the way, I can't lie, that game was utter garbage. It has been quite a while since I've watched a game where everything was out of sync to quite the extent it was in this game. Last was, coincidentally, probably 2011 against Wisconsin. The offense was out of rhythm, the defense looked lost, the energy was not there, Fitz was at a total loss for answers,... It was bad. Let's get into a point-by-point look and see what went wrong.
Trevor Siemian: Trevor is a bit of a conundrum, and his lack of consistency is a bit worrying. One game he can look like a solid pro prospect and the next he looks like he should not be starting at a D1 program. Many people seem to forget that he's had these types of games before, as he completed only 1 of 7 passes against Minnesota last year and 15 of 35 against Nebraska. Then those who do remember he's done this before often seem to forget that he's still perfectly capable of having great games. Let's be clear, we're not going to win many games where our QB goes 13 of 34, as he did this week. But I think he'll recover. He simply looked out of rhythm this week, and while I can make no pretension he will never have another game like this, I do not believe these weeks will become the norm.
Kain Colter: Colter got very limited time at quarterback before injuring his ankle, but he did lead the first drive, during which he threw a very bad interception. Oddly, while the ankle injury took him out of the quarterback role, he still saw time at wide receiver. Here, however, he did not look nearly as sharp as usual, which I can only assume is due to the injury. At this point, his status for the Minnesota game is unclear.
Venric Mark: Venric, too, suffered an ankle injury, and he only got 3 carries before leaving the game. Unlike Colter, he saw no play time after leaving the field. His status is also up in the air.
Other running backs: No one successfully stepped up in Mark's absence, as other backs accounted for only 42 rush yards.
Wide Receivers and Superbacks: Siemian receives a lot of blame for the passing game, but this receiving crew deserves a great deal as well. I gave them high praise before the game, and they did not live up to it. They had difficulty getting separation, and even when they did, they dropped a number of passes. Before this game, they were dropping almost nothing. I'm not sure what happened, but it was an absolute mess.
Offensive Line: The offensive line's pass protection in this game was terrible. They had trouble picking up blitzes, and even when they could properly matchup with the rush, they got overpowered. Northwestern quarterbacks got sacked an absurd 7 times. That simply cannot happen.
Run Defense: This is likely to sound ridiculous, as the 'Cats gave up 286 yards on the ground, but I wasn't that unhappy with the run defense. Early in the game, Northwestern defended the run quite successfully. The defense only began to break down after they were starting to have to see the field far too much, due to the offense's anemic performances. There actually may be some room for encouragement here.
Pass Defense: First, kudos to the secondary for their two interceptions, but the 241 yards and 3 touchdowns should not have happened. The Badgers were missing Jared Abbrederis for most of the game, but still managed to find success throwing to some less-than-impressive receivers. The secondary should have been able to do more.
Brandon Williams: Williams saw the most action he will probably ever see, punting 11 times, but he did not look good in that action. With the exception of a 49 yard boot, his punts, quite frankly, were terrible.
Jeff Budzien: The brightest point of this game, responsible for all 6 of our points (ugh) on 2 of 2 kicking, including a 43-yarder.
Bottom Line
This was a terrible, awful, horrible game, but assuming it has much predictive value is a mistake. Simple as that.
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