The super-duper late Purdue recap

People have kept asking me if I have neglected to put up a recap of this game because the game was too depressing. The truth is that midterms are very time-consuming at this university, so I put a blog post low on my priorities. Well, that, and the game really was just darn depressing. However, all this time has allowed me to cool off enough to write a fairly objective recap. So let's get down to it.
Stefan Demos: I start with Demos because he is by far the most talked about player after the game, and I have commonly heard two frankly ridiculous evaluations of his performance on both ends of the spectrum: that he should receive no fault for the loss, and that the loss falls entirely on him. Those who say he should not be faulted point to the fact that he has been a good kicker in the past, and that if one of our other players (say, Dan Persa) made a mistake, we would not be so hard on them. While Demos has been good in the past, he is honestly having a terrible year. I have no confidence in him and am always pessimistic when he's on the field. He's clearly in a funk, but I blame the coaching staff more than I blame him. I would not mind seeing one of our other kickers get a shot and I definitely didn't want to see Demos (or any kicker) out there on that last field goal attempt. Look, I know the conventional wisdom: take the points and go to overtime. But forget the conventional wisdom.
a) We have terrible special teams
b) We have one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the nation
c) We were driving successfully for the first time all game (before the holding call)
d) This was a long field goal
e) For once, just this once, we should have showed some guts in an attempt to actually win, not simply to not lose
In a game full of conservative decisions no one but Fitz or Jon Forman would defend, this was the one that frustrated me the most. That being said, Demos and the decisions around him were not even the largest contributing factors in our loss. More on that later in the blog.
Dan Persa: Persa still looked good, and put up great numbers, but this was his worst game yet. He looked very flustered facing Purdue's outstanding pass rush at times and made several uncharacteristically bad throws. He also only picked up 24 yards rushing on 20 carries. In his defense, however, he still completed 30 of 41 passes for 305 yards and looked very sharp at the end of the game, not throwing an incompletion in the 4th quarter (SO WHY DIDN'T WE GO FOR IT? Ugh.) and without him our offense would best be described as an incompetent molasses-like lump.
Jeremy Ebert: The bright point of the day. 11 catches for 124 yards. The guy looks great week-in and week-out. I have no complaints at all about his performance. He's about alone in that regard.
Drake Dunsmore: He looked ok. 4 catches for 50 yards and still incapable of being tackled by a single defender. However, he still looked a bit shaken up by his injury. Thank goodness for the bye week.
Running Game: Believe it or not (I can hardly believe it) this was worse than usual. Even without Arby seeing playing time, no one can perform. Trumpy looked disappointingly weak, and Schmidt still only picks up 2 yard runs (although to be fair, he looked quite good in the passing game). Adonis Smith got one rush for a good-looking 5 yard gain. He never carried the ball again. I can't even begin to explain why that is. Something desperately has to change in the running game. I would prefer if this change was just accepting that we have no run game and letting Persa go to work.
Return Game: Watching this game, i could have sworn I was back in 2009. Hunter Bates dropped 2 punts (and still came back out for another return) and Simmons dropped a kick. I know the fact that this was a night game was a contributing factor, but dropped kicks are inexcusable. Also inexcusable is the fact that Fitz sent Bates back after he muffed two already. I know you want to show confidence in your guys, but you have a game to win.
Brandon Williams: Early in the game, Williams tried a couple Demos-style rugby punts. And in true Demos fashion, they were both awful. He returned to conventional hang-time punts later, and they were vastly superior. Williams, please stick to what works.
Defense: While pass coverage looked good (they were after all playing a quarterback who previously rarely saw playing time), the defense got completely gashed by the run. The defense looked throughly befuddled by Purdue's zone-read all day, and I cannot claim I know how to fix this problem, but something must be done. Half the time half the players on our team had no clue where the ball was.
Rob Henry: Normally, I do not analyze specific players on the opposing team, but I must give Rob henry a special mention. Purdue accepted early that he would not pass the ball successfully, and they let him do what he did best--run. He ran the zone-read better than most veteran spread quarterbacks and did an exceptional job hiding the ball. He was often 10 yards downfield before anyone realized he was the ballcarrier. Most of the credit to be given to Purdue goes to this guy.
Mick McCall: Remember when I said there were factors I blame more than Demos? Well, here you go. I haven't talked about McCall in any of my post yet, but it is well past due. McCall is our offensive coordinator, and his play-calling has been terrible. We have shown an exceptional ability to complete mid-range passes while showing no ability to run the ball. Nonetheless, McCall McCall likes to kill drives by running our slow backs to the outside of the field. I know we can't pass the ball every play, but in this game our run-to-pass ratio was greater than 1:1. It should be no higher than 1:2. McCall, you have a very special quarterback. Use him.
The Game Day Atmosphere: Let me end on a good note. The stadium was electric, the student section was packed, and it was crazy loud. And "The Put Your Hands Up" tradition seems it will live strong. We even forced Purdue to take a few (I want to say 3?) timeouts because they couldn't hear on the field. That is big. But let me say this: Y'all better not just be bandwagon jumpers. The game was frustrating, and it's fair to criticize the team, but we stick with our 'Cats no matter what. Let's be good fans, support our team, and get ourselves to a heck of a bowl.

Preview: NU vs. Purdue

First, sorry I never got a recap up from our last game. I found myself significantly more busy than I though possible, but I'll offer up a brevity-recap here.
-Persa was really quite good with 300+ passing yards and almost 100 yards rushing. However he had a couple crucial mistakes, particularly a fumble and a bad interception.
-We had an interesting runningback situation. Arby never got a carry. Trumpy had a good game, but didn't get enough carries. And we burned Adonis Smith's redshirt, which was odd.
-Ebert is a total beast. He made a great game-saving catch.

Ok, now for the Purdue preview. I know my optimism almost didn't pay off for me last week, but I'm optimistic again. This is because Purdue has had substantial injury problems. Their injured players include their star quarterback, their star wide receiver, another wide receiver, and four runningbacks. Expect Purdue to have lots of trouble moving the ball. Purdue's defense. however, is not at all bad. Nonetheless, Northwestern's offense will still most likely be what it's been all year: a struggling run game and domination by Persa and Ebert.
Prediction: I'm probably going to regret this, but NU by 20.

Preview: NU @ Minnesota

The Good News: Statistically-speaking, Minnesota should be about as easy a team as Northwestern will face.
The Bad News: See above
The fact is, all rationality and logic need to be thrown out the window when discussing the Cardiac 'Cats. It is precisely this type of "gimme" game that worries me the most. Nonetheless, for the sake of this preview, we'll pretend the 'Cats live in the rational world we are familiar with, rather than the surreal twilight zone they actually inhabit.
The biggest statistic pointing to a 'Cats victory is Minnesota's yrds/carry against average. Minnesota is allowing 6.4 yards per rush, twice what our team has picked up per carry. This weak rush defense is especially a bonus for Northwestern when you consider that for the first time, they are starting a rusher who instills confidence. Mike Trumpy will get the starting role with Jacob Schmidt, and I expect Trumpy to have a big game, perhaps even eclipsing the 100 yard mark. However, if Trumpy doesn't succeed, I don't know what other options we have. Fitz, I'm ready and willing to try out. Minnesota's pass efficiency defense is also quite poor, and, of course, NU's has been in the top three in the nation all year. Expect lots of yards for Northwestern.
Minnesota's offense, on the other hand, has been pretty good. Carpenter and Arnold (who are both off the injury list this week) need to play and play well to shut down the Minnesota passing attack.
My prediction: I'll be optimistic. Northwestern by 17. Over the last two games, my predictions have been off by an average of only .5 points per game. We'll hope that trend continues.

One last note: My blog now has over 1000 pageviews! I never expected nearly that many looks at this site, but it's pretty cool. Thank you to all my readers!

Northwestern vs. Central Michigan Recap

I haven't posted on the blog in a while, but that is not because i have been completely neglecting it. The only reason I didn't post a preview is because i had wi-fi issues Friday night. In fact, I actually had some stuff written up that I just couldn't post. In short, here was my prediction: NU would win in a tough, nerve-racking four-point game. Well, I was close on the score as the 'Cats won by 5, but the game never made me as nervous as I anticipated. Despite the fact that the game was tied at halftime, and the 'Cats never ran away with the game, I never felt terribly nervous. I always had a feeling the game was well-in hand. Now, let's take our point-by-point look at the game.

• The Attendance: Again, I was very pleased. We drew a solid 30,000+ for a non-conference game. Granted, we were a long way from a sellout, but we could only dream about having the stands so full in any of our non-conference games last year. Looks like the marketing campaign might actually be working. 
• The Officiating: Oh boy this was bad. Penalty flags were flying all over the place, many of which were for illegal substitutions. I'm all for calling this penalty in obvious situations, such as 12 men in the huddle, but on multiple occasions yesterday, the referees called penalties for seemingly innocuous situations such as a player entering the field and leaving without participating. Players do this frequently and are very rarely penalized for it. This really should not be a penalty. Furthermore, the refs missed innumerable obvious calls that had to be overturned by official reviews. This interrupted the flow of the game, and was completely inexcusable. One of my favorite moments of the game involved a situation where the refs spotted Jeremy Ebert a couple yards short of where the ball should, in fact, have been spotted and short of the first down. The offense, shocked at the call, did not leave the field, and Sidney Stewart came over to the sideline to encourage the fans to chant "bulls***" even louder than they already were (which, believe me, was pretty loud).
• Persa: Persa had another very good, maybe even great, game but for the first time looked human. He threw an ugly interception and often looked flustered in the pocket. That being said, his upside was much better than his downside, completing 23 of 30 passes for 280 yards and 2 TDs, without once throwing the ball in the fourth quarter. On top of that he rushed the ball 17 times (4 were sacks) for 43 yards. Persa is again on top of the QB rating leader board, tied with Brandon Weeden of Oklahoma State with a 186.3, and he remains the best in completion percentage, completing 80.2% of his passes. 
• Running Backs: Again, Arby disappointed. He put up only 16 yards on 7 carries, while his longest run of the day went for a measly 5 yards. He also had a key fumble on a drive that looked as if it would put us up 37-13. But due to this mess, the redshirt freshman Mike Trumpy got to see playing time. He performed well, putting up 53 yards on 12 carries and generally looking the way a running back should look. I would expect to see him start against Minnesota on Saturday. Jacob Schmidt also played fairly well, putting up 32 yards on 6 carries with two touchdowns. 
• The Receiving Corp: Minus a couple drops by Dunsmore and Fields, our receivers again had very good performances. The passes were spread out quite well, with Ebert and Stewart each getting 5 catches, Fields getting 4, and Dunsmore getting 3. Schmidt also had a successful role in the passing game, making 4 catches out of the backfield. Both of our passing touchdowns went to Ebert. 
• The Offensive Line: This continues to be a weak point of the offense. I have to blame some of the lack of success in the running game to the guys up front, and a guy as agile as Persa should not get sacked 4 times in a game. 
• The Defensive Line: This line, on the other hand, has been one of the strongest units on the team. The defensive line consistently got good pushes up front and both Quentin Williams and Corbin Bryant got sacks. Williams also added an interception, our second interception by a lineman this season. 
• The Linebackers: Quentin Davie was not as dominant Saturday, but nonetheless looked good. He only had two tackles, but one was a huge sack, and he covered the field well, disrupting the Chippewa running game. Ben Johnson also played a smaller-than-average role, making only two tackles. Nate Williams had arguably the best game of all our linebackers, with 6 tackles. Bryce McNaul also contributed with 3 tackles, as did David Nwabuisi, who had two tackles and an interception. 
• The Secondary: There were some problems here. Cornerback remains our worst position, from my point of view. And there are injury problems at safety. Jared Carpenter is injured, and David Arnold remains out, forcing Hunter Bates to step into the full-time safety role with Peters. It was obvious the Chippewas were picking on Bates, as they kept throwing to his side of the field, and he was beat early and often. If Carpenter or Arnold is not back soon, we may be in serious trouble, as we faced 347 passing yards against us. Don't read too much into my criticism of Bates though. I like him a lot if he's playing his standard special teams or nickelback role, but he simply is not cut out to be a strong safety. 
• Special Teams:  Well, there were continued issues with Demos, but we've heard all that before, so let's focus on the positives. Minus one shanked punt early, Williams again looked good, and best of all, we blocked two kicks. That is not something I'm used to from the 'Cats. 

Well, we are a solid 4-0, and are sure to be favorites in our next two games. Can we really get to bowl eligibility without losing a single game? It's certainly possible, and at this point I will remain cautiously optimistic. With that, I will leave you with the highlight real of the game, courtesy of NUBears.

Northwestern @ Rice Recap

Good news, 'Cat fans! We are half way to bowl eligibility. Of course, our competition has not been great, but 3-0 is never a bad thing, and there was a lot to like about this week's performance. So let's break down the game.

• The Feed: Well, this was an unmitigated disaster. Our only means of watching the game was a crappy feed of the Owls' jumbotron that spent more time buffering than actually working. And our means of listening to the game was WGN radio, which was way behind the video and also prone to failure. I didn't even attempt to watch the second half (instead traveling to Six Flags). So disclaimer for the rest of my recap: My analysis is based primarily on radio, highlights, and statistics, and thus should be taken with a grain of salt. 
• The Attendance: Ouch. Rice has a 70,000+ person stadium. However, many seats are covered; so it holds around 40,000. Even with this modification, the stadium looked just about empty. The official attendance was 15,562 fans, a large percentage of which were 'Cats fans. Again, Rice, ouch.
• Dan Persa: Continues to impress. A career-high 24 completions on 32 attempts for a career-high 307 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed 9 times for 34 yards including a big 18 yard touchdown run. His second half was especially great: 9-10 for 159 yards. While he dropped to number 3 in the country in QB rating, his completion percentage remains number 1. Persa is looking like the ideal spread offense quarterback.
• Running Backs: Still bad. Our best performance was a mere 55 yards on 17 carries for Arby, and he never got a carry that went for more than 9 yards. I really don't know what else I can say. 
• Drake Dunsmore: A solid game for him. 6 catches for 87 yards. He also had a play reminiscent of his famous play in the Outback Bowl, looking completely untacklable. 
• Jeremy Ebert: Same ol' Ebert. It seems any catch he makes goes for a lot of yards. In this game, he had 4 grabs for 82 yards and a touchdown. His 20.7 yards per catch on the year is 18th best in the nation.
• Rush Defense: Here was the rush defense I expected from NU. The Owls picked up only 86 yards on the ground, and were forced to pass more than I am sure they hoped. And while the Rice pass game did manage 291 yards, they never seemed terribly threatening. 
• Quentin Davie: What a beast. 10 tackles, a sack, and an interception returned for a TD (his third pick of the year). He is really, really good. 
• Special Teams: The punt game continues to be good, Bates looked very good on returns, and, best of all, Demos finally had a perfect game. Much of this, I believe can be attributed to the fact that we have supposedly switched long snappers, although I am not sure who now has the duties. 

And with that I will leave you with the highlight video. Props to NUBears for making a great reel out a crappy feed.  

Northwestern @ Rice Preview

It's gameday! And luckily it's not a home game because this weather sucks. This game, all-in-all, is very much in our favor. Rice, quite frankly, is not a good team. People often point to the fact that they held tight with Texas at the beginning of their week 1 game as evidence that they are a much improved team. That, however can easily be attributed to week 1 jitters. It took only until the second quarter for Texas to start running away. Then the Owls only managed to beat North Texas by a point last week. Both Rice's pass and rush offenses have been weak, and teams have not had much difficulty passing against the Owls. Expect Persa to have a big game. Another player to watch is Alex Daniel. He is making a return from suspension and could potentially be a factor in tonight's game.

My prediction: Northwestern by 17

Recap: Illinois State @ Northwestern

Sorry I haven't written a blog post in a while. My soul has been possessed by band camp. Anyways, there's a lot I've wanted to write about, but I have no idea if I'll remember it all or if I'll be able to keep interest long enough to cover it all. We'll see.
There wasn't a whole lot to complain about in Saturday's game. Almost every part of Northwestern's game was clicking, and they took care of business. Granted, NU was expected to win by a substantial margin, but run-away wins are so rare for the Wildcats, I will go ahead and be excited. I'll again take a point-by-point look at the game.

• Pregame Excitement: Northwestern has introduced some new routines for the team's pregame entrance, including a new tunnel, a new video, and coolest of all, some pyrotechnics. A video of it all can be seen here. I'm a fan.
• The Weather: The day started out with a monsoon, but the precipitation thankfully was mostly stopped by kickoff. The field, however, remained basically a swamp. It was fairly unclear how much this affected the players' performance. 
• The Crowd: I am not sure about the official numbers, but I am fairly certain we beat last years' average attendance. Against an FCS opponent. In a downpour. Before classes even start. Let's keep that up. 
• The Marching Band: It is fairly obligatory that I mention this, this being our first performance and all. I promise I'll get to real football analysis after this. But I need to give my fellow NUMBers their props. The conditions were terrible. The field was about as slippery as an ice rink, and my sax was so waterlogged I could only play a couple notes, but despite this, everyone did a pretty good job, especially the newcomers. Great job guys!
• Dan Persa: Persa continued to be a beast, going 19-23 for 240 yards, 2 TDs, and no interceptions in just over 2 quarters of play. On the year he has the single best qb rating in the country with a 212.1. To put that in perspective, the best qb rating at the end of the '09 season was Tim Tebow's with a 164.2,  and the single season record belongs to Colt Brennan with a 186.0. I'm not saying Persa will break that record or anything, don't get me wrong, but it does show that he is off to an extremely good start. Persa is also leading the nation in completion percentage with an 86.4. The next closest is Nick Foles of Arizona with an 83.1, and beyond that, there is a big jump down to Blaine Gabbert of Missouri with a 75.9. Absolutely no complaints about Persa's performance this week.
• Arby: Arby reminded me why I still occasionally have faith in him. When he could hit holes, he made good moves and looked like a very good running back. He managed 96 yards, almost ending our drought without a 100 yard rushing performance dating back to Tyrell Sutton's performance in the Alamo Bowl of the '08-'09 bowl season. 
• Receivers: Ebert again looked very good, pulling in 3 catches for 67 yards. He is averaging over 20 yards per reception on the year. Stewart looked like the same old Stewart. He dropped a sure touchdown pass, but he also brought in an insanely acrobatic grab. He can make the impossible look easy. Drake Dunsmore is establishing himself as a sure-fire short yardage threat. He is a big target who will go low over the middle to make a catch, and he scored two touchdowns in this manner. I'm not sure how teams can defend him. He'll outrun linebackers and beat up on corners. Rashad Lawrence got his first catch of the year, a beautiful 50-yarder. 
• Venric Mark: I'm listing him separately from the receivers because he contributed in many different ways. He seemed to be able to beat corners at will, he was an effective decoy, a pretty good gunner in the punting game, and he had a surprisingly exciting 7-yard punt return. The more I see of this guy, the more I like him. I hope the coaching staff continues to use him and that they find inventive ways to do so. I fully believe he could play a role similar to that of Percy Harvin for the '06 Gators. 
• The Cornerbacks: This was the one area that scared me a bit. Our guys often got beat by the ISU receivers, something that simply should not happen against a team like this. The linebackers and safeties did a good job covering, however. 
• Brian Peters: HOLY CRAP HOW DID YOU NOT KILL THAT GUY!!?? Allow me to clarify: On one play, Peters essentially picked up a guy and threw him so he landed on his head. What a beast. 
• Punting: Continues to be awesome. Brandon Williams is doing a good job, and the coverage has been great. Thank our speedy gunners. 
• Kicking Game: Seriously, get better. I don't know whose fault it is, but missed extra points are unacceptable. Seriously. 
• Everybody Else: We played a ridiculous number of players in this game, and almost all of them successfully contributed. It's great to see such depth on the team. It was also a good opportunity to glimpse into the future of the team. 

There's a lot more I could say about the game, but, quite frankly, I'm tired, and this wasn't a terribly interesting game to write about. So I will leave it at that and end with a link to a highlight video of the game.