Nov. 27, 2008
Puréed PumpkinHeads
As apprehensive I was before the game against the Dazed & Blue
Horde from Annie’s TreeHouse, I was downright fearful as the ‘Cats were
poised to meet the Ill-Annoy, especially regarding their offense.
Bottom line was: the Ill-Whine-I offense fielded the No. 1 yardage
production offense in the Big 10/11 conference, better than that of the
BCS-bound Inmates of State Penn or da BCS-wannabe Bucknuts, and one
having a passing attack that was ranked among the best in Division
1A. And to top it all off, the Ill-Whine-I featured an offensive
weapon that had spelled doom to the ‘Cats’ D since the beginning of the
new millennium: a fleet-footed, mobile and agile QB with a very strong
arm.
Conference and national media alike were singing the praises of
Ill-Annoy’s athletic media darling QB, Juice Williams, even more than
they had done with da BuckNut’s wunderkind QB, Terrell Pryor, who had
torched the ‘Cats as much with his passing prowess as he had with his
running abilities just 2 weekends previously. What would this
monstrously versatile QB do when he faced NU’s vulnerable
secondary? I shuddered at the thought.
And not only did Ill-Annoy’s potent offensive weapons pose an
intimidating competitive challenge, the motivational factor for the
PumpkinHeads loomed large as well. After having scratched and
clawed their way valiantly to a very commendable share of the Big 10/11
conference championship in 2007, the Ill-Whine-I had underachieved much
of their 2008 season, literally “mailing-in” whole games with piss-poor
field play, and consequently stood on the brink of bowl eligibility at
a 5-6 record. Amazingly, Zook’s Crooks couldn’t get that 6th “W”
last weekend from playing Western Michigan, a team hailing from the
“supposedly weak” MAC, in their 11th game of 2008 – a late-campaign
week when most other high quality, healthy football programs would have
been playing their most effective and consistent ball of the
season. But that’s another story for another time. Suffice
it to say that the self-absorbed and dysfunctional PumpkinHeads’ viewed
the “lowly MildCats” as their best last-chance opportunity to gain that
final 6th win and progress beyond all their well-chronicled internal
squabbling and inter-personnel strife.
How the ‘Cats Smashed the PumpkinHeads
Freshly Squeezed
Doc Hankwitz had his defense primed and loaded for bear last Saturday,
and this focused, aggressive squad simply dogged and abused Juice
Williams and every other Ill-Whine-I ball carrier for that matter with
a purposeful vengeance. The many various flavors of Doc’s 4-3-4
and 4-2-5/Roverback defensive sets worked to near perfection. Bar
none, this was the most effective overall exhibition by the ‘Cat D of
the entire 2008 campaign, and truly, one that reflected the total
lockdown defenses of the Fitz-powered ’95 and ’96 seasons.
‘Cat DE Corey Wootton played like a man possessed as he continually
crashed hard from his defensive corner and compressed the Ill-Annoy
backfield straight into the face of the Juice. Kevin Mims did the
same from his opposite DE position, and between them both, they
squeezed the bewildered and panicky Juice every time he dropped behind
his evaporating pocket protection for 3 total sacks and many more
hurries. NU’s interior DL personnel went berserk as well,
especially John Gill, stuffing their blockers at the LOS, gaining
separation and penetrating gaps to harass and completely disrupt the
flow of the Ill-Annoy ground game.
Then there were the ‘Cat LBs. What could I write that would do
their collective performance justice? Not much, to be quite
frank. Their field play was superb across all positions.
The LB tandem of Prince Kwateng and Nate Williams played their best
individual games of the year and were in the shorts of every
Ill-Whine-I ball carrier all afternoon, accounting for 11 and 10
tackles respectively. OLB Quentin Davie made himself an
irritating burr in the behind of the Juice on a regular basis,
especially in support of the off-tackle rush.
And then there was the nearly flawless run support of Brad Phillips,
playing the cross-position role of Roverback, where he would creep-up
from his original SS position close to the LOS just shading the outside
shoulder of the DE and act as a 3rd or even 4th LB in Doc’s defensive
front. From there, Phillips either would shoot an inside gap
within the OL, usually on a zone blitz, or crash the Ill-Annoy
backfield from the defensive edge in a tandem pass rush stunt with the
DE to that side. Much of the Ill-Whine-I’s rushing attempts
executed the QB-RB option, behind varied blocking schemes, to gain NU’s
defensive corners at the LOS. When this flow showed to his side,
Phillips and his fellow safeties sprinted quickly to the LOS in run
support, attacked the ball carrier with abandon and stoned these
attempts for little or no gain. The rush support techniques of
the ‘Cat DBs was so effective and efficient, it almost appeared as if
they had been part of the Ill-Annoy offensive huddle and had known
exactly what run Juice and Co. planned to run.
Kudos to Doc Hankwitz and Jerry Brown on their defensive game plan
strategies and schooling their players to identify, recognize and react
to their reads correctly. Those strategies and their associated
tactical reads positioned everyone on NU’s defensive side of the
scrimmage line to become a playmaker. Ill-Annoy’s potent ground
game was thoroughly thwarted in H-1, limiting this attack to a
miniscule 15 yards on 14 rushing attempts. It was a major
contributor to the ‘Cats’ total field play domination in the opening
half and completely demoralized the Ill-Whine-I the coaching staff and
players.
From the "Yaarchives":
"Yaarh, I be losing again, Mateys!"
Secondary’s Best
With the Ill-Whine-I rushing attack ground to a relative halt by NU’s
defensive front 7 and Mr. Phillips, Ill-Annoy HC Ron Zook and his OC
were forced to turn their yardage production over to their aerial
attack and its pass-happy QB, Juice Williams. Not such a bad
switch either considering that Juice had recorded games where he had
amassed passing yards in the 400’s several times this season. But
Zook and the Juice never envisioned the pressure-packed pasting that
the ‘Cat defensive front 7 would lay on their passing attack coupled
with the blanket coverage provided by the ‘Cat secondary.
Every time Juice dropped back behind his umbrella protection, his
attention was redirected from scanning the ‘Cat secondary to looking
over his shoulder at the unrelenting, unstoppable pass rush.
After the first of five sacks was delivered, Juice seemed more
preoccupied in avoiding NU’s pass rush than in finding an open
receiver; and when he did, it became a crap shoot regarding whether or
not he could deliver the bean accurately to that target. And the
main beneficiaries of that forceful pass rush were NU’s DBs. They
were able to break on the throw and close on the target that slight
fraction of a moment sooner, because Juice was telegraphing his
intent. Since his throws were off - sometimes just a little,
other times quite a lot – the DBs could cheat ever so slightly in their
coverage techniques. All of this contributed greatly in limiting
Juice to passing yardage statistics that were well under his
average.
When one considers that the Ill-Annoy passing game was ranked in the
top 20 of Division 1A and the way that the ‘Cat DBs kept the
Ill-Whine-I receiving corps under wraps for whole periods of the game,
it was their best performance of the season.
McCall’s Best
I’ve not been a fan of NU OC Mick McCall throughout much of NU’s 2008
campaign, especially his game plan strategies and game-time play
calling. Admittedly, he’s had a daunting coaching challenge when
dealing with the myriad injuries to his most valuable offensive
playmakers. However, even when he has had the services of
starting QB C.J Bacher, 1st team RB Tyrell Sutton, 2nd team RB Omar
Conteh and many others, McCall has not had near the success that one
might have expected when deploying his offensive attack schemes via
these experienced veterans. My greatest criticism is his
insistence on employing a controlled “managed” passing attack on a
continual basis, because, when facing a better, more experienced
defensive secondary, its inherent advantages can be turned against the
offense running it. And in previous games it has, most notably
against da BuckNuts and H-1 against the Dazed & Blue Horde, where
the CBs fronted NU’s WRs and played bump-&-run while the safeties
were set 8 yards off the LOS in run support-first mode that allowed
their overall quickness and hair-trigger reactions to neutralize
Bacher’s short-route passes.
However, McCall, and perhaps even Fitz, might have had an epiphany of
sorts at halftime against the Big Bad Blue Boys in the Big House.
Coming out of the locker room in H-2 down by 7 and after having had his
‘managed” passing schemes literally managed into an offensive
non-factor, McCall directed Bacher and his receiving crops to challenge
the shallow & wide zone coverages of the Michigan DBs by employing
the vertical pass - and to great effect. Two downfield passes to
WRs running skinny post routes into the Dazed & Blue deep middle
3rd zone on NU’s first 2 possessions in H-2 produced a TD score apiece,
and gave the ‘Cats a 7 point lead that stood-up for the remainder of
the game.
With a viable, productive passing paradigm now identified and in place,
McCall called upon his healthy, rejuvenated QB and WRs once again
against the Ill-Whine-I. In NU’s 1st possession of the game,
McCall called a RB rush on 4 consecutive 1st downs, all stopped for
small gains by an Ill-Annoy front 7 that was supported heavily by a
secondary positioned in run support first mode, just like daOSU and
Michigan had done. Obviously Ill-Annoy’s defensive brain trust
took a hint from those game films and crafted a similarly-based
defensive game plan. However, the trap was set for an effective
reversal in down-distance play calling. On the ‘Cats’ 2nd drive,
McCall shuns the run and calls for the pass on 4 consecutive 1st downs,
and on 6 of the first 8 plays of the possession, most thrown downfield,
gaining good yardage while forcing the Ill-Whine-I DBs to abandon their
run support-first sets and re-position themselves back-up to normal
pass coverage depths. On 1st down number 5 at the Ill-Annoy 19,
C.J. executes another reversal by handing-off to Simmons for a
lightning-quick 9-yard burst. By pressing a pass-first tendency,
the rush now became wide open simply because the Ill-Whine-I DBs
couldn’t play up at the LOS and back in pass coverage at the same
time. McCall takes advantage, calling 4 more consecutive rushes,
and NU gets the go-ahead TD.
The true balanced offensive attack is back, and McCall didn’t have to
be convinced any further of its efficacy. On NU’s next
possession, McCall utilized an efficient mix of run-vertical
pass-run-vertical pass and directed his O on a drive that gobbled-up 50
yards in 3 minutes for a 2nd TD and extended NU’s lead to 13, one that
would hold for the rest of H-1.
For the remainder of the game, McCall kept to his new-found balanced
attack and the Ill-Annoy D never could regroup and counter with any
type of consistency. It was his best play calling of the
entire 2008 season.
2 Daggers
The 2 most important dagger plays of the game were both prelude and
finish of the same possession. The first dagger thrust into the
still beating heart of the PumpkinHeads was the brilliant 51-yard punt
return by Brendan Smith in Q4 that gave the ‘Cats a starting position
on the Ill-Annoy 20. With their backs in the shadow of their
endzone, the Ill-Annoy defense was absolutely deflated and
unresponsive. The second dagger was applied 2 plays later when
C.J. found his favorite WR, Eric Peterman, running a deep outside curl
route, open by a full 2 steps at the Ill-Annoy goal line and completed
a sweet pitch-and-catch delivery for the game-clinching TD. It
was the kill shot of the game which rendered the Ill-Whine-I
unquestionably dead at the scene facing a 17 point deficit.
Essentially, it was game over from that point on.
Conclusion
The ease at which the Wildcats dispatched their in-state rivals was
truly remarkable and underscored the progressive maturation process of
the 2008 football team. The ‘Cats totally eviscerated an
Ill-Annoy team that had been prematurely anointed for a January 1 bowl
bid by many media pundits with a cool confidence that was unfathomable
in the preseason. At the start of this season, I had my doubts
whether the ‘Cats could or would fulfill their goals to not only win
all 4 of their out-of-conference games but to make definitive field
play statements in their Big 10/11 games against several conference
championship contenders, like the Golden Rodents, and the
Hog-Eyes. I had high hopes, but I still needed to see it before
I’d ever believe it. Now I must say that seeing is
believing. I and many other members within the Wildcat Nation
family have been privileged to witness this outstanding
transformation. Right now, the Northwestern Wildcats, under the
mentorship of Fitz, Doc, McCall and the other position coaches, are a
very good team and most certainly deserve their national ranking within
Division 1A’s top teams.
C.J. voiced it best in a post-game interview when he declared, “9 and 3 sounds pretty good to me.”
And to me as well.
The Waterboy
|
The Waterboy is a former football player
and a Northwestern
alumnus. Aside from these facts, he has no affiliation with
Northwestern University. The commentary he posts here is his
own, and does not necessarily reflect the views of HailToPurple.com.
