Northwestern University Athletics
Skip Myslenski's Central Michigan Game Recap
9/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 25, 2010
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By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Well, what to make of that display?
Don't kvetch. The 'Cats did beat Central Michigan, the defending Mid-American Conference champion, and that ran the NU record to 4-0 for just the second time since 1962. Besides. As any number of them later said, a win is a win.
But that's ingenuous, to say nothing of shoddy reporting since they all had more to say than just that.
True enough, and this observation from quarterback Dan Persa was both representative of those postscripts and an astute assessment of their performance. "It's encouraging we can beat a team as good as Central Michigan and not play even close to our best football," he said. "We played very, very sloppy with a lack of discipline. But at the same time it's troubling. We've got to get that going."
So what was the most-troubling aspect of their display?
That's easy. Seven penalties in the first quarter alone and 11 in the game for 106 yards. Heck. They looked like the Oakland Raiders out there at times, which made it no surprise that their coach Pat Fitzgerald later said, "We self-inflicted. We'd make a play, we'd get a holding call. We'd make a play, we'd have substitution issues. That's on us as coaches first and foremost. We've got to get our guys to play with a little more focus and discipline. I think today was a little out of character. A little bit of an anomaly game hopefully. . . Those (11 penalties) will be the first things I watch (on tape). When you've got something wrong, when you've got a weed in your yard, you go get a weed killer. I'm going to kill the penalties, I promise you that."
Any reasons given for that lack of focus and discipline?
Well, linebacker Quentin Davie did offer, "We came out, it was very emotional. We knew there was a lot on the line. We knew we were facing a good team and we needed to play with that emotion. But we've got to bottle it. A lot of guys were off here and there and that's why it was a wild, penalty-filled first half."
By the way, to back up a moment, what are those substitution issues Fitzgerald referenced?
"I don't know," Persa said when asked just that. But each side was called for two of them even though both were using a no-huddle offense and too-many-men-in-the-huddle is the usual reason for that flag.
Kind of weird, that, but hardly the only unusual sighting Saturday at Ryan Field.
Hardly. There was also a blocked extra point and Stefan Demos missing a 45-yard field goal attempt into a crosswind. And Persa, on his 93rd pass of the season, throwing his first interception. And redshirt freshman Mike Trumpy opening the second-half as the 'Cat running back and netting 53 yards on a dozen carries (4.4 ypc).
But that means the 'Cats turned to, what, their fourth- or fifth-string running back to get a ground game going after Arby Fields netted just 11 yards on his five first-half carries? How'd that happen?
"To be honest, I did not know it was going to happen," said Trumpy. "Coach Mac (running backs coach Matt MacPherson) just came to me and said, 'You're going in.' I took the ball and went with it. . . It was fun to be out there."
"Michael's been practicing outstanding and we just told him to be patient, your opportunity's going to present itself," explained Fitzgerald. "He's been running fast and physical, so I thought he played pretty well for his first real chance."
Can he really, truly, possibly be the remedy to what ails the 'Cat ground game?
Who knows. One half does not a career make. But we know we nodded in agreement when we heard Persa say, "We've got to be able to keep running the ball like we did in the second half. That's the biggest thing in the Big Ten. You've got to be able to run the ball and the more balanced our offense is, the better it'll be."
Where's that leave Fields, who Fitzgerald felt was going to blossom this season?
"With an opportunity to improve and get better. He's just got to keep working," said Fitzgerald. "He's a young man who's battled through an injury (to his shoulder) in camp, he's faced some adversity for the first time in his career. Here's a little bit more. It's going to be a challenge to his attitude. It's going to be a challenge to his investment, and in his belief and confidence in himself. I have all the confidence in the world in him."
Did Persa remember what he did wrong on his interception, which came with the 'Cats driving and on the Central 12?
"It was a bad throw, a bad decision," he admitted. "I made a bad play fake and didn't suck the linebacker down and he just dropped right into the zone where I was throwing. I shouldn't have thrown it there anyway. As soon as I let it go, I knew it was going to get picked."
So, after all that, just how did the 'Cats move to 4-0?
They got a solid afternoon from Persa, who went 23-of-30 for 280 yards and skittered about to net 43 more on the ground. They got a pair of touchdown receptions from wide receiver Jeremy Ebert and another from running back Jacob Schmidt, who also ran for a score. They got a field goal from Demos and just enough big plays from their defense, which had three sacks; seven tackles for losses; a blocked field goal (by tackle Jack DiNardo) and a pair of blocked extra points (by DiNardo and tackle Niko Mafuli); and a pair of interceptions (by linebacker David Nwabuisi and defensive end Quentin Williams). But, that said, Central did roll up 423 offensive yards against them and Fitzgerald would later say, "We were in position to make plays and we didn't make them. So the credit goes to Central. They did. If we're going to win a game down the stretch here, we're going to have to make those plays. Outside of penalties, that might be my second biggest disappointment of the game."
What plays?
We'll get to that after he sees the film.
Well, then. What did he see in the locker room after this win?
"I promise you, it wasn't Mardi Gras," he said. "Our guys didn't feel like they'd just won the Super Bowl or a Big Ten championship. We won a football game. We beat a very good football team. But our guys know we can execute better, we can have better focus and discipline. That falls on all of our shoulders and I take the responsibility first as a coach. I like when we don't do things well. I get to go back to work a little bit more."
So there were no smiles this day?
That's not quite right. Fitzgerald did chuckle afterward when someone asked him about the 'Cats chances of copping the Big Ten title. Then, accurately summing up this day, he said: "I don't know if we can beat ourselves right now based on the way we performed. Northwestern can't beat Northwestern. We're not good enough to beat two teams on any given Saturday, and we had to beat two teams today. We were lucky to do it. We were very lucky to do it.
"We have to play a lot cleaner, a lot more focused, a lot more disciplined if we're going to win a game the rest of the year."
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