Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Through The Coach's Eyes
11/12/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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In advance of Northwestern's visit to Notre Dame Saturday, Skip Myslenski talks to Pat Fitzgerald and Adam Cushing about the mentality they are working to instill in the members of the Wildcats' offensive line.
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Recurrent themes have segued through conversations during the 'Cats' four-game losing streak. There is the lack of consistency. There is the need to execute what they have been taught. There is the spate of injuries. There is the need to win more one-on-one battles. There is the lack of maturity. There is the need to trust and just play and have some fun when facing a crucible, rather than pressing.
More recently another has begun to recur and that is the performance of the offensive line, that often-overlooked but vitally-important unit. For just as a penthouse cannot reach for the sky without a solid foundation, an offense cannot operate without that quintet functioning as an iron fist. "We should look on our society as we look on the biological world, where the fungi, the manures and the worms make an extraordinary contribution..." is how the futurist R. Buckminster Fuller put it long ago in his book I Seem To Be A Verb. "We tend to applaud the football player who makes the touchdown and overlook the lineman who does the heavy blocking. (But) we should not only applaud the flower, the fruit, and the ball carrier."
There was, in fact, much to applaud about the `Cats line from the end of September through the middle of October. It surrendered just one sack (for 13 yards) in their win at Penn State, three sacks (for a mere 11) in their upset of Wisconsin, only two sacks (for 13) in their loss at Minnesota and one sack (for seven) in their first half against Nebraska. Through that stretch too their running game hummed, netting 103 yards against the Nittany Lions, 203 yards against the Badgers, 124 yards against the Gophs and 117 yards in the opening 30 minutes against the Huskers.
But then, in the second half of that last game, Nebraska loaded the box, dared the `Cats to beat them with the pass and suddenly that line was no longer an iron fist. It was instead pliable, malleable, beatable, a fact reflected in the statistics. For in those last 30 minutes, 10 'Cats rushes netted just three yards and quarterback Trevor Siemian was sacked three times for 30 yards in losses. "Minnesota, Wisconsin, Penn State, I thought we were taking the right steps with that group. I even think (we did that) in the first half against Nebraska," Pat Fitzgerald would say in the wake of that meltdown. "Then in the second half, I think we took a step sideways if not backwards out there."
That regression continued a week later at Iowa, where the 'Cats averaged just 2.4 yards-per-carry and surrendered five sacks (for 47 yards), and then came the nadir last Saturday against Michigan. Here their quarterbacks were sacked a half-dozen times for 59 yards in losses and they netted minus-nine rushing yards on 35 carries. "We didn't block very well at the point of attack on Saturday. Credit Michigan," Fitzgerald would say in the wake of this performance.
"But we didn't execute very well. That was probably the most-disappointing aspect of the game on Saturday, our offensive line play. It's got to get better, it's got to improve. Those guys have to have a great week (of practice). They've got to perform to give ourselves a chance (this Saturday at Notre Dame) ... We have to have, whoever's out there, the five play with the same heart and passion that Jorgey (left tackle Paul Jorgensen) and (center) Brandon (Vitabile) are playing with. You can't have an offensive line with two guys. You've got to have it with five. We've just been way too inconsistent there."
Now he was asked to parse the problem. Did the 'Cats recruit the wrong guys? Have the guys on hand not been developed?
"I think a handful of things," Fitzgerald said evenly. "I think, number one, we didn't recruit the wrong guys. I think we've got some talent there, but I think there's still a ton of room for growth. I think we've got good, young talent. But I think they're still young and they have individual areas that they all need to improve. Some guys it's between their ears, self-confidence. Some guys it's strength. Some guys it's carrying over what we do in practice. Some guys it's maturity and actually getting in the fight and practicing and doing the job so we can have some true competition, which is probably the biggest issue that we have right now.
"Back when we really had this thing humming offensively, we had a fist upfront on the offensive line. You probably could argue we didn't have as talented guys as we have right now. But they had toughness. They'd fight. They'd scratch. They'd claw. And most importantly they played together and competed in practice. The guys who were the twos pushed the ones. That's what we're lacking right now. We don't have a lot of twos pushing.
"It's one of those situations where Cush (line coach Adam Cushing) has worked hard at creating competition. We've changed drills. We've tried to oversimplify. We've kinda gone the whole wheel, and we're just going to keep coaching the heck out of them. I love the guys to death. We've just got to get them to perform as one heartbeat on Saturday. We've got way too many one-man breakdowns where four guys operate and one guy breaks down. It's disheartening."
That explained the issues. But here is a unit that allowed just seven sacks for 44 yards in losses through 14 quarters and now, over its last 10, has allowed 14 for 136; a unit that catalyzed a running game that averaged 39.1 yards in each of those 14 quarters, but just 9.9 yards in each of the last 10. So, finally, just how does a unit go from performing so solidly over 14 quarters to suddenly performing so porously over the last 10?
"I think, number one, it has to do with trusting yourself and worrying about a lot of things. We've talked a lot about it as a staff," Fitzgerald said. "When our O Line decides to act like they're in a chemistry class, they're not very good. We've done way to much of that. That's one of the things Mick (McCall, the offensive coordinator) and I have talked to Adam about. We talked in the off-season about simplifying things and I really thought we did, terminology-wise and schematically, and I thought we saw some positive things from that.
"But then you've got a game plan and you've got to put little things in and we're getting way, way too much paralysis by analysis. I mean, way, way too much. That was like the fourth-and-two play (in the first quarter of the Michigan game). That's a good call and we don't block at the point of attack (and it gained only one). That's just inexcusable. But that's where we're at right now. We've just got to keep coaching the guys, get them to play fast...
"We're worrying about, `What if they do this, what if they do that?' Who cares? Just go play. I don't know how many times we've said that to our offense this year. Yeah. We understand that we've prepared you as much as we can for A,B. But just go play the play. Go play the play. I've been that guy. I was that guy myself one year. You're trying to be perfect. That's not football. Football's not perfect. Just go play hard.
"That was the thing we talked to the guys about. I don't think we were physical. I don't think we were physical at Iowa on offense, I don't think we were physical last week. We're catching things. We're not attacking."
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