Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Closing the Book on Western Illinois
9/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Follow @NU_Sports
MORE: Complete Game Recap & Highlights
Skip Myslenski provides a final look at the notes and quotes that emerged from Northwestern's 24-7 victory over Western Illinois Saturday at Ryan Field.
This came in the belly of the press conference that followed the 'Cats first win of the season, a 24-7 dispatching of Western Illinois Saturday at Ryan Field. "Is this team good enough to win Big Ten games?" someone asked Pat Fitzgerald.
"Yeah, absolutely. No question," he quickly answered.
"What makes you say that?" wondered the interrogator.
"We won a football game and as I look at our league, I think it still comes down to the 60 minutes you play each game," said Fitzgerald. "It has nothing to do with any games you've played in the past. So. Quite frankly, I'm not going to get mad at you. But I'm a little bit insulted by the question."
"Really," yelped the interrogator.
"Yeah," Fitzgerald evenly replied.
"This is an FCS opponent," noted the interrogator, referring to Western.
"We won 24-7 and I believe our team can win every football game they play," said Fitzgerald, his tone still even. "I'm not saying I'm mad at you. But from a question standpoint, I think we can win every game we play, I really do. Are we playing at an incredibly-high level? No, not necessarily. But we won a football game and I believe we can continue to win."
••••••
Fitzgerald did not use it. But there is an old chestnut that's applicable to the picture his `Cats painted on Saturday. It is the one that says it may not have been a Mona Lisa, but it was a win and that is all that really matters. "It's definitely a huge confidence booster," corner Nick Van Hoose would later explain. "Those first two games, losing those, it kind of hurts your confidence. So coming out here and playing the way we did is a huge morale booster. We definitely needed that."
This cannot be denied, nor can it be denied that there were some highlights for the `Cats on Saturday. Their defense held the Leathernecks to just a single score and sophomore defensive end Ifeadi Odenigbo was constantly a disrupter, collecting a pair of sacks and forcing three fumbles. "We've had him on the field in almost every third-down situation (throughout the season) and today he was able to play pretty well," Fitzgerald said of him. "He's a very dynamic guy. We've just got to continue to coach him to be consistent."
Their offense scored in the opening quarter for the first time this season and received meaningful contributions from the trio of true freshmen who are part of its rotation. Running back Justin Jackson rushed 21 times for 92 yards and one of their touchdowns, running back Solomon Vault rushed a half-dozen times for 31 yards and their other two touchdowns, and superback Garrett Dickerson both caught a pass for 21 yards and threw the block that opened the way for Jackson's score. "I was surprised, actually," Vault would say when asked if he expected to get the calls on his scores. "But my number was called and I had to execute and I did."
"I expected to come in and compete and be ready to play if I needed to," Jackson would say when asked if he expected to contribute so much so early in his career. "So when they put me in, I just go out there and play my game. I'm here for a reason. They recruited me for a reason. And I just go out there and try to play hard for my teammates, for my school."
"We've got great trust in them," Fitzgerald would say of his young runners. "But as freshmen, you're learning and growing. We want to make sure we bring them along at a pace that's fair to them and we don't put too much pressure on them. I think they've handled everything we've thrown at them and they'll continue to have more and more added to their plate."
Then there were quarterback Trevor Siemian, who completed two-thirds of his 25 attempts, and punter Chris Gradone, who averaged 44.1 yards on his seven kicks and pinned Western inside the 20 on six of them, and the game itself, which the `Cats were never in danger of losing. All of these were positives on this day, yet they were countered by those other exhibitions that prompted the interrogator to ask his original question.
One came late in the first quarter when the 'Cats were set up with a first-and-goal at the four after Keith Watkins II blocked a Leatherneck punt. Two rushes got them to the one, but here guard Geoff Mogus was called for a false start and -- on third and six -- Siemian was sacked and stripped and Western recovered.
"We've got to eliminate those types of things," Fitzgerald would say of that penalty. Then another came early in the fourth quarter when the 'Cats, facing a fourth-and-a-short one, failed to convert on a plunge by Jackson. "We've got to be stronger and better at the point of attack if we want to run the ball consistently in the Big Ten," he would say of the offensive line's overall performance.
The passing game too was inconsistent, no wide receiver ending with more than one reception, and the same could even be said of the defense, which Western nicked for 292 passing yards. "We knew what we were going to see today, we were going to see a lot of dinks and dunks. That's what we saw the whole game," Fitzgerald said of that last stat. "We were more than willing to let them dink and dunk all day long. I thought the plan was solid there."
"We've been a different wide receiver unit it seems every week since about midway through camp," he said of the former stat, reflecting on the injuries that have sidelined Christian Jones for the season and Tony Jones for the last two games. "I just don't think and we don't think collectively that there's enough trust and enough continuity and chemistry right now with that group and Trevor. That's what we've been working on in practice.
"Obviously, we're not there yet. But I thought the drops were down. The effort level was better. But at the same time, there's a ton of room for improvement."
••••••
Tough love had been the theme of the 'Cats practices held between their loss to Northern Illinois and their victory on this Saturday. This has been well-documented and that approach continued on here in this game, with a player like Mogus getting yanked immediately after he committed his false-start penalty on the goal line. That is why, near the end of his press conference, Fitzgerald was asked if he thought his players might be so worried about making mistakes that they were losing their aggressiveness. "I didn't major in psychology, to answer your question, so I don't really care," he said.
"They need to play well, they need to play consistent, we need to coach `em to play well, we need to coach 'em to play consistent. If you're worried about me, you've got a problem. Play football. Period. I've been around this game a long time and you can psychoanalyze and and psychobabbleize everything. I'm not even going to begin to go that way. My size 12 is going where the sun doesn't shine with this team for the rest of the year, and it's not going to end until we get to where we need to be.
"We're not there yet. We're far from being there. I couldn't care less. If guys are worried about us demanding their best, then we've got a major problem."
••••••
Be the first to know what's going on with the 'Cats -- Follow @NU_Sports on Twitter and Instagram, become a fan of Northwestern Athletics on Facebook and sign up to receive promotional text alerts for the latest news, schedule updates and video and to interact with NU. For more information on following specific Northwestern teams online, visit our Social Media page!
