Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report - Lessons Learned and Looking Ahead
9/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Northwestern learned several valuable lessons in its season opener against Cal. With that game in the past, Skip Myslenski helps look ahead to Saturday's contest against a talented Northern Illinois squad at Ryan Field.
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By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
ON NOTICE: It is an error characteristically associated with a rookie. That's why it was surprising so many `Cat veterans talked about trying-to-do-too-much after their season-opening loss last Saturday to Cal. Fifth-year quarterback Trevor Siemian, who completed just over 50 percent of his passes, said, "I was pressing a little bit."
And redshirt junior wide receiver Cameron Dickerson, talking of his drops in that game, said, "Bad eyes. Bad eyes. Kind of got caught up in the moment."
And junior safety Traveon Henry, speaking of the defense, said, "We were a little antsy. It's the first game of the season, everybody's emotions are running high and everybody wants to make plays."
"I thought our attitude was good going into the game. Then, unfortunately, we let the scoreboard dictate our attitude offensively," Pat Fitzgerald said this week, reflecting on those admissions. "Guys tried to press and do too much. You just can't be successful that way. You're focusing on things that have nothing to do with how you have to perform.
"Some guys had to learn a valuable lesson, and most of them were veterans. They had never done that before, so that was pretty uncharacteristic in my opinion of them. Now, if they do it again, then we're going to have to make a change. You can't do that and expect to be consistent. I think they did a good job of owning it. Now we'll see how it goes."
ON THE FLIP SIDE: Siemian, in his analysis of that Bear game, also said, "I think the young guys brought some juice to our offense. We talked about it. The vets need to take a page out of their book and the way they competed and the way they played."
He was speaking here of Justin Jackson and Solomon Vault, the true freshmen running backs, and true freshman superback Garrett Dickerson, who was asked about his quarterback's observation. "I was definitely nervous. We all were. It was our first collegiate game. How could we not be?" he said. "But I had talked to my dad earlier in the day and he had sent me a text message and said, `Just play. You know what you're doing. Just play.' I've been playing football since I was in the first grade. I know how to play football. So he was saying, `Just relax and play. You've put in the work. You've put in the preparation.' Me, Justin, Solomon and (true freshman defensive end) Xavier (Washington), we were just trying to go out there and do what we do. Play football."
AND NOW: On Saturday, the `Cats face Northern Illinois at Ryan Field. Last Monday, in the wake of their loss to Cal, Fitzgerald was asked if it's possible to have a season-defining game this early in the schedule. "No. No," he said. "But I bet you that's a great article. I'll bet you that's really good. But no. Lot of football to be played."
Still, some 15 minutes later, Siemian would say, "I think this week of practice might be the most-important week of practice for our season. First and second week, that's where you see the most improvement in a team usually. So this is a big week for us. We've got a good football team coming in that's used to winning and they're used to beating up on people. We'll be ready for them."
QUICKLY NOTED: NIU opened its season against Presbyterian College, a member of the Big South Conference that did not start playing Division I football until 2007. It was hardly a surprise, then, that the Huskies rolled to a 55-3 win while totaling 635 total yards on 109 offensive plays. "We better not let that happen," Fitzgerald said when asked about that last number. "If that happens, your offense isn't sustaining drives. The best defense for that is an offense that sustains drives and scores points.". . . The Huskies' numbers in that game might not mean much considering the opposition. But here are some others that do have weight: They have appeared in a bowl game after each of the last six seasons. And they have won the MAC West title four straight years and the outright MAC championship in two of those. And they have 15 consecutive road wins in games played at the opponents' home stadiums. And, since the start of the 2010 season, they have rolled up 47 FBS wins, which matches the number accumulated by Alabama and Stanford and is just one less than Oregon's national-best 48. So it is no wonder that Fitzgerald, when asked his impression of Northern, says, "Consistency. I think they've really done a nice job consistently winning football games.". . . The Huskies' catalyst through much of that success was quarterback Jordan Lynch, a Heisman Trophy finalist last year. He is gone now and has been replaced by a rotating cast of three. The starter Saturday will be redshirt junior Matt McIntosh, the most-experienced of the trio. But also expected to see action are redshirt sophomores Drew Hare, a pure pocket passer, and Anthony Maddie, whom Huskie offensive coordinator Bob Cole once referred to as "The X-factor. He's an extremely good runner.". . . No matter who's choreographing the Huskies, he's working behind an experienced offensive line that returned four starters from last year's team. . . Parsing the Huskie offense, Fitzgerald said, "You're going to see fly motion on almost every play. Someone's going to be crossing the formation, so it's got an element of, when it was in vogue, everyone called The Wildcat. The difference is their quarterback can throw the ball." So what's the key in defending it, defensive end Deonte Gibson was asked. "There's a lot of inner-actions in the backfield that can steal your eyes. So in simple football terms, you want to look at `A' the whole time," he said. "They're going to show you `B,' `C' and `D' too. But `A' is what you want. So for us you've just got to focus on the main prize, which is attacking the target and doing your responsibility.". . . Another of their focuses with be Tommylee (sic) Lewis, a versatile performer who has totaled 3,606 all-purpose yards in his career (1,279 receiving, 551 rushing, 1,656 on kickoff returns and 120 on punt returns).
AND FINALLY, Fitzgerald, on whether he'll remind the `Cats that Northern won last season at Iowa (by three) and at Purdue (by 31): "Our guys'll have great awareness of it. It'll be part of our cutouts. There'll be no intimidation from them playing what's perceived as up. All that stuff is great when you guys write things. But that has zero relevance on the game."
(CORRECTION: In my recent story on the `Cats 1949 Rose Bowl team, I identified the father of Alex Sarkisian, its captain, as a Turkish immigrant. That was incorrect. He was Armenian. I regret the error.)
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