Northwestern University Athletics
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The Skip Report: Monday Notes - Nebraska
10/19/2015 3:46:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
THE THEME: Early Monday morning, in the wake of consecutive double-digit defeats, the 'Cats Leadership Council met with the entire team. Later, it did the same with Pat Fitzgerald. "My message to the guys was explain to me where we're at, and where we need to go," he later recalled. "They talked to me about some things that they visited with the team about."
"The most important thing right now is not to separate, to come together," said senior superback Dan Vitale, a member of that Council, explaining what they had talked about. "Refocus and just recommit to everything we established during the winter, the spring, the summer workouts. Everything we put together then, just bring that back to the front and move forward from there. That's all we can do. Keep our attitude where it's been and bring everything that we've done at practice to the football field on Saturdays. . . . We've just got to regroup, refocus, recommit to what we were doing earlier in the season, then we'll be fine."
EARLIER: The 'Cats ran the ball well as they rolled to five straight wins, and they did not stymie themselves by what are familiarly known as self-inflicted wounds (turnovers, penalties, dropped balls, one-man breakdowns). But two Saturdays ago at Michigan they netted just 38 rushing yards on 25 attempts, and last Saturday against Iowa they netted only 51 on 26. One reason for that was certainly the prowess of the Wolverines and Hawkeyes, who rank one-two in the Big Ten in rushing defense. But another was the nature of those games and how they unfolded.
Again. As they rolled to their five straight wins, they never trailed by more than seven. This meant they could stick to their original game plan. But at Michigan they were down by 21 at first quarter's end, and against Iowa they were down by 20 with 5:26 remaining in the third quarter. This forced them to go off script, which helps explain why Justin Jackson got only 12 carries against the Wolverines and just 10 against the Hawkeyes after entering those affairs averaging 27.6.
"It's really hard when you've got to get in the two-minute mode when you're down three scores. That skews the last two games," Fitzgerald would say when asked about getting Jackson back more involved. "We weren't able to get anything going early against Michigan and then, on Saturday, we were able to get some run going. But then we come out two series later (in the third quarter) and we're down three scores. It's tough to get balance there, but we've got to get our run game going. When we've been consistent running the ball, we've been pretty successful as an offense. So we've got to get him back going, there's no doubt about that."
ONE MORE THING: The 'Cat defense was a dominant force through their first five games, but has appeared merely mortal through their last two. There have been missed tackles and blown assignments and a lack of fundamentals, and that has certainly contributed to its return to fallibility. But, again, contributing as well was the nature of those defeats and how they unfolded. Just consider: In each of the 'Cats wins, they won the time-of-possession battle by anywhere from 3:44 (Stanford) to 14:10 (Eastern Illinois). But two Saturdays ago Michigan won that battle, 37:05 to 22:55, and last Saturday Iowa did the same, 37:22 to 22:38. "We're putting ourselves in a tough situation when we're on the field as long as we were defensively," Fitzgerald said Monday, speaking specifically of the Hawkeye game.
"These last two games have been a lot of self-inflicted wounds that we didn't have in the earlier part of the season," said Vitale, speaking here of an offense that has scored just one touchdown in those games. "That's something we didn't have much of in the beginning of the season. Another thing is we can't expect the defense to always bail us out. We can't play not to lose. We've got to play to win, and dominate. That's something we need to get back to."
THAT MONTH AGAIN: So here it is October, and the 'Cats have dropped two of three since it arrived, and still looming is a Saturday trip to surging Nebraska. This is a bit of deja vu all over again, and here is why. Entering this season their September record over the last five years was 17-3, but only 6-14 once the calendar flipped and the school year began. So again that issue was raised on Monday and again, as he had a month ago, Fitzgerald talked about it. "Our guys go to class, you know," he said to the student-reporter who brought it up. "You got midterms right now? Yeah. So do my guys.
"I'm not making excuses for it. We've got to be better handling our business. That's what we've talked about. I can't talk about it anymore. I can't tell our guys not to go to class. That's not the way it works around here. So we've got to handle our business. We've got to be better Monday through Thursday, that way we can be more efficient on Saturday. So no excuses, that's what we've talked about. We've got one more big game this weekend. Getting out of the month two-and-two would not be ideal. But we'd finish it on a positive note, and get to the bye week feeling better about ourselves."
"On a personal level, I think it's brought up a little bit too much," Vitale would later say when asked about the record. "Obviously, the stats show that we're not very good in October. But that's also when Big Ten play is starting, and that's the hard part of the season. That's why we all come here, to play Big Ten football. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy, and that's when you kind of get your first taste of it. So. In my opinion it's a little skewed. But the stats show it. We definitely need to be better in October."
AND FINALLY, Fitzgerald, on whether the 'Cats slump is mental or physical: "I think it's a combination of both. Like everybody in the country, everybody's beat up. It's a battle of attrition. Mentally and physically, it's a grind. We've got to handle our business. We've got to take care of what we need to take care of during the week, and come fresh mentally, fresh physically every Saturday. Then we've got to go make plays. It's kind of what football is right now. Guys got to make plays. We've been void of that a little bit the last two weeks. Guys know that. So I want to see them have fun. I want to see them play with passion, cut it loose, play physical, play with technique, play consistently and make plays. When we've done that, we won five games. We need to get back to that."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
THE THEME: Early Monday morning, in the wake of consecutive double-digit defeats, the 'Cats Leadership Council met with the entire team. Later, it did the same with Pat Fitzgerald. "My message to the guys was explain to me where we're at, and where we need to go," he later recalled. "They talked to me about some things that they visited with the team about."
"The most important thing right now is not to separate, to come together," said senior superback Dan Vitale, a member of that Council, explaining what they had talked about. "Refocus and just recommit to everything we established during the winter, the spring, the summer workouts. Everything we put together then, just bring that back to the front and move forward from there. That's all we can do. Keep our attitude where it's been and bring everything that we've done at practice to the football field on Saturdays. . . . We've just got to regroup, refocus, recommit to what we were doing earlier in the season, then we'll be fine."
EARLIER: The 'Cats ran the ball well as they rolled to five straight wins, and they did not stymie themselves by what are familiarly known as self-inflicted wounds (turnovers, penalties, dropped balls, one-man breakdowns). But two Saturdays ago at Michigan they netted just 38 rushing yards on 25 attempts, and last Saturday against Iowa they netted only 51 on 26. One reason for that was certainly the prowess of the Wolverines and Hawkeyes, who rank one-two in the Big Ten in rushing defense. But another was the nature of those games and how they unfolded.
Again. As they rolled to their five straight wins, they never trailed by more than seven. This meant they could stick to their original game plan. But at Michigan they were down by 21 at first quarter's end, and against Iowa they were down by 20 with 5:26 remaining in the third quarter. This forced them to go off script, which helps explain why Justin Jackson got only 12 carries against the Wolverines and just 10 against the Hawkeyes after entering those affairs averaging 27.6.
"It's really hard when you've got to get in the two-minute mode when you're down three scores. That skews the last two games," Fitzgerald would say when asked about getting Jackson back more involved. "We weren't able to get anything going early against Michigan and then, on Saturday, we were able to get some run going. But then we come out two series later (in the third quarter) and we're down three scores. It's tough to get balance there, but we've got to get our run game going. When we've been consistent running the ball, we've been pretty successful as an offense. So we've got to get him back going, there's no doubt about that."
ONE MORE THING: The 'Cat defense was a dominant force through their first five games, but has appeared merely mortal through their last two. There have been missed tackles and blown assignments and a lack of fundamentals, and that has certainly contributed to its return to fallibility. But, again, contributing as well was the nature of those defeats and how they unfolded. Just consider: In each of the 'Cats wins, they won the time-of-possession battle by anywhere from 3:44 (Stanford) to 14:10 (Eastern Illinois). But two Saturdays ago Michigan won that battle, 37:05 to 22:55, and last Saturday Iowa did the same, 37:22 to 22:38. "We're putting ourselves in a tough situation when we're on the field as long as we were defensively," Fitzgerald said Monday, speaking specifically of the Hawkeye game.
"These last two games have been a lot of self-inflicted wounds that we didn't have in the earlier part of the season," said Vitale, speaking here of an offense that has scored just one touchdown in those games. "That's something we didn't have much of in the beginning of the season. Another thing is we can't expect the defense to always bail us out. We can't play not to lose. We've got to play to win, and dominate. That's something we need to get back to."
THAT MONTH AGAIN: So here it is October, and the 'Cats have dropped two of three since it arrived, and still looming is a Saturday trip to surging Nebraska. This is a bit of deja vu all over again, and here is why. Entering this season their September record over the last five years was 17-3, but only 6-14 once the calendar flipped and the school year began. So again that issue was raised on Monday and again, as he had a month ago, Fitzgerald talked about it. "Our guys go to class, you know," he said to the student-reporter who brought it up. "You got midterms right now? Yeah. So do my guys.
"I'm not making excuses for it. We've got to be better handling our business. That's what we've talked about. I can't talk about it anymore. I can't tell our guys not to go to class. That's not the way it works around here. So we've got to handle our business. We've got to be better Monday through Thursday, that way we can be more efficient on Saturday. So no excuses, that's what we've talked about. We've got one more big game this weekend. Getting out of the month two-and-two would not be ideal. But we'd finish it on a positive note, and get to the bye week feeling better about ourselves."
"On a personal level, I think it's brought up a little bit too much," Vitale would later say when asked about the record. "Obviously, the stats show that we're not very good in October. But that's also when Big Ten play is starting, and that's the hard part of the season. That's why we all come here, to play Big Ten football. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy, and that's when you kind of get your first taste of it. So. In my opinion it's a little skewed. But the stats show it. We definitely need to be better in October."
AND FINALLY, Fitzgerald, on whether the 'Cats slump is mental or physical: "I think it's a combination of both. Like everybody in the country, everybody's beat up. It's a battle of attrition. Mentally and physically, it's a grind. We've got to handle our business. We've got to take care of what we need to take care of during the week, and come fresh mentally, fresh physically every Saturday. Then we've got to go make plays. It's kind of what football is right now. Guys got to make plays. We've been void of that a little bit the last two weeks. Guys know that. So I want to see them have fun. I want to see them play with passion, cut it loose, play physical, play with technique, play consistently and make plays. When we've done that, we won five games. We need to get back to that."
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