Northwestern University Athletics
Photo by: Stephen J. Carrera
The Skip Report: Learn and Improve
9/7/2016 2:41:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Clayton Thorson has fumbled and Western Michigan has recovered and now, with 2:45 remaining and trailing by one, the Northwestern calls a time out with the Broncos facing a third-and-six at their own 24. A stop here will force a punt, and give them a final chance to win their season opener last Saturday at Ryan Field. But now, against soft coverage, Western wideout Carrington Thompson runs a short out and lays out for the nine-yard reception that gives his team a first down.
"The call from the sideline was to press," Pat Fitzgerald will say when asked about the coverage on that play. "Lesson learned. Lesson learned. That was one of about 18 or 20 (plays) where we had issues like that. We've got to do a better job teaching. We've got to do a better job coaching. The guys will learn from it. We'll move forward."
"There were more than normal, yes," defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz will confirm when asked if there were a number of breakdowns like that last Saturday. "That's on me and that's on our players. We've addressed that."
Last fall, of course, the defense catalyzed the Wildcats and drove it to 10 wins and a berth in the 2016 Outback Bowl. But last Saturday its starting 11 included a quintet doing that for the first time, and the group hardly resembled that band of assassins it had been just 12 months earlier. It was nicked for long drives. It let Western to control the ball for 23:36 of the 30 minutes that made up the third-and-fourth quarters. It allowed Western to convert 11 of its 21 third-and-fourth down attempts and, most fatally, it failed to get the ball back to the offense after Thorson's fumble.
"We didn't tackle as well as we'd been," Hankwitz began Wednesday when asked what was most bothersome, most worrisome about his group's performance in that game. Then he continued, "In the second half we didn't have quite the same passion and energy. We had two unfortunate long drives in the second quarter. We played 29 plays in that quarter and that took a lot out of us, and then we had to start the third quarter (on defense). I think that adversity got to us a little, where it hadn't in the past. It was our own fault because we didn't get off the field when we had the opportunity. Part of it was we were dwelling on our play. We weren't very far from holding that team to nine points. Two plays and we could have held them to nine points. But woulda, coulda, shoulda doesn't matter."
Fitz and some of the guys have talked about them trying to do too much.
"When you go and try to do someone else's job, all of a sudden there's a breakdown because you're not where you're supposed to be," he said. "If one guy is out of position, it can cost you."
But you certainly see that happening during a game and get on them about it, right?
"In the heat of the moment," he said, "you overreact."
In the heat of the moment, the hitter can squeeze his bat so hard he turns it into sawdust. In the heat of the moment, the golfer can swing so violently he comes out of his shoes. In the heat of Saturday's moment, linebacker Jaylen Prater said shortly after it ended, "I think we tried to do a little too much as individuals, as players. At times, you're trying to do everything. You're scratching, clawing. But at the end of the day we have to go out there, communicate with each other, be on the same page, run the same coverage, fill the gaps."
"He tried to do too much. He tried to do too much," Fitzgerald will echo two days later when asked about middle linebacker Anthony Walker, Jr.'s performance against Western.
"There were a couple plays that he was just trying to do everything. I'm a little bit surprised from the standpoint that he had done that in the Tennessee game too and we'd talked about it in the off-season. But he's just trying to lead so hard, trying to do so much to help our guys win. So I guess it's a good problem. But you've just got to do what you're asked to do and not try to do too much. I have zero concern about him responding."
Now Prater's observation is relayed to Fitzgerald, and he is asked if he felt that problem had indeed infected all of the defenders last week.
"I can't say I polled every player. I can just look at my evaluation with some of our returning players, and yeah," he begins, and then he is off on a soliloquy that is both an answer to the question and an instructive tutorial. "You've just got to do your job within the framework of our defense. And then, for some of our first-time guys out there, there's the old defensive coachism about understanding where your help is. So there's a right way and a wrong way to attack a ball carrier, and there were a number of plays that we leveraged the ball incorrectly that allowed the ball to get outside of our defense. Which is something we've been pretty good at for the last, for however long Hank has been here.
"We had some very uncharacteristic loss-of-leverage by multiple guys on our defense because they're trying to make a play. There's a right way and a wrong way to go about that when you play the team style of defense that we play. That just cannot happen. You can't allow the ball to get outside you the way that we did. I could go through a number— I think I stopped at double digits that that happened. We let the ball get outside of us on a bubble screen. We hadn't had that happen in two years. We're in our goal line defense and we've got two guys coming to smack the ball carrier and we let the ball get outside. There were a lot of those things that, quite frankly, I didn't see one time in practice . . . You just do what you're asked to do. Not try to do too much. I don't have a magic pill for that. You've just got to trust in what you're doing and trust the guys around you."
A day later Walker agrees with his coach's observation.
"Definitely. Trying to make a play for my team, trying to do more than my job," he says here. "I have to get back to doing my job, and that's everybody. All 11 guys have to do their jobs. That's the only way our defense works. If we get back to doing that, we'll be fine."
But the same thing happened against Tennessee. Why'd it recur?
"It's college football, man," says Walker. "First weekend. Everybody's trying to make a play. Everybody's trying to make a play for the team. Everybody wants to win. But we still have to be able to play within the system, and I think we learned that. I'm pretty sure we'll be a lot better on Saturday."
"We were all just so excited to get out there in our first game. We all just wanted to be near the ball, to be in packs around the ball at the same time," defensive end Xavier Washington will echo moments later. "That's something that I feel will help us as we move forward, to see that at times we were trying to do too much. In the future, we'll just be in our spots doing our job. It was an overall learning experience for us as a whole."
"I wouldn't say it was a wake-up call," the safety Kyle Queiro will conclude. "But at the same time, it was a wake-up call."
Mike Hankwitz is asked what his message to his unit was this week. "We've still got a chance to be a great team," he says. "All our goals are still there. We can still be a great defense. We had an opening game that didn't work out the way we wanted. We found out things we need to know, and the key now is what we do about it.
"It's like the first chapter in a book, right?"
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Clayton Thorson has fumbled and Western Michigan has recovered and now, with 2:45 remaining and trailing by one, the Northwestern calls a time out with the Broncos facing a third-and-six at their own 24. A stop here will force a punt, and give them a final chance to win their season opener last Saturday at Ryan Field. But now, against soft coverage, Western wideout Carrington Thompson runs a short out and lays out for the nine-yard reception that gives his team a first down.
"The call from the sideline was to press," Pat Fitzgerald will say when asked about the coverage on that play. "Lesson learned. Lesson learned. That was one of about 18 or 20 (plays) where we had issues like that. We've got to do a better job teaching. We've got to do a better job coaching. The guys will learn from it. We'll move forward."
"There were more than normal, yes," defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz will confirm when asked if there were a number of breakdowns like that last Saturday. "That's on me and that's on our players. We've addressed that."
Last fall, of course, the defense catalyzed the Wildcats and drove it to 10 wins and a berth in the 2016 Outback Bowl. But last Saturday its starting 11 included a quintet doing that for the first time, and the group hardly resembled that band of assassins it had been just 12 months earlier. It was nicked for long drives. It let Western to control the ball for 23:36 of the 30 minutes that made up the third-and-fourth quarters. It allowed Western to convert 11 of its 21 third-and-fourth down attempts and, most fatally, it failed to get the ball back to the offense after Thorson's fumble.
"We didn't tackle as well as we'd been," Hankwitz began Wednesday when asked what was most bothersome, most worrisome about his group's performance in that game. Then he continued, "In the second half we didn't have quite the same passion and energy. We had two unfortunate long drives in the second quarter. We played 29 plays in that quarter and that took a lot out of us, and then we had to start the third quarter (on defense). I think that adversity got to us a little, where it hadn't in the past. It was our own fault because we didn't get off the field when we had the opportunity. Part of it was we were dwelling on our play. We weren't very far from holding that team to nine points. Two plays and we could have held them to nine points. But woulda, coulda, shoulda doesn't matter."
Fitz and some of the guys have talked about them trying to do too much.
"When you go and try to do someone else's job, all of a sudden there's a breakdown because you're not where you're supposed to be," he said. "If one guy is out of position, it can cost you."
But you certainly see that happening during a game and get on them about it, right?
"In the heat of the moment," he said, "you overreact."
In the heat of the moment, the hitter can squeeze his bat so hard he turns it into sawdust. In the heat of the moment, the golfer can swing so violently he comes out of his shoes. In the heat of Saturday's moment, linebacker Jaylen Prater said shortly after it ended, "I think we tried to do a little too much as individuals, as players. At times, you're trying to do everything. You're scratching, clawing. But at the end of the day we have to go out there, communicate with each other, be on the same page, run the same coverage, fill the gaps."
"He tried to do too much. He tried to do too much," Fitzgerald will echo two days later when asked about middle linebacker Anthony Walker, Jr.'s performance against Western.
"There were a couple plays that he was just trying to do everything. I'm a little bit surprised from the standpoint that he had done that in the Tennessee game too and we'd talked about it in the off-season. But he's just trying to lead so hard, trying to do so much to help our guys win. So I guess it's a good problem. But you've just got to do what you're asked to do and not try to do too much. I have zero concern about him responding."
Now Prater's observation is relayed to Fitzgerald, and he is asked if he felt that problem had indeed infected all of the defenders last week.
"I can't say I polled every player. I can just look at my evaluation with some of our returning players, and yeah," he begins, and then he is off on a soliloquy that is both an answer to the question and an instructive tutorial. "You've just got to do your job within the framework of our defense. And then, for some of our first-time guys out there, there's the old defensive coachism about understanding where your help is. So there's a right way and a wrong way to attack a ball carrier, and there were a number of plays that we leveraged the ball incorrectly that allowed the ball to get outside of our defense. Which is something we've been pretty good at for the last, for however long Hank has been here.
"We had some very uncharacteristic loss-of-leverage by multiple guys on our defense because they're trying to make a play. There's a right way and a wrong way to go about that when you play the team style of defense that we play. That just cannot happen. You can't allow the ball to get outside you the way that we did. I could go through a number— I think I stopped at double digits that that happened. We let the ball get outside of us on a bubble screen. We hadn't had that happen in two years. We're in our goal line defense and we've got two guys coming to smack the ball carrier and we let the ball get outside. There were a lot of those things that, quite frankly, I didn't see one time in practice . . . You just do what you're asked to do. Not try to do too much. I don't have a magic pill for that. You've just got to trust in what you're doing and trust the guys around you."
A day later Walker agrees with his coach's observation.
"Definitely. Trying to make a play for my team, trying to do more than my job," he says here. "I have to get back to doing my job, and that's everybody. All 11 guys have to do their jobs. That's the only way our defense works. If we get back to doing that, we'll be fine."
But the same thing happened against Tennessee. Why'd it recur?
"It's college football, man," says Walker. "First weekend. Everybody's trying to make a play. Everybody's trying to make a play for the team. Everybody wants to win. But we still have to be able to play within the system, and I think we learned that. I'm pretty sure we'll be a lot better on Saturday."
"We were all just so excited to get out there in our first game. We all just wanted to be near the ball, to be in packs around the ball at the same time," defensive end Xavier Washington will echo moments later. "That's something that I feel will help us as we move forward, to see that at times we were trying to do too much. In the future, we'll just be in our spots doing our job. It was an overall learning experience for us as a whole."
"I wouldn't say it was a wake-up call," the safety Kyle Queiro will conclude. "But at the same time, it was a wake-up call."
Mike Hankwitz is asked what his message to his unit was this week. "We've still got a chance to be a great team," he says. "All our goals are still there. We can still be a great defense. We had an opening game that didn't work out the way we wanted. We found out things we need to know, and the key now is what we do about it.
"It's like the first chapter in a book, right?"
••••••
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