Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Creating Solutions
9/15/2017 2:26:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
MONDAY, in the wake of Duke's drubbing of the Wildcats, Pat Fitzgerald said, "Anytime you get your fanny whipped. . .you look to create solutions. We've presented those to the guys this morning."
"A lot of it is just fundamentals. Go execute what's called," quarterback Clayton Thorson would say when asked those solutions. "There's a lot of little things that were done throughout the game that made a big difference. Whether it's me not getting my feet right. Or whether it was guys running wrong routes. Or missing blocks. Or, defensively, missing tackles. Just little things that, if it wasn't such a team sports, wouldn't make a difference. It's little things that added up over the course of the game that got us beat. Those are the little things that we did well against Nevada (in their season-opening win), and we're going to do well against Bowling Green (Saturday night at Ryan Field).
"A lot of it is the way we're approaching each day, the way we're approaching practice, the way we approach the game and what we can fix," running back Justin Jackson said when asked about them. "I'm not going to go too much into specifics. But I think you're going to see a different team this week and it starts here, in practice. I think today we saw a different team. Just being juiced up and really staying focused and really treating practice as if it were the game. Because if you mess it up in practice, you're most likely going to mess it up in the game."
ALSO MONDAY, after his coach departed, defensive tackle Tyler Lancaster said, "I think the energy inside, the attitude, that needs to get up. . . Internally we need to set a fire under us."
"Yeah," Jackson said when appraised of that assessment. "We've got to play with a little more passion, a little more attitude."
"After a game like that, you better be able to (get fired up). If you cant, there's something wrong with you," said Thorson. "So I think everyone was pretty fired up, everyone was ready to just get out here and practice today. My brothers were texting me (after the loss), they're like, 'How you feeling? What's going on? How's the team?'
"I'm like, 'I just want to get out and practice.'
"They're like, 'Really? Why are you so antsy?'
"Whenever your team doesn't play well, you want to get out and practice. That was the mindset throughout the whole team. We were ready to practice."
A WEEK EARLIER, against Nevada, the 'Cats got receptions of 48 yards from wideout Bennett Skowronek and of 41 and 33 yards from wideout Macan Wilson. But, against the Blue Devils, their longest pass play (24 yards) went to Jackson and the biggest catch by their wideouts went for only 20 yards (to Riley Lees).
"We just didn't execute when we needed to on third down, and on first and second down for that matter," Lees would say when asked to explain the disparity. "We gave ourselves bad situations, and that ended up with the defense being on the field for most of the game. I think we had 14 plays before the last drive in the second half. That's not going to win you football games. We just need to execute when it's our opportunity. If we get man coverage, we've got to get open and give Clayton a shot to get us the ball."
"Fundamentally, you've got to stem your routes better," Fitzgerald would add, explaining how they could get open. "You've got to be better with your downfield releases. You can't let guys continue to grab you as you run your route. I thought we did a really good job of it against Nevada as the game went along. That's why I didn't anticipate what I saw on Saturday (against Duke). So first of all you give credit to your opponent. I thought they played really well. We knew what they were doing. It wasn't like we were shocked. We got what we thought we were going to get. A couple times I thought we had opportunities to make plays, and I think we went 0-for-Saturday. That's pretty challenging."
"We couldn't stay on the field offensively," Thorson concluded. "One-of-10 on third downs. In the second half we ran 14 offensive plays before the twos went in (with 5:07 remaining) on that last drive. No one's going to win when you're running 14 offensive plays. We've got to be much better. Much better. I've got to do a better job putting balls on guys. That's just not who I am, and that's not who our team is, and we know that. Just got to move on."
QUICKLY NOTED:
One promising performance against Duke was turned in by redshirt freshman linebacker Paddy Fisher, who finished with a team-high 18 tackles.
"I think Paddy's a very good football player," Fitzgerald said of him. "He was very active on Saturday. He was physical at the point of attack. There are a few things he needs to clean up. But he's only started two games. He'll learn from that. But I thought he was really, really active. He's just got a really good demeanor about him. And he's gaining and gaining and gaining experience every rep."
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The 'Cats have just a single sack in their two games.
"We've got to fix that, obviously," Tyler Lancaster said of that anemic production. "We've got to find more opportunities inside, starting with me. Sometimes I get stuck on blocks and can't get back there. But inside out we need to get to the quarterback."
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The quarterback he'll be facing this week is the 6-foot-5 redshirt sophomore James Morgan, who's a mere 30-of-80 (37.5 percent) with two touchdowns and two picks. Still, said safety Kyle Queiro…
"They're going to be taking shots down the field for sure, so the ball's going to be up in the air. With that we're going to have plenty of opportunities to make plays on the ball. We'll be giving them different looks to stifle them, to take away the one-on-one opportunities they think they're going to get. We're definitely going to attack them every which way."
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Bowling Green enters Saturday's game 0-2 after a 35-10 loss at Michigan State and a 35-27 loss at home to South Dakota, an FCS school. In those two games the Falcons' defense has been gouged for 990 net yards.
But they do have an accomplished punter, Joseph Davidson. He is averaging 46.3 yards and has dropped five of his 14 kicks inside the 20.
AND FINALLY, Fitzgerald, on kicking it off at 6:30…
"It's always exciting to play night games. It takes you back to being in high school."
