Northwestern University Athletics
Photo by: S. J. Carrera, Inc.
Skip Report: UNLV Upon Further Review
9/16/2019 12:04:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
The 'Cats did their job Saturday at Ryan Field and topped an overmatched foe (Nevada-Las Vegas) by 16 in the 2019 home opener. Ten outtakes from the 30-14 victory…
1. Two weeks earlier, in their season opener at Stanford, Northwestern's offense struggled, failing to score a point until just under eight minutes left in the game. On this Saturday, in stark contrast, it took an unfurled nine-play, 75-yard drive to put this team up seven with just 2:35 gone.
"It was a big confidence booster for all of us today," quarterback Hunter Johnson said. "Going out there and executing the way we planned and punching it in was great. It got us all fired up and excited for the rest of the game."
2. The primary aim of the Wildcats' defense is always to stop the rush. But on just their third play from scrimmage, UNLV's running back Charles Williams got the left edge clean and rolled 65 yards for a tying touchdown. Then, on their very next possession, Rebels' quarterback Amani Rogers picked up 30 yards sweeping the same edge. Finally, early in the second quarter, Williams took a simple handoff, cut right, caused NU corner Greg Newsome to whiff on his tackle and rumbled 37 yards to put his team up a surprising 14-10.
Williams' second score spread the scent of Akron, Western Michigan and Illinois State in the air of Ryan Field.
3. Charlie Kuhbander went to work following that score. Northwestern reached the Rebels' 15-yard line and settled for a 33-yard field goal. NU reached its opponents' 25-yard line and Johnson threw an interception in the end zone. They reached the Vegas 12-yard line and settled for another Kuhbander field goal. They reached the Rebels' 26-yard line and settled for, yes, a field goal.
This left Northwestern with a two-point lead at halftime, with much to discuss in the locker room.
4. "The solutions were pretty simple," Dan and Susan Jones Family Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "Execute the game plan. At halftime that was the adjustment. To our guys credit I thought they really settled down. They were really good at halftime. Our defense takes a lot of pride in the way they play against the run. Obviously, we didn't have that."
"There weren't many Xs and Os adjustments. It was a mentality adjustment," said defensive end Joe Gaziano. "We were trying to do too much. . . Coach Fitz talked about it after the game, how we played with an edge (in the second half). In the first half we were too tense. Home opener. We're trying to impress our crowd. We were trying to do too much with too little. In the second half we just cut it loose, and we were able to play freely and off each other and have fun. Celebrating the good plays and when bad plays happen, brush them off and onto the next. We were better equipped in the second half, I guess, to have a little more fun on the sideline, on the field, and to celebrate those victories."
5. Here's the difference. In the first half UNLV totaled 228 yards on 29 plays and put up those 14 points. It was quite a change of pace in second half, as the Rebels compiled only 102 yards on 33 plays and sniffed the end zone just once, at the end of a drive catalyzed by pass interference calls on Newsome and corner Trae Williams. It ended in a missed field goal.
"Today, we weren't focused on who the opponent was," Gaziano said post game. "We were focused on ourselves and playing the best type of ball we could. The first half, there were still some hiccups. It's a young team. But second half I thought you saw what we're really capable of."
6. The 'Cat offense, in turn, featured hefty portions of ground and pound. Junior Jesse Brown netted 79 yards on just nine carries (8.8 ypc) before sitting out the second half with an injury. Drake Anderson, the redshirt first-year who replaced him, recorded 141 yards on 26 carries (5.4 ypc), and Johnson himself rushed for 56 yards on 11 attempts (5.0 ypc).
"Jeremy Larkin's always telling me at practice to prepare like I'm number one," Anderson said, referring to the retired 'Cat running back who is working as a student assistant. "So when that (Brown's injury) happened, I was ready to go."
7. Anderson, who picked up his first career touchdown with 90 seconds remaining, also gave a well-earned shout out to his line, "nWo" as he called it. This would be in reference to the New World Order, an unsanctioned wrestling stable of rebels.
"Without them," Anderson said of his rebels, "I wouldn't have been able to get into the zone."
8. On the playing field, the 'Cats "nWo" was center Jared Thomas, guards Sam Gerak and Nik Urban and tackles Rashawn Slater and Gunnar Vogel.
9. This quintet also provided support for Johnson in the pocket, surrendering just a single sack despite the 'Cats occasionally flavored their ground chuck with long-developing shots down the field. One came early in the third quarter, a fly down the left boundary, where Kyric McGowan dropped a beautiful ball from the redshirt sophomore that hit him in stride. Another strike from Johnson was sent to J.J. Jefferson, whom laid out, but just could not corral a ball that was an eyelash too long. But in between there was a slant-and-go to aforementioned Houston native, and the touted quarterback dropped a dime to his wide out and he collected it for a 50-yard touchdown.
"We had a couple drops, right," Fitzgerald said. "When you've got the ball on the money and you don't make the play, it's like the balloon gets blown up and all the air comes out really quick. So, the balloon just blows up (when you complete them). You could see the boundary, the enthusiasm. We've got to make explosive plays. We talked at length about it in the off-season. I thought Mick (McCall, the offensive coordinator) picked his spots really, really well today when we took our shots. I thought Hunter picked his match-ups really well."
"We were able to open some things up, take some shots, get some play actions," said Johnson. "Having those kinds of plays, keeping the defense honest, was great to see. We had a lot of positive things today, in both the run game and the pass game."
10. Finally, Johnson's running ability, which Saturday rarely ended with him sliding and often ended with taking a licking. "No," he later said, coaches haven't talked to him about getting down, but his teammates sure have.
"Yeah," he then admitted, "I could slide a few more times. I guess I just get caught up in the moment and decide to stick my nose in there. Yeah. I could definitely slide a little bit more."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
The 'Cats did their job Saturday at Ryan Field and topped an overmatched foe (Nevada-Las Vegas) by 16 in the 2019 home opener. Ten outtakes from the 30-14 victory…
1. Two weeks earlier, in their season opener at Stanford, Northwestern's offense struggled, failing to score a point until just under eight minutes left in the game. On this Saturday, in stark contrast, it took an unfurled nine-play, 75-yard drive to put this team up seven with just 2:35 gone.
"It was a big confidence booster for all of us today," quarterback Hunter Johnson said. "Going out there and executing the way we planned and punching it in was great. It got us all fired up and excited for the rest of the game."
2. The primary aim of the Wildcats' defense is always to stop the rush. But on just their third play from scrimmage, UNLV's running back Charles Williams got the left edge clean and rolled 65 yards for a tying touchdown. Then, on their very next possession, Rebels' quarterback Amani Rogers picked up 30 yards sweeping the same edge. Finally, early in the second quarter, Williams took a simple handoff, cut right, caused NU corner Greg Newsome to whiff on his tackle and rumbled 37 yards to put his team up a surprising 14-10.
Williams' second score spread the scent of Akron, Western Michigan and Illinois State in the air of Ryan Field.
3. Charlie Kuhbander went to work following that score. Northwestern reached the Rebels' 15-yard line and settled for a 33-yard field goal. NU reached its opponents' 25-yard line and Johnson threw an interception in the end zone. They reached the Vegas 12-yard line and settled for another Kuhbander field goal. They reached the Rebels' 26-yard line and settled for, yes, a field goal.
This left Northwestern with a two-point lead at halftime, with much to discuss in the locker room.
4. "The solutions were pretty simple," Dan and Susan Jones Family Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "Execute the game plan. At halftime that was the adjustment. To our guys credit I thought they really settled down. They were really good at halftime. Our defense takes a lot of pride in the way they play against the run. Obviously, we didn't have that."
"There weren't many Xs and Os adjustments. It was a mentality adjustment," said defensive end Joe Gaziano. "We were trying to do too much. . . Coach Fitz talked about it after the game, how we played with an edge (in the second half). In the first half we were too tense. Home opener. We're trying to impress our crowd. We were trying to do too much with too little. In the second half we just cut it loose, and we were able to play freely and off each other and have fun. Celebrating the good plays and when bad plays happen, brush them off and onto the next. We were better equipped in the second half, I guess, to have a little more fun on the sideline, on the field, and to celebrate those victories."
5. Here's the difference. In the first half UNLV totaled 228 yards on 29 plays and put up those 14 points. It was quite a change of pace in second half, as the Rebels compiled only 102 yards on 33 plays and sniffed the end zone just once, at the end of a drive catalyzed by pass interference calls on Newsome and corner Trae Williams. It ended in a missed field goal.
"Today, we weren't focused on who the opponent was," Gaziano said post game. "We were focused on ourselves and playing the best type of ball we could. The first half, there were still some hiccups. It's a young team. But second half I thought you saw what we're really capable of."
6. The 'Cat offense, in turn, featured hefty portions of ground and pound. Junior Jesse Brown netted 79 yards on just nine carries (8.8 ypc) before sitting out the second half with an injury. Drake Anderson, the redshirt first-year who replaced him, recorded 141 yards on 26 carries (5.4 ypc), and Johnson himself rushed for 56 yards on 11 attempts (5.0 ypc).
"Jeremy Larkin's always telling me at practice to prepare like I'm number one," Anderson said, referring to the retired 'Cat running back who is working as a student assistant. "So when that (Brown's injury) happened, I was ready to go."
7. Anderson, who picked up his first career touchdown with 90 seconds remaining, also gave a well-earned shout out to his line, "nWo" as he called it. This would be in reference to the New World Order, an unsanctioned wrestling stable of rebels.
"Without them," Anderson said of his rebels, "I wouldn't have been able to get into the zone."
8. On the playing field, the 'Cats "nWo" was center Jared Thomas, guards Sam Gerak and Nik Urban and tackles Rashawn Slater and Gunnar Vogel.
9. This quintet also provided support for Johnson in the pocket, surrendering just a single sack despite the 'Cats occasionally flavored their ground chuck with long-developing shots down the field. One came early in the third quarter, a fly down the left boundary, where Kyric McGowan dropped a beautiful ball from the redshirt sophomore that hit him in stride. Another strike from Johnson was sent to J.J. Jefferson, whom laid out, but just could not corral a ball that was an eyelash too long. But in between there was a slant-and-go to aforementioned Houston native, and the touted quarterback dropped a dime to his wide out and he collected it for a 50-yard touchdown.
"We had a couple drops, right," Fitzgerald said. "When you've got the ball on the money and you don't make the play, it's like the balloon gets blown up and all the air comes out really quick. So, the balloon just blows up (when you complete them). You could see the boundary, the enthusiasm. We've got to make explosive plays. We talked at length about it in the off-season. I thought Mick (McCall, the offensive coordinator) picked his spots really, really well today when we took our shots. I thought Hunter picked his match-ups really well."
"We were able to open some things up, take some shots, get some play actions," said Johnson. "Having those kinds of plays, keeping the defense honest, was great to see. We had a lot of positive things today, in both the run game and the pass game."
10. Finally, Johnson's running ability, which Saturday rarely ended with him sliding and often ended with taking a licking. "No," he later said, coaches haven't talked to him about getting down, but his teammates sure have.
"Yeah," he then admitted, "I could slide a few more times. I guess I just get caught up in the moment and decide to stick my nose in there. Yeah. I could definitely slide a little bit more."
Players Mentioned
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