[NU Sports] WILDCAT WRAP: New Hampshire 34, NU 17

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Not a fun flight back to Arizona, but it's still good
to have football back ...

WILDCAT WRAP – NEW HAMPSHIRE 34, NU 17

All that was missing was the rain. The Pat Fitzgerald
parade, off to such a good start last week with an
emotional win over departed Coach Walker’s alma mater
Miami, received a thorough dousing this week in the
home opener at Ryan Field. When the overcast skies
began to clear, it was visiting I-AA powerhouse New
Hampshire with the 34-17 victory over the I-A Wildcats
before a sparse and stunned crowd in Evanston.

It would be easy to pin the blame on several
Northwestern players, most notably new quarterback
Mike Kafka. But instead of blame, this game was more
of a reality check for fans after the promising start
last week. Yes, there is talent on this team to
compete in the Big Ten, but they are still being led
by a redshirt freshman quarterback. Wildcat fans were
spoiled by the brilliance of Brett Basanez the past
few years and when you turn over the reins to a new
kid who had not taken a snap before the Miami game,
you’re going to get some bumps along the road. Kafka
showed a lot of promise and is looking like he could
be a keeper if he can get over his mental mistakes of
this game.

And even if there is a finger pointing at Kafka,
there’d be plenty of digits left to focus on
Northwestern’s poor pass defense, inconsistent
offensive line play and inability to win the turnover
battle. Throw in a gritty effort from a solid group of
UNH players and you had all the makings of an upset.

The day, of course, began with a moment to remember
Coach Walker. The “Walk With Us” tradition of fans,
band and cheerleaders greeting the team’s arrival is
something that will hopefully stick around and a video
tribute included some clips sure to warm any Wildcat
fan’s heart – the 54-51 win over Michigan, Victory
Right, OT over OSU and the Iowa comeback last year –
along with touching words about Walker. Sadly, there
was not much of a crowd on hand to pay a fitting
tribute, but there were few dry eyes from the die-hard
fans in attendance before the game or during the NUMB
salute of “Amazing Grace” at halftime to honor
Walker’s memory.

The game, however, did not begin with much emotion
from the Wildcats of Northwestern. After a nice
touchback (not the only one of the day!), New
Hampshire took their no-huddle, spread attack right
down the field against soft secondary coverage and
little or no pass rush to take a 7-0 lead minutes into
the contest. To make matters worse, the ensuing
blooper kickoff was fumbled by NU and before you could
say “Man in the Mountain,” the Wildcats from New
Hampshire were up two scores.

One nice improvement fans can see in the NU Cats this
year is the special teams hustle – last week, it was a
blocked punt that broke open a 0-0 game for our first
score and on Saturday, Northwestern finally came to
life with a blocked PAT, keeping the score 13-0 and
giving the purple-clad fans at least some hope that
there would still be a game and it wasn’t over after
just five minutes.

Once the Wildcats of NU finally were able to touch the
ball on offense, they showed why they were expected to
have a big day running the football, as the offensive
line opened some big homes and Tyrell Sutton dashed 61
yards to set up a scoring run by Terrell Jordan. And
when the defense earned a 3-and-out, the Cats got the
ball back again and raced downfield for a score by
Sutton, giving Northwestern a 14-13 lead at the end of
the quarter. Kafka was perfect passing for the quarter
with some nice zip on the inside slants and after a
disastrous beginning, the Cats looked to be in control
of the game again.

But that was the last lead Northwestern would have
this day. New Hampshire converted some tough third
downs (including 3rd and 15) and a 4th and 1 the next
series to reclaim the lead 20-14 and the Cats became
the first to blink in this budding track meet by
responding with only a Joel Howells field goal on the
next possession after Kafka just missed a nice TD toss
into the end zone on first down and a so-so play call
of a QB draw went nowhere on third down. Still, the
offense had three scores in three possessions, while
UNH had three in four (one set up by the fumbled
kickoff) and we were at 20-17, fully expecting another
wild shootout in Ryan Field as we couldn’t stop New
Hampshire’s passes and they couldn’t stop our running
attack, nicely mixed between Sutton’s speed, Jordan’s
power and a Kafka slant here and there (though Shawn
Herbert was noticeably not involved in the game yet).

The NU defense finally got some pressure and forced
another 3-and-out on the next series, which gave the
purple Cats the ball back with just over 6 minutes
remaining in the half and a chance to reassert their
dominance. But New Hampshire was starting to stop the
NU running attack better and Kafka’s first real bad
pass fell short of the receiver on third down, giving
New Hampshire the ball back with just over 3 minutes
remaining on their own 18 yard line.

I know many basketball coaches are fond of saying that
games are won or lost in the five minutes before and 5
minutes after halftime, and that was true of this
football game. At this point, it was 20-17 and if the
Cats had held New Hampshire on 2nd and 12 or 3rd and 8
right away, we probably head to the locker room that
way and the Cats come out with the ball after halftime
playing for the lead. But a 23-yard completion on 3rd
and 8 and a 23-yard pass play later zipped the Cats in
blue down the field for a big TD before half. The
small but vocal Granite State contingent was jubilant
about their chances heading into the locker room up
27-17.

As poorly as NU’s defense had played at times, we were
essentially at an even game except for that early
turnover. The second half would be one where the
defense – though unspectacular – held its ground while
the offense blew chance after chance to take
advantage.

It began with a  3-and-out coming out of the locker
room and here’s where our offensive line either looked
like they really lost their swagger or just kept
thinking they could push the smaller but more
determined UNH defensive line over and lost focus,
because the big holes of the first half were gone. The
D got the ball back, but a long NU drive stalled at
the 34, with Fitz opting to go for it on 4th and 10
instead of trying the 51-yard field goal (a bit gutsy,
but not really a bad call).

The defense held again at midfield, but the punt
pinned NU back at the 8 yard line as the surprisingly
scoreless third quarter was drawing to a close. And
then came the second big turnover for Northwestern
that was manna from heaven for an upstart I-AA team
hoping for the upset. Kafka had been carrying the ball
a bit loose all day, and it bit him in the butt when a
nice scramble ended in a fumble at NU’s own 17 yard
line.

New Hampshire capitalized on the mistake, using the
short field to take a commanding 34-17 lead at the
start of the fourth quarter. With an experienced
quarterback, this would be a tough deficit to
overcome, but we’ve seen it happen before at Ryan
Field. However, with a freshman and a defense that now
knew it could pin its ears back, not worry about the
run and blitz, it was darn near impossible.

The fourth quarter became a comedy of errors for
Northwestern as the desperation and inexperience
showed 
 a 2-yard pass on 4th and 7, inability to
capitalize on a blocked punt (for the second week in a
row) and an interception. Most of the quarter was
played on UNH’s side of the field, but NU got zero
points out of it. And the Wildcats from New England
had a hard-earned 34-17 win at Northwestern.

Coach Fitz got this team focused after a trying off
season for week one, but he now has to see how well he
learned Walker’s lesson of responding by turning them
around from this disappointing defeat to face Eastern
Michigan at home next week. Hopefully he can keep
Kafka’s confidence up – he started the game well, has
a nice zip on his slants and was this/close to making
some nice plays 
 but he played like, well, a freshman
at times. Fitz needs to get Kafka and the team to
shake it off and come back next week to show that this
week was just a stumbling block in the growing pains
of a new QB, OC and HC.

A surprising loss in that it was a win we had to have
and should have had, but it really shouldn’t be all
that surprising. The freshman QB was going to become a
factor at sometime, let’s just hope this gets it all
out of Kafka’s system. And we should expect a season
of ups and downs this year with all the emotion and
new people in charge. Not much NU can do about it now
except look at what went wrong and respond with a
resounding win next week.

GAME BALLS
* Special teams. The kickoff fumble was the one bad
spot in a nice day of touchbacks on kickoffs, a
blocked PAT and a second week of blocking a punt. 
Nice to see some hustle in this often-overlooked phase
of the game.
* Terrell Jordan. I’m not sure if Sutton was hurt near
the end of the game or just being outplayed, but TJ
was the back most of the second half. He had some nice
tough runs up the middle, bowling over defenders and
fighting for the extra yard. Good to see him back
healthy and we could have our own purple “thunder and
lightning” combo with Jordan and Sutton if we play our
cards right.

THINGS TO WORK ON
* Hold on to the darn ball! Take away the two gimmes
we gave UNH in the red zone via the fumble and you
have an even game. Turnovers were the biggest
difference in this one.
* Got Herbert? We need to get Shawn Herbert involved
earlier and more often in the passing game. Kafka has
the slant down, now let’s get some other throws in
there and work in #3 to help the freshman QB out.
* Offensive line play and defensive pass
pressure/coverage. The first was inconsistent after a
great first quarter, the second was nonexistent. Both
are unacceptable against an undersized I-AA foe.

AROUND THE LEAGUE
* Looks like that OSU offense has a swagger and the
young D is coming along. If the Buckeyes can survive a
possible road trap at Iowa at the end of the month,
the rest of the biggies are in the Shoe and the
Scarlet and Gray could be making yet another trip to
the Arizona desert in January – this time for a second
title in five years. Impressive thumping of Texas.
* Speaking of thumping, PSU showed their own growing
pains with a  new quarterback in their blowout loss in
South Bend. Smug ole Charlie may have run it up a bit
but the Lions really killed themselves and didn’t help
their young QB out with turnovers. Sounds familiar. 
* Michigan and Michigan State won somewhat ho-hum
games, and I sure hope both are sandbagging it or else
they could become the next victims of the luck of the
leprechaun and the overrated Irish hype machine.
* Speaking of overrated 
 Iowa? OT at Syracuse? Was
this the annual Kirk Ferentz September Swoon game but
Iowa pulled out the lucky win this time? Or are they
in trouble against Iowa State and Ohio State later
this month?
* More OT madness as Purdue barely scrapes by Miami of
Ohio – either the Redhawks improved greatly between
weeks 1 and 2 or the Boilers could be looking at
another bowl-less season.
* Creampuff wins for Wisconsin and Indiana (though a
close call for the Hoosiers), who have a lot of
cupcakes this month before Big Ten play begins.
* Minnesota probably wishes they had their typical
cupcake game after their drubbing at Cal. They were in
the game early but speed really seemed to make a big
difference late.
* Oh yeah 
 remember how I said the Illini could be
bowl bound this year if they beat Rutgers? Scratch
that. When does basketball begin in Champaign?

Tough day and probably the toughest non-conference
loss to swallow since that Duke drubbing in the late
1990s. Gotta respond next week and hopefully Kafka
keeps his head up because there was a lot to like
about the kid today.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!

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