Thought it might be worth starting a thread on Northwestern.
BTN2GO is a really cool thing because you can stream past games in their entirety.
I scanned NW-Iowa and had these thoughts:
-- Overall NW looked sluggish in that game on both sides of the ball, and they tackled poorly. They definitely were fatigued. Going against Michigan and Iowa was just too much physical football for them. They will be a totally different team against PSU after two weeks of R&R.
-- NW defense is very typical for them. It's what we've been seeing for 20 years. Good quick defensive ends, fast linebackers, one great safety, a couple of good corners, very aggressive blitzing scheme. They pressure the line of scrimmage and make it really hard to run the ball between the tackles and they will get consistent pressure in the backfield. Iowa was able to run the ball behind a fullback in the 2nd half but I think the fatigue had set in by then.
However Iowa was running a variety of plays to the sidelines with success all game. The NW linebackers and safeties were not playing super disciplined and would often get caught leaning into the backfield when the ball was going outside, so they'd lose the edge. Northwestern defenses are aggressive and they will bite on misdirection. And PSU has speed to get around the corner. Iowa also got good yards heading for the sideline and cutting back inside. I think the jet sweep setup for PSU will be a good thing. And play action. There's no question NW will be set up to stop Barkley, so play-action should be a staple for PSU.
Iowa quarterback is a young kid and nothing like Hack, but he was having a lot of success stepping into the pocket the way Hack has done the last two weeks. Again, with Northwestern ends pushing hard for the backfield on every play, if PSU can direct the tackles outside and Hack can step up, it'll buy another second for pass patterns to develop.
NW secondary is good and won't lose track of people. But they're not big. They will have the same difficulty everybody has had covering Godwin and Lewis (and Hamilton and Gesicki) downfield. Gesicki had two catches Saturday -- maybe he can step up to 3 or 4 catches this week and he'll start to get some attention.
-- Offensively, I thought the NW offensive line played pretty well against Iowa. Their QB had good time in the pocket, but Iowa -- playing their usual conservative zone -- was able to limit completions, and NW just couldn't run the ball at all. The NW quarterback didn't look like a running threat anything like what PSU has seen. He does do a good job of running a quarterback draw up the middle.
Anyway, I wasn't super impressed with NW skill position players -- they don't seem to have that one great receiver that NW usually has, and I didn't see a breakaway running back either. They do have some speed but it wasn't a big factor against Iowa. That said, the Iowa defense is REALLY good this year, very disciplined, so NW just wasn't going to rack up big yardage plays.
All in all, I don't see athletes jumping out at you from that NW team like they have sometimes had in the past. But they are smart and opportunistic and they will be TWICE as tough as they were for Iowa because of the fatigue factor.
BTN2GO is a really cool thing because you can stream past games in their entirety.
I scanned NW-Iowa and had these thoughts:
-- Overall NW looked sluggish in that game on both sides of the ball, and they tackled poorly. They definitely were fatigued. Going against Michigan and Iowa was just too much physical football for them. They will be a totally different team against PSU after two weeks of R&R.
-- NW defense is very typical for them. It's what we've been seeing for 20 years. Good quick defensive ends, fast linebackers, one great safety, a couple of good corners, very aggressive blitzing scheme. They pressure the line of scrimmage and make it really hard to run the ball between the tackles and they will get consistent pressure in the backfield. Iowa was able to run the ball behind a fullback in the 2nd half but I think the fatigue had set in by then.
However Iowa was running a variety of plays to the sidelines with success all game. The NW linebackers and safeties were not playing super disciplined and would often get caught leaning into the backfield when the ball was going outside, so they'd lose the edge. Northwestern defenses are aggressive and they will bite on misdirection. And PSU has speed to get around the corner. Iowa also got good yards heading for the sideline and cutting back inside. I think the jet sweep setup for PSU will be a good thing. And play action. There's no question NW will be set up to stop Barkley, so play-action should be a staple for PSU.
Iowa quarterback is a young kid and nothing like Hack, but he was having a lot of success stepping into the pocket the way Hack has done the last two weeks. Again, with Northwestern ends pushing hard for the backfield on every play, if PSU can direct the tackles outside and Hack can step up, it'll buy another second for pass patterns to develop.
NW secondary is good and won't lose track of people. But they're not big. They will have the same difficulty everybody has had covering Godwin and Lewis (and Hamilton and Gesicki) downfield. Gesicki had two catches Saturday -- maybe he can step up to 3 or 4 catches this week and he'll start to get some attention.
-- Offensively, I thought the NW offensive line played pretty well against Iowa. Their QB had good time in the pocket, but Iowa -- playing their usual conservative zone -- was able to limit completions, and NW just couldn't run the ball at all. The NW quarterback didn't look like a running threat anything like what PSU has seen. He does do a good job of running a quarterback draw up the middle.
Anyway, I wasn't super impressed with NW skill position players -- they don't seem to have that one great receiver that NW usually has, and I didn't see a breakaway running back either. They do have some speed but it wasn't a big factor against Iowa. That said, the Iowa defense is REALLY good this year, very disciplined, so NW just wasn't going to rack up big yardage plays.
All in all, I don't see athletes jumping out at you from that NW team like they have sometimes had in the past. But they are smart and opportunistic and they will be TWICE as tough as they were for Iowa because of the fatigue factor.
