Game Thread: Western Illinois

[EQguy]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

Here is TV's article on the game

Jackrabbits Hold Off Western Illinois

I love the two quotes:
"In the locker room it felt like we lost," Jacks linebacker Jimmy Rogers said. "We were up (24-0). For them to even be that close in the second half is unacceptable."

"We learned a valuable lesson, and it didn't hurt us," Stiegelmeier said. "The stats, all that stuff doesn't matter. Our goal is to be 1-0, and our football team is 1-0 against a really good football team in Western Illinois. I don't feel lucky, I feel fortunate to have experienced that lesson with our football team."

[trueblue]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

With Campbell and Kjerstad being out we really missed their hitting and size. There were a few receptions made by WIU that I thought may have been broken up if the hits applied would have come from one of the starting safeties.
Barr was very good and to think he has two more seasons left. His receivers definitely picked up their effort in the second half after a poor first half.

[Jackrabbit_Joe]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

The game was great - but yeah definitely a story of two different halves of football. Luckily the rabbits were able to hang on for the win. I do like Stig's comments about the valuable lesson - and luckily it didn't hurt us...

[Nidaros]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

My two cents. We had two key people out at half time due to injuries, Conrad Kjerstad and Brock Campbell, no18 and no 10. WIU seemed to finally find ways to connect on passes in the second half, and the that might have been because those two were not there to break them up like they had done in the first half. Granted football is a 11 man sport, but when key people who probably knew the offense like these two did, it made a difference. Also No 3 Jimmy Rogers jersy appeared to be a deep navy blue at the end of the game, which meant his jersy was soaked with perspiration. Jimmy played hard for the whole game and he ended with job of stopping Donaldsen nearly every play. I think our guys worked hard and our defense is exceptional when we are healthy, but hopefully the guys that have to come in will have learned something and will set up more in the next game, or in future games.

After three games, I am very happy with the result and hope we continue to be healthy. Also in the final series, the refs let some collar tackles go and Minnett went down. Coach Stig said he has a stutter in his running style and that seem to work against him.

The bottom line is we won, and we beat a darn good football team.

[Jacks-02]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

My two cents. We had two key people out at half time due to injuries, Conrad Kjerstad and Brock Campbell, no18 and no 10. WIU seemed to finally find ways to connect on passes in the second half, and the that might have been because those two were not there to break them up like they had done in the first half. Granted football is a 11 man sport, but when key people who probably knew the offense like these two did, it made a difference. Also No 3 Jimmy Rogers jersy appeared to be a deep navy blue at the end of the game, which meant his jersy was soaked with perspiration. Jimmy played hard for the whole game and he ended with job of stopping Donaldsen nearly every play. I think our guys worked hard and our defense is exceptional when we are healthy, but hopefully the guys that have to come in will have learned something and will set up more in the next game, or in future games.

After three games, I am very happy with the result and hope we continue to be healthy. Also in the final series, the refs let some collar tackles go and Minnett went down. Coach Stig said he has a stutter in his running style and that seem to work against him.

The bottom line is we won, and we beat a darn good football team.

Schroeder also played pretty sparingly in the second half but Bazata and Nobiling stepped up and made some plays as well. They also moved Antonio Thompson to defensive tackle for awhile in the second half and there were a few plays where he just bull rushed the guard right back into the QB.

Our defensive line was very impressive. They were actually getting so much push on some plays that there was a huge gap between the line of scrimmage and our linebackers which allowed alot of the 10 yard plays by WIU. Alot of that is because we were basically playing prevent defense in the secondary as well.

Barr is probably the most mobile QB we will play against this year. If not for that fact, we probably would have had 6 or 7 sacks by the D-Line, they were awesome.

[SDSUJack3031]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

What happened to our two safeties? Will they be able to play next week?

[JackFan96]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

A quick observation aside from the obvious, it was a tale of two halves...

It looked liked they tried to UNI us to death...like the Panthers did last season. Again, we didn't blitz much. When we give up that many completios only rushing four we might as well send another guy to see if we can disrupt things that. Now, that being said, two starting defensive backs were out and...who knows what impact that had, etc., etc. I guess, though, if they're completing so many passed we might as well bring a bit more heat. One of the few times we did, though, the QB runs for a TD. He should have been tacked, but wasn't. Blah, blah, blah. I'll stop now. It was a good, good win. We'll take it and look forward to more consistancy as the season moves on.

[sfjacksfan99]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

What happened to our two safeties? Will they be able to play next week?

Conrad had ice on his ankle on the sideline in the second half, pretty much pointing out a sprain. I never did find Campbell, but people on here say a sprain also.

[sfjacksfan99]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

With Campbell and Kjerstad being out we really missed their hitting and size. There were a few receptions made by WIU that I thought may have been broken up if the hits applied would have come from one of the starting safeties.
Barr was very good and to think he has two more seasons left. His receivers definitely picked up their effort in the second half after a poor first half.

I just think the coverage was different with the backups because WIU's receivers took some big time shots in the second half and still held onto the ball. Whether they would have gotten the ball with 10 & 18 in there is the question. The shot on the qb by half of the defense was definately the hit of the game.

[JimmyJack]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

Conrad had ice on his ankle on the sideline in the second half, pretty much pointing out a sprain. I never did find Campbell, but people on here say a sprain also.

Campbell has an ankle injury, too. They had it wrapped in ice just like Kjerstad's. I will say that there is some senior leadership behind Campbell (Nash Simet) and a very athletic backup behind Kjerstad, Joseph Blackman. With a week to prepare, I'm sure they'll do fine if they have to play.

[MilwaukeeJacksAlum]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

The D struggled somewhat in the second half for a couple of reasons. Probably the number one reason was that they were on the field the entire half. Especially when the other team is throwing the ball every play, there needs to be a time where the O gives the D a time to rest up. I agree that at some point we should have tried something other than our base zone pass coverage. Yes, we were getting pressure on Barr with just the front 4 rushing, but he was still able to complete way too many passes to way too many open WR's. With all the short hitches and medium range crossing routes I would have liked to see some sort of man coverage or at least a man/zone hybrid with the CB's playing man on the corner's. They threw a 5-8 yard hitch to the west side of the field about 10 times - all out of the I formation. Even if we are selling out on the run in that setting, you can man up the corners and jump one of those routes for a pick six.

All in all, good win for the Jacks. It's nice to be able to nitpick after a win instead of a loss. Our offense and O coaches had to have learned something with the flat start to the 3rd quarter and lack of aggressiveness overall in the second half. Having a half like this to remind the team will hopefully prevent it from happening in a game where we may not be able to hold on.

Jacks: 2-1, 2-0 in the MVFC, possibly our first top 10 ranking since becoming a member of the FCS. 2-1 was my most optimistic prediction for us at this point. Hard to argue with those results.

[RowdyRabbit]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

After three games, I am very happy with the result ...

You are right on here...its nice to be 2-1 after three rather than 0-3.

[bisonbacker]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

Congratulations on your win yesterday. The Jacks have a helluva team. Looking forward to seeing you in November.

[Jacked_Up]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

Thanks, B-Backer. I hope the Marker game has playoff ramifications.

[Jacked_Up]

Re: Game Thread: Western Illinois

I agree MJA. The defense had to spend entirely too much time on the field in the second half. WIU ate up a lot of time and yards with short passes in the middle. But the Jacks totally shut down their running game. Weird game. Good win. Congrats, Jacks.