Monday, November 6, 2017

‘Cats Win!!! Linfield blanks Puget Sound in 23-0 victory in the ‘Catdome.

#17 Freshman Kyle Kimball led all receivers in yards on Saturday, including this 41 yard TD strike.
Photo Courtesy of Brad Thompson: View Brad's Photos Here. 
The formula worked once again as Linfield brought the salt truck on defense, used stellar special teams, and found enough offense to move to 7-1 overall on the season.  With the victory, Linfield also moved to 6-0 in Northwest Conference play, and coupled with PLU’s road win at Fox, the ‘Cats clinched the NWC title outright and the NWC’s automatic NCAA playoff berth.  The ‘Cats extended what was already an NWC record for most consecutive conference titles with the program’s 9th in a row.  It’s been an incredible run as Linfield has gone 56-1 in conference play since 2009 and have won 16 playoff games over that span.

For Saturday, the Linfield defense asserted themselves early but on the flip side the offense had some early pains, but you could see growth and confidence start to get reestablished as the game moved into the second half.  But that first half was pretty darn dreadful for the ‘Cats upfront as Linfield gave up 6 first half sacks and an additional 4 other tackles for loss.  However, as the game moved into the second half you could see the offense start to jell as Linfield didn’t give up a second-half sack, only had one 3 and out, and scored on 4 of the 7 offensive possessions. The ‘Cats offense moved the ball more effectively as nine different Wildcats caught passes and the offensive line patched those holes that crippled them in that first half.
Defensively, Linfield dominated Puget Sound in every aspect you could imagine. The Loggers came into Saturday with the 2nd best passing attack and Linfield made the Puget Sound offense look like a bad intramural football team with the pressure and physicality the 'Cats put on Puget Sound in all three levels of the game. It was the first time that Puget Sound has been shutout since the 2012 season and it wasn’t a fluke. I could go on and on as it seemed that every starter for the Wildcats at one point made a stand-out play or another.  Offensive coordinators would be better off in trying to solve the disappearance of DB Cooper than trying to solve the mystery in how to score points on this Wildcat defense. There are zero weak links on this side of the football and the defense continues to deliver the mail day after day.

Even with clinching the NWC title outright, there is still work to be done this regular season. Linfield will head back to Forest Grove for the second consecutive season to face a tough as nails Pacific Boxers team that currents sit in a 3-way tie for second place in the NWC at 4-2. The ‘Cats have had their hands full at Pacific since the Boxers relaunched their program back in 2010 and I’m not expecting anything different in 2017.  The motivation is going to be huge for Pacific and Linfield needs to meet that motivation, and then some, as the ‘Cats are looking to continue to grow on offense and try to establish the best possible playoff seeding position. Let’s get to work!

The Good

Getting the Shutout: This Linfield defense has been so darn good and should have had a shutout against George Fox, and let’s not kid ourselves, the ‘Cats should have blanked Willamette as well. So it was great to see this defense finally get that big old donut on the scoreboard against the Loggers. To go along with the 99 yards of total offense, Linfield’s defense racked up 7 three and out possessions against the Puget Sound offense. The ‘Cats ate up the Loggers offense like a birthday cake and asked for seconds.

Passing Attack: Puget Sound put eight men in the box to take away the Linfield rushing attack and dared the Wildcats to beat them in the air. The response by the Wildcats was a 300-yard passing game by freshman quarterback Wyatt Smith in his first career start.  It felt like that number could have even been bigger if not for a few drops and a couple of misses on open deep routes. Bottom line, this was the best the passing attack for Linfield has looked all season and it’s coming at the right time.

Pure Effort: Running back Dawson Ruhl changed the tied of the game all by himself last in the first half. The 'Cats were knocking on the door looking to take a 14-0 lead at the break.  The 'Cats lined up at the UPS 12 yard line and Wyatt Smith dropped back to pass and had the ball knocked out of his hand while throwing the ball.  Everyone stopped playing because it looked like an incomplete pass but the officials let the play continue.  A Logger safety picked up the ball and took off like a shot down the UPS sideline.  Only one Linfield player immediately reacted and that was Ruhl.  The Logger changed direction about the Linfield 45 to shake Ruhl but Dawson pressed on and was finally able to take him down at the Linfield 5.  The Linfield defense turned UPS away 3 times and then blocked another field goal to keep the game at 7-0. Ruhl made a winner’s play that happens purely by effort and desire. It’s amazing that a disaster of a play for Linfield turned out to be a beautiful piece of football. That is something that isn’t drawn up or you can run a drill for.  A big tip of the cap to Dawson changing the completion of the game in favor of the ‘Cats on a hustle/desire play.

Pressure: As an old defensive end the 8 sacks the ‘Cats stacked up made my chest pump up with pride. Linfield defensive end, Asa Schwartz had a career game in piling up 4 sacks against UPS. That will put Asa in a tie for 4th in Linfield football single-game history.  Along with Asa, the ‘Cats were all over Tanner Diebold like a cheap suit.  Pressure can make diamonds, but in this case, the pressure makes the Logger offense crumble.

Youth making an impact: Youth was being served for Linfield on Saturday as Freshman Wyatt Smith made his first start for the ‘Cats. Freshman Wide Reciever, Kyle Kimball, led all receivers with 129 yards, 1 TD, on 9 catches. Frosh WR, Khory Day, showed a flash of his promise in a beautiful 33 yard reception, Freshman Dawson Ruhl had 50 yards of receiving out of the backfield, Frosh Colton Ramos continued to be a big field position weapon in the kicking game, frosh Zack Jenkins continues to get it done with his long snapping, and on and on I could go. While the defense is loaded with senior leadership the offense and special teams has a lot of youth making big contributions.
#9 Andrew Schweiterman hauled in his 3rd interception of the season against the Loggers.
Photo Courtesy of Brad Thompson: View Brad's Photos Here
Blanket Coverage: The Loggers came into the game with the 2nd best passing attack in the NWC and our defensive backfield and linebackers locked up the Loggers receivers and threw away the key.  Linfield forced 3 picks and held the Logger passing game to 93 passing yards on 13 of 33 passing attempts.  Dustin Harrison came in Saturday’s game as the NWC’s top receivers in terms of yards and catches but Harrison limped out of the ‘Catdome with a total of 2 catches for only 10 yards.

Special teams doing their thing: The Wildcat special teams continue to shine for Linfield.  Willy Warne continues to kick at an all-american level in knocking down three out of four field goal attempts including a huge 48 field goal that could have gone from 54 yards. Colton Ramos was once again spectacular punting the ball in averaging 40.8 yards per punt that included a 50 yarder and three kicks that were downed within the Logger 20 yard line.  The ‘Cats blocked another critical field goal attempt and this time it was the big mitt of standout defensive tackle Zach Grate doing the honors. Along with the legs, Andrew Schweiterman has grown over the past few weeks as a dependable punt returner in terms of his ability to constantly field it cleanly, make good decisions, and has shown an ability to make defenders miss in space. Sweets showed off that ability with a great 24-yard return in the 3rd quarter.  Overall, it was another great day on special teams for Linfield.

The Bad

 Lack of a run game: Yes, UPS put everyone and their mom in the box on Saturday to take away the Linfield rush but only netting 22 yards on 32 attempts doesn’t sit right. The Loggers were able to get too many guys behind the line of scrimmage, especially in the first half of play.

Red Zone offense: Man, Linfield could have blown this game wide open if it wasn’t for the trouble in the red zone. Linfield was only able to go 3 of 6 in the red zone and get one TD out of these trips.  The ‘Cats had two turnovers, dropped a sure-fire TD on a wide-open play, and a missed field goal as well.  Linfield has to be much better in these situations moving forward or it could spell big trouble.

The Ugly

Nothing: The defense gets an awesome shutout, the offense showed some growth, and the special teams continue to be a positive.  Overall, while it felt like the final margin of victory should have been bigger it was a solid victory that allowed Linfield to hit two of their goals (NWC title and a playoff berth). It blows me away that Linfield has now extended their conference title streak to 9 years in a row and 15 NWC titles out of the last 18 years.  What an honor to have witnessed this run of football that’s almost lasted two decades. It’s just a reminder that any day is a great day to be a Wildcat.
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1 comment:

Chris said...

Great game! Thanks again for all you do!

November 7, 2017 at 11:43 PM

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