‘Cats Win!!! Linfield knockout Boxers in 52-14 beatdown in Forest Grove.

Artie Johnson scored twice for the 'Cats against Pacific

Dang it felt good to finally play a football game in the state of Oregon and it felt better to watch our Linfield Wildcats brutalize Pacific to the tune of 52-14. We have a number of items to nitpick and a few areas where Linfield still needs some MAJOR improvement if they want to reach the potential this team possess but let’s enjoy the win and soak in the fact that we’re going to play a game this upcoming Saturday in the ‘Catdome.

I had very little doubt that Linfield was going to handle the Boxers coming into the game, but I was curious on if Linfield’s mindset was going to be.  Lethargic or sharp?  That first drive from the Wildcat offense was a slam dunk statement that Linfield was ready to go.  In fact, Linfield surged on the Boxers and put a sizable 24-0 lead before the Boxers were able to get anything going with their offense.

And after that 2nd quarter Boxer score was the only real point of the game where Pacific had a little life.  However, Linfield’s offense delivered a Brock Lesner F5 to Pacific’s hope with a 12 play, 75-yard TD drive in under 4 minutes to push the lead to 31-7 right before the break and essentially put the game to bed.

From there the Linfield offense did its thing in the 3rd and 4th quarters with two excellent long drives for touchdown (77 yards and 81 yards).  Defensively for Linfield, it was more of the same from games 1 and 2.  At times this defense can be a stone wall and other times our tackling really sucks and the ‘Cats gave up two scores that I’m not sure should this defensive should be giving up.  Towards the end of the game, it was great to see the ‘Cats being able to go deeper in the roster and get some guys time that have been busting their backsides.  Linfield has some promising young talent and this team is developing some depth that will be needed as the season moves along.

Overall, it was a fun day of football for Linfield.  The ‘Cats had a big following at the game (at least 75% of the 2,471 attendance numbers had to be Wildcat faithful) and we all love getting another chance to drop the hammer on Pacific.

For the Boxers, this is their 10th season since their reinstatement in 2010 and I’m sure this is not what they envisioned for their program when they rebooted.  Pacific has been trending downward ever since that season ender at Linfield in 2014 when Pacific captured a share of the NWC crown in the 2nd to last game of the year.  The Boxers beat Willamette (who upset Linfield the week before) and started popping champagne bottles.  Pacific had every right to be excited about being 5 years back, getting a share of the NWC crown, and then playing for the outright title and playoff bid.  There were several news stories, Pacific had the morning news guy out doing pieces on them, etc, etc.  The Boxers were treating the upcoming game with Linfield as a coronation as NWC King and the ‘Cats took notice.

That 2014 game at Linfield, the Boxers brought down their entire damn student body with them and packed the ‘Catdome in what was going to be a sure victory over Linfield because they smashed Willamette and Linfield lost to the Bearcats.  The ‘Cats had no chance, right?  But then the game started, and Pacific was ran out of the ‘Catdome on a rail in a 59-0 stomping in front of the whole Pacific University community. 

I truly believe that Pacific hasn’t been the same since then and have been backsliding ever since.  Now, the Boxers are sitting on an ugly 0-4 and I think will be lucky to win 2 or more ballgames this year. Once a slide like this starts to happen, it’s hard to stop.  Just ask Willamette. The silver lining for Pacific is that their current AD (who did bring football back) is retiring and Pacific’s head coach, Keith Buckley (who’s a good dude), is stepping in as Athletic Director.  Now an AD just can’t start funneling every spare dollar towards one sport but having a football guy as AD can’t hurt either.  Maybe Pacific can upgrade staff salaries, or up their recruiting budget, work on more facilities, etc, with Buckley as AD, but if things stand as they do right now, I’m not sure what turns it around for Pacific.

Since 2014 @LinfieldFB has beat Pacific by an average score of 53.5 to 8. #Catdome

— Catdomealumni Football (@Catdome_alumni) October 7, 2019

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

Clean, discipline football:  Love the approach on Saturday as the ‘Cats played a smart brand of football against the Boxers.  Nobody got into stupid personal battles that could draw a flag and the team was only penalized 6 times for 53 yards.  I’m sure if we played this game in the SCIAC it would have been 25 penalties for 256 yards. Regardless, it was truly a Linfield brand of football.

Great Offensive Balance: Linfield had 38 rushing attempts to 39 passing attempts.  That balance led to a season high 529 yards of total offense.  Let’s not pretend we did this against a great defense, but Linfield did what you should do against a lesser team, and that’s rack up the yards and points.  Huge bonus points for getting the rushing game going but not going to get over my skis until the ‘Cats start running the ball against some better run defenses.

🎞️Congrats to @cj_mac__ on his first career TD as a Wildcat in Linfield's 52-14 win over the Pacific Boxers. #Catdome pic.twitter.com/2iVvMvvvnd

— Catdomealumni Football (@Catdome_alumni) October 6, 2019

Special Teams:  Kicking game was solid as a rock, our punt returners did the little things right that make a big difference with field position, and we had some nice moments of coverage against a dangerous return team.

No Turnovers: Just awesome here.  It makes life that much better when you take care of the football.  Love it.

Offensive Conversions: 9 of 14 on 3rd down, 1 of 1 on 4th down, and 8 of 8 in the Red Zone for the Wildcat offense on the day. Linfield’s coaching staff would take that any day of the week.

Passing Attack: The Wildcat passing attack continues to shine as Wyatt Smith threw for 303 yards off 24 or 35 passing and four touchdowns. The chemistry with this group has continued to be exceptional in 2019.  Linfield has five outstanding targets (Weiss, Wood, Torgerson, Smith, and Calo) to choose form and Artie Johnson and freshman Connor McNabb are both fine receivers out of the backfield as well.  The only way to slow this aspect of Linfield down is if you can pressure, and on Saturday, the ‘Cats young offensive line and RB’s did an admirable job in getting Smith the time he needed.

After two seasons of battling injury, Senior receiver @tyler_torg21 , is healthy and making big contributions. Torg hauled in this 12-yard TD from @Gators15Smith on Saturday in the 'Cats 52-14 victory at Pacific. pic.twitter.com/Ij7eZF1ePi

— Catdomealumni Football (@Catdome_alumni) October 6, 2019

The Bad

Defensive Inconsistencies:  Like I wrote above, at times our defense looks freaking outstanding but then the ‘Cats started giving up 8 yards a rush and allowing the other team to pop some chunk plays.  Yeah, Linfield only gave up 14 points and 238 yards, but it felt a little underwhelming to me because I see the potential our of this unit to be a lockdown group.

Tackling: This goes together with the above.  Our tackling at times is bad.  I know this may seem nitpicky and over critical to be so hard on a defense that keep Pacific down for most of the game, but I think if you talked to the defensive players, they are not there yet.  And they better be looking to improve with Puget Sound coming in because tackling is going to be critical in that game.

The Ugly

Nothing:  No plane ride, no hotel room, back home at a decent hour, and Linfield knocking Pacific around in their own house on a great fall day in Oregon.  Nothing ugly about that.  Go ‘Cats!