Any Northwestern fans lurking around the boards?

#26
#26
chicagocatfan24 said:
I'm by far and away most worried about Hurd. Walker, NU's MLB was 1st team all B1G and SI just named him 2nd team all american. He's great, but his Achilles heel is running right at him. Sideline to sideline he's great.

Lowry, NU's best d-end, is going to have to bring his A game. He's not a great pass rusher, just adequate, but he's excellent against the run. 6'6'', 290. He's going to have to be the one that shuts down Hurd IMO. He crashes down the line great on run plays. I don't know anything about Kamara so I won't comment.

Whole key for NU is to get UT into 3rd and longs and make Dobbs throw. I know he's not a bad passer, but he's not a great one either and NU has to force turnovers. That's their best shot at winning
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Fyp. Kamara is a great all purpose back. He catches very well in the backfield and can turn it up the sidelines for a huge play. He also can run in between the tackles. Hurd has more yards on the year, but I'm pretty sure Kamara averages more yards per touch. He's quicker and shiftier than Hurd but pretty much just as durable.

I also agree with you - if NU can consistently get UT in 3rd and long situations they will have a great shot at winning the ball game.
 
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#27
#27
chicagocatfan24 said:
I'm by far and away most worried about Hurd. Walker, NU's MLB was 1st team all B1G and SI just named him 2nd team all american. He's great, but his Achilles heel is running right at him. Sideline to sideline he's great.

Lowry, NU's best d-end, is going to have to bring his A game. He's not a great pass rusher, just adequate, but he's excellent against the run. 6'6'', 290. He's going to have to be the one that shuts down Hurd IMO. He crashes down the line great on run plays. I don't know anything about Kamara so I won't comment.

Whole key for NU is to get UT into 3rd and longs and make Hurd throw. I know he's not a bad passer, but he's not a great one either and NU has to force turnovers. That's their best shot at winning
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Kamara has been very impressive catching the ball out of the backfield. Volfan is spot on there.
 
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#28
#28
VonVol said:
Kamara has been very impressive catching the ball out of the backfield. Volfan is spot on there.
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I just hope we can keep him and others like him around their senior year. This team will be so so impressive if these guys don't leave for the draft early.
 
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#29
#29
volfanbill said:
I asked before and the whole thread got deleted, but can we please stop calling them Purple Vandy? Northwestern is a fantastic institution and it's childish and classless to refer to them as "Purple Vandy".

Of course, we failed at stopping whatever that stupid Alasami thing for Bama is, so I'm probably pushing for a worthless cause.
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Purple Vandy
 
#30
#30
volfanbill said:
I asked before and the whole thread got deleted, but can we please stop calling them Purple Vandy? Northwestern is a fantastic institution and it's childish and classless to refer to them as "Purple Vandy".

Of course, we failed at stopping whatever that stupid Alasami thing for Bama is, so I'm probably pushing for a worthless cause.
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Here's one of the sensitive ones spoken of earlier!
PURPLE VANDY!
 
#32
#32
UTC Vol Fan said:
I've watched several of the 2015 Northwestern games on youtube this week. They dominated the Stanford game and some what controlled the Duke game to the extent it never felt like they were going to lose. The Michigan game was a beat down from the get go. Michigan returned the opening kickoff and never looked back.

I have noticed a few things:

1. Anthony Walker is a tackling machine and good linebacker overall, but does sometime get out of position.
2. NU's defense is much better and faster than Iowa's last year so unfortunately it's not going to look like they are in slow motion.
3. They basically run the same offense that we do, but with less talented players, but the running back is very good and the QB probably runs a solid 4.6 40 time and has had several long runs over the year (kind of like a bigger/faster version of Conner Shaw with slightly less passing skills). The offensive line does a good job in the run game, but the passing game is lacking. Better than Vandy or Missouri, but still lacking. Every game the QB seemed to make 2-3 difficult throws look fairly easy so if the secondary gets out of position he does sometimes make big throws.
4. The kicker doesn't normally kick it very deep into the end zone so Evan Berry should have an opportunity every kickoff which hopefully isn't many.
5. I do not expect them to score more than 20 on our defense.

My predictions:

Evan Berry returns a KO for a TD and breaks the record. The game is close at halftime with Tennessee winning 31-20.
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This is the most unbiased and spot on opinion of this game I have seen. Thank you for being completely rational
 
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#33
#33
apkvol said:
Guy, it's sports. It ain't supposed to be real life. It has nothing to do with how wonderful an institution it is.

It's like you're wanting this to be the ACC or something where the guys tie sweaters around their neck and drink white wine while tailgating. Then we walk into the stadium where there are 20,000 other people just like us who are watching Wake and BC. You know, places where 8-4 would cause us to drink TWO glasses of white wine while the sweater is tied around our necks.
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Guy. It's still stupid to call them Purple Vandy. Absolutely stupid. And classless. And childish. And just dumb.
 
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#35
#35
Whatever you do don't invite GlideCat from the Northwestern rivals board here.
 
#40
#40
chicagocatfan24 said:
I've been posting a lot on here. Basically how I see the game shaking out:

NU, unless something drastic changes, will not move the ball well. Their best bet for a victory is winning a game 21- whatever or less.

Their defense is very good, Anthony Walker was just named 2nd team All American by SI, and CB Nick Van Hoose got an honorable mention. Dobbs isn't going to light them up passing whatsoever. If UT gets their ground game going, which they very well might, that'll be how they win.

I'm predicting a score of 21-13ish UT. But those 21 points will be hard to come by. This defense is so, so much better than Iowa's of last year. If NU can get a pick 6 or shut down UT's run game to an extent, they very well could win, and if UT's players are guaranteeing a blowout like their fans are, NU will win as well. They play very sound, very disciplined defensively. No, they don't have the athletes UT does but they rely on smarts (not because their NU students) to win.

Everyone points to the Cats' two blowouts. They did get blown out, yes, but they also shut down Heisman finalist Christian McAffery. Stanford fans came over and said they were gonna outspeed us to death as well. That didn't happen, we were the faster team.
Speed obviously gives UT an advantage, but if they don't play disciplined offensively, NU will take full advantage of that.

Just my two cents. I think it's going to be a close game
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The problem is, we just scored 50 plus on a so called great defense. UTs run game can't and won't be stopped. Blow out city is unavoidable.
 
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#41
#41
chicagocatfan24 said:
Sirk from Duke had 650 rush yards and 6 TDs this year and NU held him in check outside the first drive for the most part. That dude wasn't a very good QB but was built like a house and tried to run like a fullback. Not necessarily "fast" but a really good athlete.

Tommy Armstrong from UNL was the purest duel threat they faced, they picked him off a few times (he stinks IMO) but he only had 12 rushes for 35 yards as well.

Kevin Hogan from Stanford is duel-threatish, probably the most similar build to Dobbs, had 400+ yards rushing, but is a pass first QB. They completely shut him down in both facets of the game.

Of those three Hogan was obviously the best passer by far and away, he'll be a draft pick. Sirk a combo of the two, and Armstorng the best runner. None of them did much against NU. Dobbs will be their best test of a runner yet IMO
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The difference in Dobbs and the guys you mentioned is Dobbs has Hurd and Kamara. Im not one that thinks this is a "most likely" win like some others but just comparing Dobbs without considering what he has around him is a mistake. Each one makes the others better. If Ive learned anything this year, its that we can run the football on just about anyone. We have to avoid costly penalties, turnovers, and over conservative / bad in game coaching and I like our chances. Weve been pretty good this year at two out of the three I mentioned.
 
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#43
#43
UTC Vol Fan said:
I've watched several of the 2015 Northwestern games on youtube this week. They dominated the Stanford game and some what controlled the Duke game to the extent it never felt like they were going to lose. The Michigan game was a beat down from the get go. Michigan returned the opening kickoff and never looked back.

I have noticed a few things:

1. Anthony Walker is a tackling machine and good linebacker overall, but does sometime get out of position.
2. NU's defense is much better and faster than Iowa's last year so unfortunately it's not going to look like they are in slow motion.
3. They basically run the same offense that we do, but with less talented players, but the running back is very good and the QB probably runs a solid 4.6 40 time and has had several long runs over the year (kind of like a bigger/faster version of Conner Shaw with slightly less passing skills). The offensive line does a good job in the run game, but the passing game is lacking. Better than Vandy or Missouri, but still lacking. Every game the QB seemed to make 2-3 difficult throws look fairly easy so if the secondary gets out of position he does sometimes make big throws.
4. The kicker doesn't normally kick it very deep into the end zone so Evan Berry should have an opportunity every kickoff which hopefully isn't many.
5. I do not expect them to score more than 20 on our defense.

My predictions:

Evan Berry returns a KO for a TD and breaks the record. The game is close at halftime with Tennessee winning 31-20.
Click to expand...

I think your observations are spot on. That's pretty much how I would have described us.
 
#44
#44
UTK said:
The problem is, we just scored 50 plus on a so called great defense. UTs run game can't and won't be stopped. Blow out city is unavoidable.
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the problem is, that was a 5-7 vanderbilt team. Not a 10-2 team on a 5 game win streak that beat Stanford and shut down a Heisman finalist.'

You should take some notes on your fellow Vol poster from above on how to engage in rational dialogue
 
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#46
#46
KingtUT said:
The difference in Dobbs and the guys you mentioned is Dobbs has Hurd and Kamara. Im not one that thinks this is a "most likely" win like some others but just comparing Dobbs without considering what he has around him is a mistake. Each one makes the others better. If Ive learned anything this year, its that we can run the football on just about anyone. We have to avoid costly penalties, turnovers, and over conservative / bad in game coaching and I like our chances. Weve been pretty good this year at two out of the three I mentioned.
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I mean Hogan has McAffery....
 
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#48
#48
chicagocatfan24 said:
This is the most unbiased and spot on opinion of this game I have seen. Thank you for being completely rational
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CCF24,
I promise our head coach, assistant coaches, and players are paying your team the respect it deserves, which is that of a 10-2 team that very well could be playing in a New Years Six bowl.

I watched the UM vs NU game and saw that your defense is very sound and rarely out of position. Our OL will NOT be able to knock your DL off of the ball. Your LBs are very well coached (makes sense, since CPF was an All-American LB) and will be in position to make plays.

Our best approach is to do what we do... That is, utilize a steady mix of Hurd, Dobbs, Kamara, and mix in playaction as follows:
- Use Kamara in space to keep you honest on the perimeter of the defense (that way you cannot add players to the tackle box)
- Use Hurd as the battering Ram that he is with screens designed for him
- Counter the attention on Hurd with QB designed runs with Dobbs (these are predictable, yet still hard to stop)
- Get SOMETHING out of our battered (though serviceable) WR corps to complement our run game.

Defensively, we are susceptible to some head scratching plays. We could either shut you guys out or give up 35 points; just don't know who or what will show up.

Welcome to the board and GBO!
 
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#49
#49
MyBloodRunnethOrange said:
Agree. And as much as I hate Alabama I think it's equally childish refering to them as the "red team".
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I'll call S Carolina "USCe" but it's to differentiate the two. tOSU begs for it, and I actually think aTm is pretty cool. With the possible exception tOSU none of are mocking the school. I just don't see why to go low like that.
 
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#50
#50
chicagocatfan24 said:
I mean Hogan has McAffery....
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3 > 2

Just harder to defend. Again, I aint predicting anything other than I believe we will be able to run the football. And like Vegas, I think we have a good chance to win. Its along way from a given.
 
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