Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

[Purrrrrfect]

ITS VALLEY FOOTBALL TIME!

Time to for the tough grind for the next 8 weeks. As I've said before, the schedule works out nicely for UNI and if this team continues to gel..the moons really could be aligned for something quite special.

We start off road to our next Conference Title with a road game to Terre Haute. 2pm CST. No tv.

Indiana State was in the news recently on Saturday for a small school shooting incident. Thankfully no one was killed and the victim is going to make a full recovery. Keep them in your prayers!

As for football. The Sycs come into the game 3-1 overall and 2-0 at home.

Indiana State opened up with a hard fought 28-10 loss to Indiana but has since wrattled off 3 wins against Tennessee Tech (49-14), @ FBS Ball State (27-20), and over nationally ranked Liberty 38-19.

Mike Perish is the QB for the Sycs and he has been phenomenal thus far. He has racked up nearly 1200 yards passing with 9 TDs and 0 Interceptions to this point. He has been efficient at 67% and has a QB rating of 147.4. He has been sacked 9 times.

13 different receivers have caught a pass and 7 of those have caught at least 1 TD. 3 Different rushers have at least 2 TDs (team has 7 total).

Perish has rushed 20 times this season for -74 yards and 2 TDs.

Buck Logan is their speedy RB. In the 3 games I have seen him play...he has been outstanding. More so due to some great offensive line play but he can make you miss and could be the next coming of Shakir Bell.

Defensively the Sycs are better than years past but still have some work to do. They give up points, they just score more.

In retrospect, we know what we have..but here are some stats for you to compare. Kollmorgen has 1004 yards passing on 52%, with 9 TDs and 2 INTs. He has been sacked a lot...7 times. His QB rating is 146.2

David Johson is leading the charge now rushing with 395 yards and also has 285 receiving yards, which leads the team. DJ only has 2 total TDs. That has to change. (Backup Brion Carnes leads the team with 2 rushing TDs)

Kevin Vereen leads our receiving attack with 4 TDs so far!

Keys to the game will be:
Establish DJ early and often
Limit big plays from Perish/Logan
Clean up penalties
Win Turnover battle

My prediction: Both teams start hot. Panthers pull away in 2nd half. 38-17.

[Purple Cat]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

Great post!

[Superninja80]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

Great Post Purrrrrfect and thanks for the informative scouting report.
Ths is a chance for our D-Backs to show their skills. If I were the Tree's I would try some type of rollouts or quick pass attack to fluster our pass rush. This would leave it to our defensive backfield to be patient, aggressive and not let the offense lure them in.

[panther-state]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

It's going to take very strong defensive front play to beat us. If the Sycs can't contain DJ and focus on our receivers I don't see it turning out well for them. If our defense can continue to play at the level we have seen these past few weeks we will be in good shape against just about any FCS team. If we start bending too much though I could see it being another long conference season. This game will be a good measuring stick because ISUb is a legitimate top 15-20 team

[06panther10]

The real season starts this Saturday. The run for championships starts with this game.

No more time for miscues, penalties, or lack of execution. We will find out how good we are in the next few weeks.

[Neighbor]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

We need to be better than 4 of 15 on 3rd down conversions.

Is 50% too much to ask for?

[Geno4UNI]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

This weeks Sports Network Poll has the Sycamores ranked 25th.

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfoot2/misc/cfoot225poll.aspx

[kd_uni]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

Neighbor--totally agree. Not a secret that although having a proven FG kicker will be a great person to have in our back pocket, 5 FGs needs to turn into 2 or 3 TDs.

If it's even possible to say, I look for DJ to have a "breakout" game this season. Our O-Line needs to take it personally that he's only found the end zone twice, and help him get 2 or 3 TDs against the Trees.

Loving the way the team responded after the 2 tough and disappointing losses. Now let the real season begin. Can't go 8-0 in the MVFC without going 1-0!

[Purrrrrfect]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

While there is no gimme in this conference...especially this year...look at our schedule and it sets up miraculously well for great run!

@Indiana State (a should win)
@South Dakota (another should win)
South Dakota State during family weekend...battle of two probably top 7 teams in the country. Most likely game of the week with a capacity crowd.
@Western Illinois (WIU is improved especially in run defense, but a should win)
Illinois State - Redbirds have a terrific high scoring offense. Well see if playing legit defenses will change that.
NDSU - UNI could possibly be number 1-2 if all falls right. Biggest game of the season just got bigger...and its in our Dome this time. Conference title game.
@SIU - always a tough game...also possible trap/hangover game but possible win.
MSU - bear week, potential #1 seed on the line. Senior day for DJ. Sell out?

We get SDSU, Illinois St., NDSU and MSU at home. toughest matchup on the road is SIU. It couldn't be much better.

[BCPanther]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

We haven't won in Carbondale since the first Clinton Administration.

That thing is an L until proven otherwise...

[Panther93]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCpcAum2BSM#t=35


I'll just leave this here.

Not Mike Sanford's greatest moment. lol

[BCPanther]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

I Want to speak to the ATHLETIC DIRECTOR!!!

[Unionpanther]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

Hope springs eternal but I'm saving my enthusiasm until the team has turned the corner on a couple of issues:

1- Offensive play calling. Everyone knows what I'm talking about here. We are one dimensional in the sense that we can hit the home run but we can't grind time off the clock when we need to. Also, we can stall a drive by getting away from what is working. Some real head scratching calls.

2- Offensive line. I've said this before, the team will go as far as the O-line gives the QB time to throw. When defenses figure this out, we will see a lot of stunts and blitzes. I'm a little surprised that a multi-year starter at QB is struggling as much as SK does at times. Part of this is due to O-line breakdowns.

3- Team discipline. Watching D. Hall get called for a really bad PI in the Iowa game on a ball that was clearly over thrown and walk back to the huddle like nothing happened tells you a lot. No one got in his face, not a player or a coach. 16 penalties at Iowa, 2 at Hawaii, 7 vs No. Colo, and 7 vs Tenn Tech. Penalties helped cost us the game at NDSU last year too (X with a hands to the face on 3rd and long and Dorleant with a dubious PI in the endzone.)

and

4- Team conditioning- I was really hoping to see more subs in the first couple of games (plenty of course vs. TTech). At Iowa the 1st team defense played nearly the whole game. Last year at NDSU, the Bison won that game because they were in better shape in the 4th quarter. We need to build depth and spell guys during tough games, not just in the routs.

[Purrrrrfect]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

Hope springs eternal but I'm saving my enthusiasm until the team has turned the corner on a couple of issues:

1- Offensive play calling. Everyone knows what I'm talking about here. We are one dimensional in the sense that we can hit the home run but we can't grind time off the clock when we need to. Also, we can stall a drive by getting away from what is working. Some real head scratching calls.

2- Offensive line. I've said this before, the team will go as far as the O-line gives the QB time to throw. When defenses figure this out, we will see a lot of stunts and blitzes. I'm a little surprised that a multi-year starter at QB is struggling as much as SK does at times. Part of this is due to O-line breakdowns.

3- Team discipline. Watching D. Hall get called for a really bad PI in the Iowa game on a ball that was clearly over thrown and walk back to the huddle like nothing happened tells you a lot. No one got in his face, not a player or a coach. 16 penalties at Iowa, 2 at Hawaii, 7 vs No. Colo, and 7 vs Tenn Tech. Penalties helped cost us the game at NDSU last year too (X with a hands to the face on 3rd and long and Dorleant with a dubious PI in the endzone.)

and

4- Team conditioning- I was really hoping to see more subs in the first couple of games (plenty of course vs. TTech). At Iowa the 1st team defense played nearly the whole game. Last year at NDSU, the Bison won that game because they were in better shape in the 4th quarter. We need to build depth and spell guys during tough games, not just in the routs.

1. Agree to an extent.
2. Pass blocking isn't the problem...run blocking is. Against actual decent to good DLs we have proven nothing in the run game. And a large majority of our rushing yards are inflated by our 2nd/3rd stringers in the last 2 games.
3. Agree on penalties but we need a defense with a personality to be bad-ass without being a thug. I like it so far as long as we don't get a Robert Sherman or Darell Revis behavior going. (sorry hate those guys)
4. We have one of the best strength and condition coaches and programs around. If they are not in shape...a lot of that has to do with the kids approach to it. I know I half-assed conditioning drills in college when I felt the need once and awhile. And it showed. But I get what you are saying. We are deep at many positions. Defensively especially...I am not worried.

[DomeIsHome]

Re: Northern Iowa @ Indiana State GAME THREAD

Gameday! Go Panthers!!