worst defensive performance ever.....

[JayJ79]

6. Wingert has NFL potential. At least I thought so until the last kickoff.

with the new clock rule on kickoff, I'm sure there will be a ton more squib type kicks this year, trying to bleed extra seconds off.

thus, given the shape of the pigskin and the unpredictable bouncing, I'm guessing there will be an increase in kickoff-out-of-bounds penalties.

Personally, I'm in favor of just letting Wingert blast it through the endzone like normal. But then, I'm no football coach....


And I'm starting to agree with just about every NCAA coach regarding distaste for the new clock rules. Not necessarily the kickoff thing. But the starting the gameclock right away on posession changes. That will totally kill the late game comebacks, which is one of the most exciting things about football

[TravelingPanther]

Wingert kicked a 56 yard field goal with a lot of room to spare. I'm thinking one kickoff probably won't hurt him.

[bigcat75]

defense

the defense is not soft they are bad tacklers yes this is true but soft this i will not believe. I am hearing we took bad angles at times. Remember guys last years team had tons of bad tackling and it plagued us all year long. We have a young defensive front 7 and it shows the pass rush or lack of one is hurting us right now also. They will get better i truly believe this and some of he guys on defense did seem to play with a chip on thier shoulder in the second half i will not say names cause that won't help things (divide and conquer?). Defense has to play together be in right places and get in proper gaps this is a work in progress. I feel this is the game that wakes us up and tells the players we are not as good as we have read so we have to work harder they will work harder and get better. I believe. The o-line same thing all spring and summer this has been one of the positives or strengths now they know they can forget all they have read and step up each and every game. We will get better and we will have a good team this year. Keep the faith Panther fans we will be ok this year. The coaches will get em working and we will win next week. I believe.

[strike00]

at least we can bet that the Panthers will come into each and every game focused and ready to play for the rest of the season. They will get better, hopefully sooner rather than later.

[Pantherwoman]

I think this will be the most disappointing game we see this year. We all woke up tonight....the fans, the coaches and the players.

[pantherclaw]

Okay here's my take on the Game:
gonna start with the positives
1. Wingert, That kid is a flippin stud. the way it looks the only times he stopped kicking a football since last year was when he was in the bathroom. MAN that kid is accurate and has power
2. Johnny Gray-freckin stud, and aware as none other of where he's at on the field and what's around him
3. Corey lewis- Looking real good, didn't realy see him break out for major runs
4. Crowd-its flippin sweet to see a full student section and have an announced attendence of 11,010 for the first game, i think last year against drake it was something closer to 10,000 so good improvment there
5. O-Line(last quarter) finally got things figured out and gave sanders some protection, albeit late.

Things we could improve on
1. Defense-not gonna beat a dead horse, read above
2. o-line(first three quarter) read above

[PurpleCatFan]

Should never happen.

A high-ranking (power house program) D-1AA school should never lose to a high-ranking (power house) D-II school. Now, should or could a (power house program) high ranking DII team beat a D-1AA? It could and has happened, but it should never ever happen against a high-ranking D-1AA school in their own house…totally unacceptable!

I need to sleep on this (if I can) before I say anything more about our performance or lack of. However I think my opinion will still be the same tomorrow.

[Flagship Girl]

UGH. Darn my cousin for getting married...I was nearly sick at the reception when I heard about the game...I was pretty close to crying, actually...

[TravelingPanther]

A high-ranking (power house program) D-1AA school should never lose to a high-ranking (power house) D-II school. Now, should or could a (power house program) high ranking DII team beat a D-1AA? It could and has happened, but it should never ever happen against a high-ranking D-1AA school in their own house…totally unacceptable!

Not true. This has happened to many teams that actually made it to the I-AA championship game. Go to anygivensaturday.com to view the thread discussing the topic.

North Dakota is good. Division doesn't matter. Look at all the I-AA wins over I-A. D-II is much closed to I-AA than I-AA is to I-A.

[mcguffy]

It was just awful to watch the defense. I'm not all that sure that the defense was out on the field at times! QB sacked 2 times back to back.....where's the offensive line??? And what's with Sanders' inability to run the ball himself if necessary? There were numerous times that he could have run it farther than it went when it went out of bounds. Somebody tell that kid he has legs and can use them too!

[CIPanther]

It will be a busy week for the Panther football team. Where do you start with the fixes?

I'm confident this is our Illinois State game from last year; a turning point.

We'll see you next week again in the Dome. Go Panthers!

[mamacat]

Loss

Really the way the whole team played we never deserved to win that game.
Hopefully this teaches everyone a good hard lesson. You have to be ready to play hard each game no matter who the opponent is.

[NorthernIowaBacker]

D-II is much closed to I-AA than I-AA is to I-A.

NO freakin way...not even close. Sounds like a comment from a hawkeye fan.

[pantherclaw]

NO freakin way...not even close. Sounds like a comment from a hawkeye fan.

I agree that D-II is closer to I-AA than I-AA is to I-A. If you need proof look at the monster blowouts by I-A programs over I-AA programs yesterday, and reminder, UNi wasen't the only I-AA to lose to a d-II yesterday, we just have to move on and look ahead to NEXT week and the rabbits.

[Gramps2005]

It was obvious to me that there is a definate lack of leadership out on the field. I watched from a distance, but I saw people fighting on the sideline in the 1st quarter. This brings back painful memories of 2002. I know the personalities on this 2006 team. There are not a lot of natural born leaders, but someone must step up out of their comfort zone and take the lead. This was devastating, but this is not the end of the season. I would hope we could run the table in the Gateway, but without a great leader, we could end up 5-6 or worse.