Behind Enemy Lines - Western Illinois

[DomeIsHome]

#18 Western Illinois:

WIU game notes
Argus Leader - No. 10 South Dakota Coyotes improve to 4-0 with win over No. 16 Western Illinois
The Hawk Eye - http://www.thehawkeye.com/sports/201...but-not-enough
http://www.thehawkeye.com/sports/201...in-and-mcguire
WIU - Acklin, Taylor Take MVFC Weekly Awards
WIU - Acklin Nets STATS FCS National Player of the Week After Record-Breaking Performance


UNI:
Game Notes
KXEL - Lane named MVFC newcomer of the year
The Gazette - Progress made for UNI football in 24-17 win at Southern Illinois
The Gazette - UNI football seeks continued rhythm in running game, better pass rush
Waterloo/CF Courier - No time to rest for Northern Iowa
Waterloo/CF Courier - In victory, Panthers showed progress gained

UNI Football: Suni Lane and Korby Sander Make Impact

[DomeIsHome]

Alright got the post updated, sorry about that. I guess the formatting was goofy

[clenz]

Freshman safeties against that passing game?

****

[dan_beeding]

This place makes me sad.

[clenz]

Watching the WIU/USD game now. As Farley said in his press conference it's about the only tape worth watching to see what they do. They blew out Tennessee Tech week 1, blew out NAU in week 2 and blew out CCU in game 3. Starters were out relatively early and everything defaulted to base early in those games.

I'll post a basic recap of what fans can expect to notice on a macro level look/tendencies.

[clenz]

Here's what I got

WIU Offense:
This is an offense we would normally shut down due to our history of strong DLs. Without that this year we may be in some trouble. Their run game is similar to Iowa's in it's foundation. Iowa uses more full backs and tight ends. WIU uses a ton of single back with a wing. However, how the OL blocks is very similar to Iowa. It's a pin and pull zone scheme. 2 pulling OL and a back finding where the hole opens. The main tailback, #5, is a small shifty back. He isn't looking to get anywhere inside the tackles. First sign of any congestion and he's bounding outside. He also lines up in the wing and is used in jet sweet looks.

Their offense looks complex, but it's not. It's a basic single i, downfield passing game. It just looks complex because they shift and motion a lot at the snap. They run a jet sweep action on about 45% of their plays. Their run game isn't great, it's predicated entirely on the jet look getting defenders out of position.

Their pass game is deep ball first with check down on the sideline or between the hashes for McGuire to come back too after staring his main WR down for 4 seconds. I mean it when I say McGuire locks on. There were plays I replayed a few times just to double check myself because McGuire was looking at his target (Acklin) before the snap was in his hands. 11 Acklins catches were in the 4th when they were down big and McGuire was just chucking it up there for Acklin to make a play on. The route trees are almost all on the same half of the field to avoid making real reads. They were down big most of the game so they just started chucking it deep to Acklin, and he made the plays. WIU clearly saw a match up issue that USD wasn't willing to fix and they exploited it hard in the 4th quarter when USD went prevent.

Again, a normal Farley defense would eat this offense for breakfast. Playing 2 freshman safeties, and a couple freshman LBs/DL? We'll see.

WIU Defense:
It's similar to Cal Poly. It's a modified 3-3-5/3-5-3/2-4-5/5-3. They never have more than 3 with their hands on the ground. Those three are always all inside the inside shoulder of the tackles. Depending on the situation they'll have 1 standing rush end/LB with the DL shifted away or compact the DL and put 2 standing rush ends (thus why I said 5-3). They are all undersized. A normal UNI OL would blow them back instantly. This OL? We'll see. What they tend to do is use speed and misdirection. They play a ton of games with the rushing players. Their LBs are also very agressive in flowing to the ball. Most USD playactions involved the LBs crashing down. A play WR screen and they flew out. The middle of the field 7-14 yards down field was open, a lot, for USD.

Use the RBs to chip and give a guy like RIma just enough time to get into a slant and it could be big yards.

On the DB side of things, they aren't real aggressive in fighting for the ball. I think USD won every single 50/50 ball. USD's second touchdown was a jump ball to the front pylon with 1 USD WR and 3 WIU DBs int he area...the USD won. A guy like Fountain could have a MONSTER game with how he fights for the ball.


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After watching the full game I feel better about our chances if the small **** is cleaned up. It hasn't been this year, but if we get that cleaned up we win this. Biggest key is giving Eli time. I really think Eli will pick WIU apart, if they give him time. WIU is real aggressive on defense, so it may require getting creative on how we do it, but it has to happen.

[7YrsOfCollegeDownTheDrain]

Article i found linked on the WIU message board.

http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/sports/20171003/leathernecks-look-in-mirror-after-loss

I watched some of the second half of SD v WIU while waiting for the UNI game to start. Obviously Western had a huge second half and i'm not sure why SD didn't make some adjustments to take the WR away and force the throws anywhere else at some point. Of course WIU mounted a huge comeback against SD last year too that didn't come up short.

I feel Western is a team we match up well with and i think the D will continue to progress as we move through the season. So with an improving D and Eli doing more of what has been doing, I think this is a game where we come out on top.

I like UNI to win on homecoming...in front of what i hope is a large and loud crowd in the Dome. Sometime i'd love for the dome to have the kind of energy it had against cal poly in OT for the entire game.