Staff Blog

St. Olaf Game

Fun. Entertaining. Exciting. Good. All are adjectives that can describe Saturday's season opener against St. Olaf, which the Norse lost 26-19. Many good things, many things to build on, but not enough to get the victory so the ultimate goal wasn't accomplished. Saturday's game got down to making key plays at the key times. Without looking at the flim, I would have to say if you broke down play per play, Luther would have as many, or possibly more, positives plays than St. Olaf. But as for making plays when it counted, St. Olaf did, Luther did not.

First the negatives. Going off what color commentator Jerry Jaeger said during the broadcast, too often Saturday, members of the Norse secondary were caught with their eyes in the backfield too many times and receivers came wide open and led to big plays. Whatever led to it, it is a correctable mistake that needs to be made. And it's not one person's fault. Defenses need to work as an eleven man collective unit. And that's on all plays.

Sacks. Justy Feldt was sacked four times by the St. Olaf defense. A lot of credit must go to the Oles for this, but your quarterback cannot go down four times. To add on to this, three of the sacks came late in the fourth quarter when the Norse were trying to mount a comeback. Key plays at key times. St. Olaf made them. Luther did not.

Shotgun center-quarterback-exchange. Too often snaps between centers John Stoltenberg and Kyle Grundmeyer and Feldt, while Feldt was in the shotgun, went arye. Any sort of bobble or miss handle on the shotgun snap, and the timing of a play goes to heck in a handbasket. As often as the Norse line up in the shotgun, this is a problem that needs to be corrected fast.

Two turnovers ended up hurting as well, the fumble punt by Mike Tangen and the interception thrown by Feldt, which went through the hands of Jesse Kent. Those two mistakes, which gave the Oles their best field position of the day, resulted in nine points being given up. And when you lose by seven the math isn't hard to figure out.

St. Olaf was seven for fifteen on third down conversions, including five for nine in the second half. Key plays at key times need to be made.

All of the negatives from Luther's perspective are correctable. It's nowhere near a case of not having horses. Problems are correctable and with the focus this team has talked about in the preseason, I'm confident that will happen.

Now the Positives. Running game. The Norse rushed for 201 yards Saturday afternoon and if you take away the sacks of Feldt, the total was 236. Taking away the sacks, the average per rush was four yards, which is very acceptable. The return of Tyler Sherden definately helped. Tyler rushed for 152 yards on 31 carries, including a 29 yard touchdown. But the other backs of Adam Lamos, Tyler Bass and Andrew Lower also helped out. In fact on Luther's final scoring drive, when Sherden was out of the game with an injury, Bass showed signs of being a more than capable relief man.

The play of Feldt at quarterback. Feldt went 11-18 for 121 yards and one interception. The term game manager has been used for Feldt, but late in the ballgame Feldt proved he can make some plays. For the most part, the decisions he made were correct and he didn't put his team in a situation that resulted in any negativity. For his first career start, I give him a more than passing grade.

Three turnovers forced. Jerry said during the broadcast the defense is using a philosophy of biting the ball, which means the defender should get his face mask on the ball, thus creating a precarious position for the offensive player. The Norse forced two fumbles and Trevor Theobald made an interception in which he flat out wanted the ball more than the St. Olaf receiver. Overall, the Norse were plus one on the turnover ratio. Last year, the Norse were even and forced 18 turnovers on the season. With the return of the more aggressive style of defense, expect that stat to improve this year.

Special Teams. Punter Andrew Burkle had a solid day kicking the ball. While his 34 yards per punt average may not look impressive, every punt was fair caught by the Olaf return man with the exception of the one touchback. Burkle also placed the Oles in the 20 twice. Coaches have told me that his hang time has really improved this season, allowing his teammates to get down field and prevent any big returns. Tyler Pease kicked a 37 yard field goal. With the exception of the first two kickoffs, the kickoff coverage was adequate as well. Special teams did not put the offense or defense in a position to cause harm.

So in the last 11 games, the Norse have lost five games by seven points or lease. Last year Central won the Iowa conference. Why? Because they won three overtime games. Luther, Wartburg and Coe all took the Dutch to overtime and the Dutch won those games. This program needs to find a way to win close ballgames. They often mean the difference between a good and disappointing season. The Norse cannot fall into what I call the Hall and Oates trap. "So close, yet so far away," (Sorry for the cheesy 80's reference)

I do believe the off week is well placed. Luther has played a game. They know were they're at. They know where they need to go. Now they can spend a week improving themselves, possibly putting in some new things, and then narrow in on the number eight team in Division three the next week. Central defeated St. Thomas of Minnesota 35-10 Saturday. The Dutch will be at Hope College of Michigan next week.

I'll check back in a week from Wednesday with a Central preview. What do you think? E-mail me at darinsvenson@gmail.com

Published Sunday, September 2, 2007 at 9:55 AM by Darin Svenson

0 Comments:

<-- Back to Blog Home | Post a Comment

Staff Blog

St. Olaf Game

Archives