Staff Blog

Fun Fall Break

Saturday was a fun day. 58 points on the board. 572 yards of total offense. Over 100 players got into the ballgame. All was well in Norse nation after a 58-7 win over Waldorf.

Lets look at the negatives from last week that we wanted to turn into positives this week.

1. The Run defense. Waldorf came in averaging 238 yards a game on the ground. Most of the day Saturday rushing yards were hard to come by, and not only with the first unit in the ballgame. The Warriors ended up with 111 yards rushing but only averaged 2.8 yards per carry. Take away a Marcus Lewis 26 yard run on a fake punt and a Alex Grunhovd 42 yard touchdown run, Waldorf had 43 yards rushing on 37 carries. That's 1.2 per rush. Solid, solid job against the run.

2. The passing game. Justy Feldt had his best day as a Norse quarterback and Luther was also able to get Tony Brantner and Jesse Kent involved in the offense. Feldt was 16-21 for 217 yards and three touchdowns. Justy had only two touchdown passes on the season coming into the game. Kent had four catches and 75 yards with a touchdown. We saw the return on Touchdown Tony Brantner, with four catches, 68 yards and two touchdowns. Overall on the day, Luther completed 23 passes to ten different receivers. A good job in establishing a lot a threats.

3. Taking better care of the ball. Only one turnover on the day and it led to points. That was the free kick after the Norse defense forced a safety. The game was well in hand by the time that happend, but fielding punts continues to be an adventure for this team. That's something we've been asking for improvement in all season long. Hopefully it comes in the final three ballgames. But you can't complain about a positive two turnover ratio. The Norse have won the ratio in five of the seven ballgames. Four of those were wins. It's not rocket science.

4. Playing physical throughout the ballgame. The thing that impressed me with the number of players playing Saturday, all played physical when they got their opportunity. That's both on the offensive and the defensive sides of the ball. Waldorf had just as many problems in the fourth quarter as they did in the first. The Luther JV is having a good year. When those guys got a Saturday opportunity yesterday, they made the most of it.

One negative from Saturday, penalties. The Norse were flagged eight times for 59 yards. Unacceptable. Numbers close to that total won't get it done the next three weeks.

One thing from the postgame, in Mike's interview with Mike Tangen, this team realizes that things need to be better in the next three weeks. Tangen stated they need to look at the flim and realize that things need to be better next week, taking an attitude of you're only as good as your last game, your last play. The 24 hour rule is nearing completion.

The team will get away from football until Tuesday at one-30 with fall break in session. Coach Hefty talks a lot about mental and physical freshness. This fall break recess will hopefully accomplish that.

Luther will face a Coe team that is reeling after three straight defeats. The Kohawks have had a brutual schedule in October, losing in overtime to Dubuque, and back to back road loses to Central and Wartburg. The Norse cannot be lured into a false sense of security because of Coe's recent struggles. The Kohawks are a proud football program and they will be hungry to snap that losing streak next week. The Norse need to be as, or even more, hungry heading into next Saturday's matchup in Cedar Rapids.

Published Sunday, October 21, 2007 at 11:48 AM by Darin Svenson

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