Staff Blog

WEEK TWO REVIEW/WEEK THREE PREVIEW

Discussion was during the week if Luther's defense could hold Dubuque to 14 points, they could have a decent chance of defeating Dubuque. That, coinsiding with six takeaways led to a Norse victory in the Iowa Conference opener last Saturday, 23-14 over Dubuque.

We talked before and after the St. Olaf game that Luther's defense is good enough to keep this team competitive. They definately were on Saturday. The Spartans brought more speed than most on offense. One of the keeps to slowing down Dubuque over the last few years is making sure tackles in the open field and keeping the yards after catch stat down. With very few exceptions that happended on Saturday. With the offense being kept from doing what it likes to do, they began to press, which led to turnovers and Norse success. Luther was also able to score three times following getting a turnover, providing the necessary margin for victory.

Offensively, freshman quarterback Chris Reynolds took some more steps forward. After trailing 14-3, Reynolds again showed poise and leadership in bringing his team back to victory. Reynolds' numbers were solid and not spectacular, 17-33, 147 yards and he rushed six times for 46 yards. But the key with Reynolds' performance was making the key play at the key time. He scrambled for a couple of first downs and threaded the needle a couple of times for key plays. Props as well to Jesse Kent on his spectacular touchdown catch, likely candidate for one of the plays of the week at sports.luther.edu/football. Also credit to Kris McCallister. After dropping three balls earlier in the game, made the difficult catch on a pass not directly too him and he fought amongst multiple Dubuque defenders and made the end zone for the go-ahead score.

Two simple stats that always mean a lot and get talked a lot about on this blog. Field position and turnovers. Luther started on its own 44. Dubuque started on its own 30. We've already talked about turnovers. The Norse were plus four on the turnover ratio.

The Norse did suffer a loss when running back Tyler Bass went down with a collar bone injury in the second half. Sources say Bass will be down for a while. With Bass the lone running back with experience coming back this season, this does create a dillema for how the offense will scheme against Simpson and future opponents. Last Saturday, the Norse ran the ball 46 times and threw it 33 times. With a change coming at running back, will those numbers reverse or will coach Durnin continue with the same philosophy. The discussion is probably taking place in staff meetings this week.

So this week is off to Indianola. The Storm did put up a lot of offense last week in a 41-28 loss to Buena Vista. Senior running back Adam Reutzel has rushed for over one hundred yards for the first three weeks of the season. But the Storm were anything but one-dimensional. Freshman wide receiver Nick Burden caught seven balls for 111 yards last week. The Storm defense did give up nearly 340 yards and 41 points last week. The Storm will prevent a challenge offensively to the Norse defense, (and vice versa) and the Norse offense will face challenges not have the same personel this week. We'll wait and see.

Just audio streaming and terresterial radio this week. Saturday Jerry and I will bring it to you, pregame 12:40 pregame, 1:00 kickoff, kwlc.luther.edu and AM 1240-KWLC

Published Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 9:19 AM by Darin Svenson

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Staff Blog

WEEK TWO REVIEW/WEEK THREE PREVIEW

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