FB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[bleedpurple]

Thankfully, I don't think Klinkner sees another defense as good as UWRF until the playoffs, so he has time to get things right. Or they can make a change. Clearly we can run the ball. If our passing game can even become serviceable, our defense might win us the whole thing.

This is the point I was going to make. We found a way to win against one of the best defenses in the country with no passing game. The fact that we had no passing game is not good. But...we may well not see a defense like that again EVEN in the playoffs. If we do, we either find a way to win again, or more preferably, have a stronger passing game than we did today.

No one involved with the program believes the passing game was good enough on Saturday. But on the other hand, our defense was so dominant, we firmly believed, "we don't mess up, we win". You may think that's playing it too conservatively. I would understand that viewpoint. But I think it was wisdom. When you see a path to victory over the defending national champion, you take it even if it doesn't look pretty.

[emma17]

Bleed, I hope your opinion and others about the greatness of UWRF's defense holds true. I think the jury is still out as to how they match up w a high level, balanced offense.

I don't know the passing numbers match up w your idea the UWW staff was playing it safe. Klinkner had 25 pass attempts, by my count 15 were in the second half.

I agree the staff likely played it safe by having him run the ball straight up the middle for a yard or two. Whether that is wisdom is another question. My idea of playing it safe is pretty simple. Hand the ball off to guys that play the position of running back. They too will get stuffed every now and then, but as we saw, the good ones (even the average ones), will break off for runs longer than a yard or two.

I really hoped the OC had learned his lesson in last year's game at UWRF when Klinkner handed the ball off to a running back a whopping three times in the entire first half.

UWL will be up for the challenge.