Western Illinois

[Iceman]

Very good points coyote fan. I just can't get over this either. There are many things a person can bring up on why we lost. Yep we missed the field goal, Bouma fumbled into the end one, we dropped that pass on 3rd down, and we dropped a pick six. But, we should never have been in that position for those to decide the game for us. Remember when we chased a running back down and made him fumble into the endzone for a touchback and ended up winning the game? Our luck on all these close games can only last so long.

These games shouldn't be this close. Every game we blow people away in the first half and second half comes and I don't know if the offensive coordinator leaves his play sheet in the locker room at halftime every game or what, but it has gotten ridiculous. EVERY GAME! We completely go away from what worked in the first half.

Just like coyote fan said too, we are 3-5 plays away from maybe having 0 wins. The western Illinois message board quoted coyote fans comment about shutting down the offense every game. They all made it sound like they are very familiar with that style of coaching from this staff.

When we mixed up the play calling in the 4th quarter, we moved it until the fumble. I have said this more than once this year, it's ok to keep your foot on the gas until late in the 4th quarter and win by like 28 or more.

[Coyote Fan]

Oct 29, 2016 21:48:35 GMT -6 Iceman said:

The western Illinois message board quoted coyote fans comment about shutting down the offense every game. They all made it sound like they are very familiar with that style of coaching from this staff.

OMG you're kidding me. Nielson is obviously a good coach but maybe that is the exact reason he is currently coaching at USD and not Illinois or Purdue.

The Coyotes can look so good one minute and so inept the next. I guess that might be the downside of getting a coach in his late 50's. Wanting him to change his philosophy when trying to protect (I mean add to) a lead might be the old saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks". I think no matter how experienced one is a person is never too experienced or too old to learn something new or learn from their mistakes. The Leatherneck fans certainly bring to light why Nielson doesn't seem to learn from past mistakes. That seems kind of like a little "Coyotes of Old" seeping back through the cracks.

It seems like the common theme is to get out to a big lead then try to sit on it only to once again go oops we better get it going again. That allows the other teams back into the game and gives that team confidence when they shouldn't have had any. Then after realizing the game is a game again then some of the aggressiveness comes back again but now instead of being aggressive because of choice it becomes being aggressive almost by necessity. But by that point the other team has their momentum and it becomes a dog fight or in this case a Leatherneck fight. Our offense is effective when it's in attack mode. There is no such thing as preservation mode with this offense. You are either gashing the defense by choice of you might as well have the quarterback take 3 knees and punt. That is how it seems to work out.

The defense on this team is good enough to compliment the offense as long as it keeps trying to score. The defense is not good enough to win a game by themselves and haven't been good enough to hold off other teams when the offense doesn't do it's part. I blame the offense for today's loss much more than the defense. I said in my keys to the game that the Coyotes have to be in the mind set that they need to put up 40 in this game regardless of how the game plays out. Western Illinois's defense was ripe for the picking and the Yotes let them off the hood. The Yotes could have scored 50 if they wanted to but simply chose not to.

[Coyote Fan]

I do want to give props to Streveler. He played a whale of a game. When the offense goes through him things happen. He is hitting his receivers and now he is limiting his mistakes. I only saw one play where it looked like he did anything even remotely risky when he passed it right to a couple of WIU players but luckily it was dropped. Considering the upside he provides with his arm and legs it's amazing how much he has minimized his mistakes in his last few games. He looks good out there. I think the game was taken out of his hands today. No fault of Chris.

[sd4ever]

I am still so upset about this game I can not even begin to try to get some sleep. When a team plays not to lose after having gained a big lead it greatly increases the probability of losing. That is the way it has been going and that is exactly what happened today. It also happened in freaking Grand Forks.

The Yotes have come so far it's almost unbelievable. Think about all the blow outs over the past few years. Remember that joke of a game at ISU last year. Remember getting killed by the Bison and the flipping Jacks. The Good Guys are now to the point where that is not going to happen again anytime soon. At least I sure hope not. The Coyotes can play with any opponent and potentially beat any opponent. They had WiU today and just let them off the hook.

We should be talking about being tied for first place in the conference. First place!! Who would have thought that at this point before the season started? We should be talking about going for 5 MVFC wins in a row next Saturday not blowing this very frustrating game. Well it is what it is!

At least we are watching exciting football again and that is great. Let's hope we can now watch the Yotes run the table. It will be tough but we have a team that can take its shot at it. Got to get by SIU of course. I watched both the Jack's and the Bison's games. I did not see anything that tells me that our team does not have a shot at both of them. They can get it done in Brooksville and they can get it done in the Dome. Even after this crappy loss I believe they believe.

And I am going to believe!

Go South Dakota! Fight!!

[Yotes]

Likely have to win out to make the playoffs now. Winning out would also likely result in a shared conference title. I think it's fair to say it's possible but a long shot.

And really I never expected to be able to say the above at this point in the season. This team has been much more competitive than I anticipated, but even still no amount of losing seasons will ever condition me to be able to take losses like this (or the UND game). If the staff can figure out how to maintain our first half electricity we should beat anyone we face.

[obc]

It is easy to overlook that like most games - this game was won and lost up-front. WIU played better across the board on the OL and DL. The WIU OL was the first team to consistently pick up the USD stunts they have been running to try and get pressure with the front four. USD had success getting pressure when they would send another rusher on a blitz but that was it. Zero sacks by USD says a lot - especially since USD was 2nd in the MVFC to this point in that stat. Really impressed with that WIU OL. Best unit I have seen this year.

USD's OL has been adequate in pass blocking all year and that continued against WIU. They struggled as run blockers. There were several opportunities that the OL had where the offense needed one yard and they couldn't get it done. Need more strength up front. IMO that was the difference in the game.

This loss stings because I believe we saw a glimpse of what the future can hold for the Coyotes and that looks incredible. Get improved line play and this team will close out these games easily. I will choose to believe that the first half we saw is the future, not the second half of this game or at UND. Up to the team to prove it. This team has already shown more than I thought they had prior to the season. In my view the Coyotes are a much better team than last year and significantly better than the one I saw in the opener against New Mexico. Remember both Illinois St and WIU destroyed USD last year. Neither game was really even competitive.


Optimistic overall about this program. Hope they continue improving.

Also - keep encouraging your friends to come to the game, tailgate and join in the fun. This is exciting football and fun environment when enough people show up and bring their energy.

[sdyotefan]

Drove out from Rapid City and was having fun until 440 left and it was 3rd and goal from the 1. When Chris came back in I was thinking QB sneak to power it across. Obviously if you don't get it you have an extra point FG to go up by 9. WI had just taken a time out. You have to think they must of talked about they needed a turnover or the game is most likely over. It's always easy to look back but the QB sneak would have been safer (less chance for a fumble, no handoff, quicker hitting, etc). I don't fault Trevor on the fumble he just took a really hard hit on the ball. If the QB sneak didn't work it probably forces them to take their 2nd time out. Obviously we had other opportunities but the game could have been won there in all likelihood.

obc I definitely agree with your assessment on the OL and DL dominance generally by WI. Their QB was rarely even hurried when passing and their running plays were generally more successful than ours. The vast majority of our running yards were on QB draws and scrambles.

A few days before the game I watched their game last week vs the bison on ESPN3. If they could have scored on a couple of rushing attempts from the 1 late in the game they probably would have won (also that is probably why they threw the ball against us from the 2). I agree they should be at least the 15th ranked team in the nation. WI has a very good balanced pass run offensive attack and they have a very good front 7 on defense. It is interesting to note that their commentators in the bison game were worried about their young and inexperienced secondary which due to injuries include some FR and red shirt FR. So I agree with other posters we should have taken more shots downfield.

I'm am as disappointed by the loss as anyone BUT I believe the future continues to be bright for Coyote FB!! This team will never quit and we just need to start putting teams away (but remember that is hard to do with the quality of teams in the Valley) and give the team as much support as possible! Keep battling Coyotes and good things will happen!! GO YOTES!!

[goyotes24]

I'm late to the party, and am finally recovered enough from Chicago.

I watched the Gamecast for the first half and was happy, but also still skeptical. I had to tell my older brother that, thinking about the previous games this season, they needed to score at least 10 points in the second half. We had three other USD grads with me, so my buddy, who was at the game, was live texting me updates. When he told me Bergner missed, we all let out a huge groan, and a packed Chicago bar across the street from Wrigley heard all of us and thought something bad happened in the game they were watching at the bar.

Anyway, my general thoughts seem to be with the consensus of most here. Although this loss hurts considerably, and I was sick to my stomach after that loss (though the copious amounts of shots purchased by other Cubs fans helped), I am so happy with the way the coaching staff is grooming a winning program.

There is a lot of work to be done still. However, beating State in Brookings is much more possible this year than it was a couple years ago. Beating NDSU at home this year doesn't seem that far off as well (just considering how improved we are, how they regressed from last year, and we beat them in Fargo last year). I do believe we lose at the very least, one of those two games.

SIU appears to be an "easy win" this week compared to the previous matchups. Though in this league, we all know nothing is given. So if we beat SIU, get some help around the conference with other losses, and at least going 1-1 against one of the xDSUs, that just MIGHT get us in the playoffs.

In the end, knowing we have a shot at playoffs this late in the season has exceeded my expectations of this team exponentially.

Three games left this season, let's get it done!

[Coyote Fan]

I would not sleep on SIU. They have been knocking on the door and barely fell short in many of their conference games so far. They had the Jacks in trouble on their field before the Bunnies escaped. This is exactly the kind of a team I would not want to play because they have been so close to a win but haven't quite broken through. I am guessing that USD will be favored but I consider it a 50/50 game because it is in their backyard. The Salukis have lost conference games by 6, 3, 8, 3 and 21, They are not that far off.

[yoteforever]

Oct 31, 2016 18:28:24 GMT -6 Coyote Fan said:

I would not sleep on SIU. They have been knocking on the door and barely fell short in many of their conference games so far. They had the Jacks in trouble on their field before the Bunnies escaped. This is exactly the kind of a team I would not want to play because they have been so close to a win but haven't quite broken through. I am guessing that USD will be favored but I consider it a 50/50 game because it is in their backyard. The Salukis have lost conference games by 6, 3, 8, 3 and 21, They are not that far off.

I completely agree. This game will tell me about their character. Not that we have to win but we have to play spirited. SIU is a very good winless team.

[yoteforever]

Nov 1, 2016 5:01:27 GMT -6 huskie said:

Did anyone notice that USD only had 10 players on the field after a time out on WIU's last TD? How does that happen? You guys need to ask some questions.

We did ask a question and it was....."Do you want to leave Western Illinois and join an up and coming team for the balance of your career?" The answer was yes. Huskie, congrats, you won the game but now go troll the boards of your future opponents. We are quite happy to have this staff on board.

[yoteforever]

Nov 1, 2016 7:03:46 GMT -6 huskie said:

To bad some of the assistants are not happy there.

Nice try....that's not the word here. Go stir up trouble elsewhere.

[yotefan]

Come on man. It's "too" not "to" and I'd suggest returning to the Western Illinois fan board where the 7 of you should start working on figuring out how to remain a D1 school for the next 5 years instead of spreading rumors.

[gopheryote]

Nov 1, 2016 7:14:51 GMT -6 yoteforever said:

Nov 1, 2016 7:03:46 GMT -6 huskie said:

To bad some of the assistants are not happy there.

Nice try....that's not the word here. Go stir up trouble elsewhere.

Disappointing that WIU fans would go trolling - that seems so... SDSU-ish. I thought better of WIU folks.

[gopheryote]

Oct 29, 2016 21:07:58 GMT -6 Coyote Fan said:

Oct 29, 2016 20:04:00 GMT -6 yotebewithyou said:

We're 2 plays away from being 6-2. That's the worst part.

The Coyotes are also about 3 to 5 plays away from being 2-6, 1-7 or even 0-8. They could have very easily lost to Weber, Indiana State and Illinois State. the largest margin of victory this year is 3 points. It's not bad luck with the record being at 4-4, it's more so to do with self inflicted wounds why they don't have 1 or 2 more wins. With the way this team has played so well at times during games it is amazing that they still do not really have a convincing win yet.

I was thinking through coyotefan's response to see if there is some merit in this line of thinking. In sports, and what yotebewithyou was referring to, is that often times right at the end, if the ball bounces your way you win, if it doesn't you lose - but it comes down to the ending. And if that is the case, then maybe all our close wins should be viewed that way. But there is a major difference with how the Yotes season has played out so far. Except for Weber, all of the Yotes games involved the Yotes building a solid (even comfortable) lead. And then it was incumbent on the other team to have almost everything go exactly right for a long period of time. I'm talking 30 out of 35 plays (both sides of the ball, special teams) going their way. That is nearly impossible to do, and as such the Yotes won a lot of close games. But it isn't totally impossible, and the Yotes dropped UND & WIU - but it took an extended period of everything going right for them, and nothing going right for USD. That is not the same thing as the sports cliché of '3 to 5 plays from being 2-6, 1-7, or even 0-8', since that would have been 33 to 35 straight plays from those fictional losses.

TL:DR - The Yotes are light-years closer to 6-2 than 2-6, despite the close games.