WESTERN ILLINOIS

[usdtator]

Does anyone have any info on Wessel and Gray's injuries? Those are key injuries that could impact our defense.

[yotebewithyou]

Oct 1, 2017 13:50:50 GMT -6 usdtator said:

Does anyone have any info on Wessel and Gray's injuries? Those are key injuries that could impact our defense.

I think Gray was back in for the final play. Not sure about Wessel but he looked like he was fine a few minutes later on the sideline

[yoteforever]

I was at the game yesterday and purposely waited till today to give my thoughts. It was perhaps a feeling like I've never had before, and that is although we won, when the game was over I felt like we had lost but didn't have the emotion of the loss. It some ways it was like the game was never played.

But here are the facts. We won the game and that's the bottom line. Could've, would've, and should've don't work. At the end, the Coyotes get the W. Period.

For the first time all year our kids lost their poise and got rattled. For the first three games, when passes hit the ground our kids picked up the ball and handed it to the refs. When other teams tried to "bait" us into fighting, taunting, etc...our kids ignored it. Yesterday they didn't at about the last 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter and all of the 4th. It came about when Wessells came out of the game, and that right there may give you some insight why John is so special. He is a leader, and perhaps ( not saying it's so ) our defense missed its leader. When you are caught up in the emotions of a game, stuff happens. And the stuff that happened the last 20 minutes didn't reflect well on what we've seen thus far. But when the Coyotes had to make a play, they did. They picked off that last pass and sealed the win. That's what counts. In the short term, we remember almost everything that went on. In the long term, we don't. We just know we won.

As you're aware of, the game was damned near 4 hours in length. That's ridiculous whether there's TV timeouts or not. Then late on the game the officials made perhaps the worst call I've seen in quite some time when on 4th and goal from the 25 they called pass interference on USD...and without question the young man fro WIU draped all over our guy because the pass was off target. Horrific call. But saying that, it gives me comfort despite the whole thing going down the crapper it didn't. We won the game. I'm still uncertain of how we match up talent wise on an individual basis, but collectively we are a darned good football team. They play with an edge. I will be more than anxious to see how we bounce back from that last 20 minutes yesterday. I'm betting we shake it off and defend the Dome in another 4 quarter fist fight.

Huge huge game Saturday. In order to compete for the MVFC, we must defend the Dome. Not worry about NDSU or SDSU or Illinois State, but rather focus on YSU. I like our chances. The most improved area of our team from last year is the defensive line. If they continue to play at the level they have been playing they will limit YSU's potent ground game and force them to throw. If that happens, then we have a great chance to get the W. There will NOT be an easy game for USD in the Valley this year. Not one. We aren't good enough to overlook anyone, but we are good enough that no one can overlook us either. That's what makes us dangerous.

ONE GAME AT A TIME

[yoteforever]

Oct 1, 2017 13:50:50 GMT -6 usdtator said:

Does anyone have any info on Wessel and Gray's injuries? Those are key injuries that could impact our defense.

John Wessel had his shoulder pop out I'm told, but they got it back in right away. I don't know what that means in terms of sitting out. I know if he's capable of going and can pass medical tests, he will be on the field. He is the heart and would of that defense.

[easmus]

Oct 1, 2017 15:00:54 GMT -6 yoteforever said:

I was at the game yesterday and purposely waited till today to give my thoughts. It was perhaps a feeling like I've never had before, and that is although we won, when the game was over I felt like we had lost but didn't have the emotion of the loss. It some ways it was like the game was never played.

But here are the facts. We won the game and that's the bottom line. Could've, would've, and should've don't work. At the end, the Coyotes get the W. Period.

For the first time all year our kids lost their poise and got rattled. For the first three games, when passes hit the ground our kids picked up the ball and handed it to the refs. When other teams tried to "bait" us into fighting, taunting, etc...our kids ignored it. Yesterday they didn't at about the last 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter and all of the 4th. It came about when Wessells came out of the game, and that right there may give you some insight why John is so special. He is a leader, and perhaps ( not saying it's so ) our defense missed its leader. When you are caught up in the emotions of a game, stuff happens. And the stuff that happened the last 20 minutes didn't reflect well on what we've seen thus far. But when the Coyotes had to make a play, they did. They picked off that last pass and sealed the win. That's what counts. In the short term, we remember almost everything that went on. In the long term, we don't. We just know we won.

As you're aware of, the game was damned near 4 hours in length. That's ridiculous whether there's TV timeouts or not. Then late on the game the officials made perhaps the worst call I've seen in quite some time when on 4th and goal from the 25 they called pass interference on USD...and without question the young man fro WIU draped all over our guy because the pass was off target. Horrific call. But saying that, it gives me comfort despite the whole thing going down the crapper it didn't. We won the game. I'm still uncertain of how we match up talent wise on an individual basis, but collectively we are a darned good football team. They play with an edge. I will be more than anxious to see how we bounce back from that last 20 minutes yesterday. I'm betting we shake it off and defend the Dome in another 4 quarter fist fight.

Huge huge game Saturday. In order to compete for the MVFC, we must defend the Dome. Not worry about NDSU or SDSU or Illinois State, but rather focus on YSU. I like our chances. The most improved area of our team from last year is the defensive line. If they continue to play at the level they have been playing they will limit YSU's potent ground game and force them to throw. If that happens, then we have a great chance to get the W. There will NOT be an easy game for USD in the Valley this year. Not one. We aren't good enough to overlook anyone, but we are good enough that no one can overlook us either. That's what makes us dangerous.

ONE GAME AT A TIME

In the craziness of everything that happened, I had basically forgotten about that god awful PI on 4th & long goal to go. That call was every bit as bad as the targeting call on Lewis. If that is a no call, or Offensive PI as was the correct call, the game never gets that close.

The good news is we won and the coaches should have their attention with lots of mistakes on tape to correct and a YSU team that should have their attention.

[elcoyote]

That call was absolutely horrific. When the flag came out I thought, "Offensive interference, no big deal, 4th down anyway, decline and take the ball in great field position." I, nor any of the USD faithful around me could believe it when we all realized that it was defensive interference. There were truly some pissed of Yote people. Sometimes you really have to wonder what the officials are looking at. I'd love to see a replay to see if there was something everyone in the stands missed because it sure looked liked the receiver trailing the defensive back grabbed him to keep him from intercepting. They then went on to score a few plays later, so without that call the game probably ends up a two touchdown win at least. Credit our guys for being able to battle through something as horrendous and game changing as that. Over all, it seemed that there was two different sets of standards of what constituted pass interference anyway: one for us and one for them. They weren't flagged once the entire game for PI when there were several that could have easily been called, especially seeing what we were getting flagged for.

[leatherneckcountry]

Or the god awful call when are receiver was thrown to the ground when he was almost at the track and we get a taunting penalty or when are guy was down and the guy comes diving in head 1st and hurts himself and are guy but yeah it was only bad one way.

[western101]

Ummm, Leatherneckcountry, I think the word you are looking for is "our"

I haven't met you so if you aRRRe a pirate my appoligies Lol.

[Yotes]

Sept 30, 2017 22:47:20 GMT -6 stlawson said:

I will say congrats to the Yotes and their fans. I was in the alumni band and made a point of going over and saying hi to some of your fans who where there. Your fans were loud and really into the game.
As for the game itself, much credit to USD's defense...able to almost completely shut us down for 2 1/2 quarters. By the time we were able to figure out weaknesses, we were already down by 32 points and running out of time. I think that if the game was a couple of minutes longer, we might have won it...had the momentum and could have put together a solid drive rather than forcing a risky pass that was intercepted. Our "death knell" was really in that last USD drive...didn't get any points, but picked up first downs and moved the ball on the ground, killing a lot of clock time.

Attendance - yea....no way was that under 6K. I know it wasn't close to what the Bison bring in up at their place, but I think we were at least around 10-11k.

As for losing the lead or giving up a lot of points near the end, I don't know if it's just coaching style or just the luck of things, but it did seem to happen relatively frequently when Coach Nielson was here.
For reference: goleathernecks.com/news/2014/10/4/FB_1004141307.aspx?path=football
And goleathernecks.com/news/2014/10/18/FB_1018145759.aspx?path=football
Clock management also seemed to be an issue sometimes...something that I think some of your guys mentioned...like if today you'd taken longer to snap the ball on some of the drives when you were up by 30+, we wouldn't have had enough time to get half as close as we did.

Still, congrats on the win, you guys have a great team this year. Go out there and take some of the "top dogs" down a peg.

Back from my first trip to Macomb. If I may offer my opinion on the attendance, I think the posted attendance is what I expected looking at the crowd. The three of us that made the trip guessed 5-7k in attendance. One thing we were absolutely certain of was that there is not a chance that Hanson Field holds over 16k. Just absolutely no way. To help verify I went to the ticketing website and counted 4,260 total seats on the main grandstand. I can't do a count on the other side because its GA, but it looks of similar size. I agree with Yoteforever's 85% full assessment on that main side, for 3,621 people, so if there were 2k on the band/visitor side or on the grass then we are right at the stated attendance of 5,631. It's a very reasonable figure.

[Yotes]

The city and campus in Macomb were much nicer than I was expecting. I sort of got a Vermillion vibe from Macomb and really admired the buildings they have up on campus. The fans were very friendly and it was nice to interact with a fanbase I normally am not exposed to. I'm envious of the tailgate situation at WIU, just one massive parking lot where everyone can be together. That's what I want. I probably won't be going back to Macomb again anytime soon simply because of the drive, but I encourage anyone interested in future trips to give it a shot. Just don't stay at the Macomb Inn.

Unexpectedly, I came away with more respect for our student participation after this trip. The student tailgate at WIU was similar in size to what we have at USD. They never went into the game though. I walked back to the car right before halftime and there were hundreds of students still out there partying. The one student we talked to said they were a senior and still haven't been to a game yet in 4 years. Just tailgates. At least we get them in for one half I guess.

[thebacksackdad]

Just finished watching the webcast. You miss seeing things at the game that people saw on TV and conversely, those that watched it on TV missed things that you would see if you were there. I was a bit worried that we had some shortcomings from the collapse in the 2nd half but am not worried after re-watching the game. I will never be one of those that go into details and post them on our forum for everybody and the world to read.

I can honestly say that there was about a dozen reasons for that WIU "perfect storm" at the end of the 3rd and into the 4th quarter but I'm actually happy it happened. Not only were our chinks in the armor exposed but I think that part of the game has probably pi$$ed the Coyotes off as they easily took care of business and should be thought of as world beaters but it didn't look that way because of that part of the game and our boys are going to be dialed in and ready for YSU! I would choose to play a team that won the week before rather than had lost any day since a team that lost would be soo much more focused. I think the team is going to be focused this week because of that storm but it didn't come at the expense of an L!

Each game has been a stepping stone so far this year and this next game is going to put USD on the map as a serious challenger for the National Championship. One can make the argument that we're a year away but if you've followed football, you know those magic carpet ride years can come unexpectedly at any time. It's happening and I hope everybody starts believing so they don't miss the ride!

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

Great win Yotes, keep it up.

[easmus]

Oct 1, 2017 15:55:16 GMT -6 leatherneckcountry said:

Or the god awful call when are receiver was thrown to the ground when he was almost at the track and we get a taunting penalty or when are guy was down and the guy comes diving in head 1st and hurts himself and are guy but yeah it was only bad one way.

The tackle that went over the chains should not have been a penalty and was not called one. The announcer even agreed it is awful hard to stop making a tackle when you cross the boundary. The wr probably doesn't get a penalty if he just says something running by our db, but no he turns around and makes sure everyone sees him jawing and gets called for it.

There were lots of iffy calls yesterday. But the play originally referenced was at a critical juncture in the game considering it was 4th down.

[elcoyote]

Oct 1, 2017 18:38:09 GMT -6 thebacksackdad said:

Just finished watching the webcast. You miss seeing things at the game that people saw on TV and conversely, those that watched it on TV missed things that you would see if you were there. I was a bit worried that we had some shortcomings from the collapse in the 2nd half but am not worried after re-watching the game. I will never be one of those that go into details and post them on our forum for everybody and the world to read.

I can honestly say that there was about a dozen reasons for that WIU "perfect storm" at the end of the 3rd and into the 4th quarter but I'm actually happy it happened. Not only were our chinks in the armor exposed but I think that part of the game has probably pi$$ed the Coyotes off as they easily took care of business and should be thought of as world beaters but it didn't look that way because of that part of the game and our boys are going to be dialed in and ready for YSU! I would choose to play a team that won the week before rather than had lost any day since a team that lost would be soo much more focused. I think the team is going to be focused this week because of that storm but it didn't come at the expense of an L!

Each game has been a stepping stone so far this year and this next game is going to put USD on the map as a serious challenger for the National Championship. One can make the argument that we're a year away but if you've followed football, you know those magic carpet ride years can come unexpectedly at any time. It's happening and I hope everybody starts believing so they don't miss the ride!

Where did you find a replay?

[Coyote Fan]

Oct 1, 2017 15:34:43 GMT -6 elcoyote said:

That call was absolutely horrific. When the flag came out I thought, "Offensive interference, no big deal, 4th down anyway, decline and take the ball in great field position." I, nor any of the USD faithful around me could believe it when we all realized that it was defensive interference. There were truly some pissed of Yote people. Sometimes you really have to wonder what the officials are looking at. I'd love to see a replay to see if there was something everyone in the stands missed because it sure looked liked the receiver trailing the defensive back grabbed him to keep him from intercepting. They then went on to score a few plays later, so without that call the game probably ends up a two touchdown win at least. Credit our guys for being able to battle through something as horrendous and game changing as that. Over all, it seemed that there was two different sets of standards of what constituted pass interference anyway: one for us and one for them. They weren't flagged once the entire game for PI when there were several that could have easily been called, especially seeing what we were getting flagged for.

When I saw the play live on video I thought the same thing with the call. When I saw the replay eventhough the defender was ahead of the offensive player for the ball it looked like he was pushing off or had the arm hooked of the trailing receiver. I thought there was probably some wrong doing on the receivers end as well. It probably should have gone as a no call but I wasn't as livid after seeing the replay as I was when it happened live.