PantherPride

I think it comes down to if Northwood doesn’t turn the ball over. We committed 5 TOs against Warsaw. I don’t see any way Mishawaka doesn’t have at least 300 yards rushing and 35 points. The question is, does Northwood’s offense do its thing and keep it a game. My prediction is no and Mishawaka wins by at least 3 scores. The Panthers have regressed, even Plymouth was having some success running the ball. They just don’t have the talent to maintain that on long drives.

That is the question isn’t it? Last year it was poor decisions by some important players. This year there’s a bunch of small issues that combined make for a mess when they don’t overwhelm the opponent in talent. They have issues at center and cant consistently snap the ball well, they have issues in stopping the run on defense against everyone, they commit a lot of penalties and have had 9 turnovers in 2 games. I’m refraining as well from giving out any other info I know about effort in practice from some of the important players. Definitely ot the recipe for a team that will have any sort of success unless major changes happen. Plenty of time to but since many of these issues were there earlier this year we just overlooked them cause they were beating down inferior teams, so I’m not overly optimistic. Not that we will get many answers with Plymouth, Goshen and wawasee coming up. Mishawaka will give us a glimpse of what postseason possibilities there are.

Not really anything competitive it sounds like tonight. For the most part that’s not too surprising. However, what happened down in Warsaw was. And I know it’s high school football being played by kids so I’ll restrain my thoughts. That said, I could see that happening if you waltzed in there undefeated thinking your stuff don’t stink and you get popped in the mouth. But this was after a loss. I was looking forward to seeing how this team responded to as and I got my answer…they didn’t. After a loss we came out and committed 5 turnovers, nearly had the Warsaw single game rushing record set, gave up a TD in 17 seconds to end the half against a running team on a reverse! And gave up 45 points to a team that scored 35 points in 3 games combined and only 41 to Plymouth…they scored more than they did against the freakin Rockies! We’ve been outscored 59-21 in the last 5 quarters and committed 8 turnovers in 6 quarters! This team is completely lost and if nothing changes will beat the cellar teams of the conference and that’s it. Rant over.

Northwood has been outscored 59-21 in the last 5 quarters of football. It’s laughable that it was a few weeks ago that people were saying we were a favorite to go to Indy.

I’m in the same boat. I hate to arm chair coach when I never played. But I’ve felt for awhile that the offense is waaay too pass heavy to make a state title run when weather can turn later in the year. I get that it’s the strength of the team. But the Panther offensive staff has completely abandoned the run to the point you wonder if we are that bad at it or they just don’t see the need? I hope that Coach Andrews has sat down and had a discussion with his OC this week on how to find some balance. Don’t get me wrong, Owen is great. But I don’t like having that much of the team’s success on his shoulders.

Gotta say, last night was the first time in a couple of seasons that I’ve left a game going “what was that?” Credit to Northridge for hanging in there and capitalizing late. Maybe now the panther staff will get serious about developing a running game. We went from having the ball in the red zone to go up 3 scores in the second half to missing a FG, giving up a drive and TD, pick, another drive andTD and pick to basically end the game. We looked completely lost in all phases of the game in the 4th quarter. It’s a shame because they played really well up to that point and just lost focus. Maybe they can use that going forward. I’m also starting to think that Northridge has someone on staff dedicated to nothing but Northwood. Meyer did that at OSU for Michigan and Northridges game plan for the Panthers seems to always be what’s needed in the big games.

Man, what a life. Bremen will NOT lose Friday and I don’t know who they play. Very impressive program Bremen used to have for a school of their size. There was a time when Bremen was 1 of the premier teams in the state and I’m sure if there had been a tournament when Bunge was there there would be a few more big trophies in the case.

I’ll admit to never coaching football a day in my life. But how the heck do you as a coach allow for a punt to get blocked 3 times in 1 game? I mean once? Ok it happens. Twice? Maybe. But after that you should be able to figure out how to not let it happen again unless it’s just bad snaps. Even then put someone else in.

Northwood ends up winning in a blowout after things started out really shaky on defense. And I realize that the Panthers have weapons all over the field in the passing game, but it seemed like Northwood didn’t even pretend to care about trying to run the ball. Going to have to get something in the run game as it gets colder out. I wouldn’t count on Roeder passing for 400+ yards in November.

NLCTigerFan, I don’t think you’re off base by saying that about Northwood. This is a put up or shut up year in Nappanee. Next year they will lose almost everyone making plays on offense and likely have a sophomore QB. So while they may still be good it won’t be a championship level team. When you have a Senior QB, 20 seniors and 2 power 5 recruits on a team in northern Indiana it’s a year that you absolutely have to take advantage of.

For reasons known only to football coaches 2nd and goal often turns into a pass play. Am I right Pete Carroll?

Yes. He plays safety on defense. On the few occasions that Jimtown passed they didn’t even bother looking at the side of the field he was on.

Yes we’ll see. Northwood graduated a lot of players from last year on defense. I won’t say it’s a “weak point” just yet after 1 game. But yes there is definitely work to be done there.

Was talking to my dad and he said he was talking to someone in Bremen and asked them about the football team this year and their response was “we’re small and we’re slow”. Doesn’t sound like a good combination. I don’t see Bremen winning more than a few games this year.

No doubt. Part of the problem that the Panthers have had reaching Indy under Andrews I think. In 10 years they’ve had 3 undefeated regular seasons but only 1 trip to Indy. I think having Edmond in the backfield gives them a dimension they haven’t had though.

Northwood’s run defense is going to have to improve. But I felt like Jimtown did nearly everything they could do as far as trying to slow the game down and it was 36-8 going into the 4th. I’m not ready to make any predictions about making it to Indy but Tuggle is going to make a lot of guys look bad this year. And with him and Edmond, it will be very difficult on defenses.

I think the NIC is dead they just don’t know it yet. Once Penn decides they have to move on or spend every year beating up on the South Bend schools you might see someone interested in landing there.

^^^some people just have to be difficult 😂. That said I like the name. Still think they need to find 1 or 2 more teams. 6 seems like a small conference.

Oh and Goshen - yikes! Looks like this year is a year the coach will have to try and keep the underclass men interested to keep playing next year and beyond.

Good opening week for the conference. - Mishawaka dominant in winning over Marian. -Concord edges Elkhart, - Northridge a little surprising in beating North, but North not having Johnson helped. -Plymouth! Don’t look now but the Rockies have a winning record! -Warsaw goes on the road a gets a late score to get the win and a small upset IMO. -Northwood gets a sloppy blowout win. I thought Jimtown did about all they could do but the difference was the Panthers just had the better athletes. Gotta get better on penalties and run D but alot to like. Wawasee haven’t seen the final but I think they lost.

I feel like until Goshen is competing for the top of the NLC and Sectional titles having 1 game against a team like Fairfield isn’t that big of deal. The rest of their schedule is NP and the conference. Playing FF opening week is likely not holding them back.

I know nothing of what’s going on at Goshen, but when you have a mass exodus of players it’s not just “well we just wanted to focus on something else”. Maybe that’s true for a few but that’s usually a symptom of deep problems within a program when that many kids quit on their team.

I can’t begin to pick a score until I see a few games to gauge each team’s abilities. That said winners will be: Calumet, Elkhart, Northwood, Mishawaka, Northridge, Valley and Warsaw. Should be a good opening week for the conference.

New Prarie, St Joe, Glenn and Riley are my picks to win. Washington and Elkhart is a toss ups. Everyone else, good luck

It’s always hard to gauge what to expect in scrimmages due to how much are teams really showing. But watching the Penn/Northwood scrimmage my takeaways were: 1) Northwood’s defense isn’t going to take a major step back. Penn was able to move the ball and would’ve won if it was a game, but with the size differences they weren’t getting pushed around. Tackling will have to improve, but that is something I’d expect in 1st live action of the year. 2) Offensive line needs to improve. Some suspect snaps and little to no push up the middle. Again, I expect some of this to improve but the only ability to run the ball was to the outside. 3) speed on offense! Both Nitro and Woods ran right past the secondary, 1 for a TD another a dropped TD. Edmonds made some nice plays and is really tough to tackle in space. It really does look like defenses will be in a pick your poison situation this year. 4) The freshmen QB will be a stud in a few years.