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Central Washington vs Portland State

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forestgreen

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BarneyBall 2.0 starts today :thumb: See everyone at Providence Park.....it's the best time of the year :nod:

CENTRAL WASHINGTON WILDCATS (5-5) vs. #17/#12 PORTLAND STATE VIKINGS (9-3)
Saturday, September 3, 2016, 2:30 p.m • Providence Park (18,627), Portland, OR

http://www.goviks.com/news/2016/8/29/football-vikings-open-much-anticipated-2016.aspx
 
From the Wildcat perspective:

CWU football prepares for Portland State just like any other game

http://www.dailyrecordnews.com/sports/cwu-football-prepares-for-portland-state-just-like-any-other/article_72328fd1-6306-5cda-bcbd-379fc249ca47.html


Central Washington University’s football team may not be the New England Patriots, but its coach is taking the same approach as the pro team.

No matter the opponent, the Wildcats always prepare as though they are going against a professional football team.

It could be a preseason scrimmage, a conference game or this Saturday when the Wildcats face FCS-opponent Portland State University.

“Our preparation is the same,” said CWU head coach Ian Shoemaker. “Call it the ‘Bill Belicheck,’ but we are going to prepare to win and prepare to compete at a high level.”

Shoemaker is starting his third season at Central Washington. This game will be his second meeting against a Division I opponent. The Wildcats lost to the University of Montana in 2014.

“We are going to try to put our kids in the best possible situation to make our players successful,” Shoemaker said. “Hopefully, our athletes and preparation put us in a good spot.”

Central Washington has not had the best record against FCS opponents over the last 10 years. The team’s only win came in 2006 over Eastern Washington, but the Wildcats will start out the season healthy.

Senior quarterback Justin Lane will lead an offense that includes three young running backs in sophomores Quincy Carter, Christian Cummings and redshirt freshman Jordan Tufaga.

Last season, Carter and Cummings combined for 567 yards and five touchdowns.

On the defensive side, the Wildcats return senior lineman Tovar Sanchez and linebacker Kevin Haynes.

Shoemaker remarked that the team is healthy going into the season opener, and he will have all of his players ready and at his disposal.

“We had a lot of guys that we thought were going to be out, but we came back and got some good news over the last couple of weeks,” Shoemaker said.

Portland State starts the season as the FCS’ No. 12 team in the nation. Last year the Vikings finished 9-3 overall and were led by quarterback Alex Kuresa.

Kuresa, a Snow Junior College transfer, finished with 1,975 yards passing and 17 touchdowns.

“He is a top end player, brings that athleticism and plays outside the playbook,” Shoemaker said.

The Vikings also feature cornerback Xavier Coleman, who was selected to the STATS FCS Preseason All-America team.

Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. and can be heard on 88.1 FM The Burg.
 
Interested to see what the crowd will be like, coming off the success of last season. Ducks on at the same time so that may hurt a bit but still, we should be able to outdraw CWU in Portland, shouldn't we?
 
A win is a win, but damn, where to start.

First off, Central Washington is a pretty talented team with a lot of starters back. I think it was 18 combined if I read that right. Regardless, we shouldn’t let a DII team offensively do what they did to us today. Pretty good balance on offense for us today. Play like we did today on defense, and it’ll be a loss versus most D1 schools.

Some thoughts…

- Receiving. Lot of positives today. Espitia, Adams, Kraght. Yeah, Kraght only had two receptions but that one that he grabbed on the end line that was called back was great. And Kuresa showed some serious arm strength on that ball. Damn near 60 yards in the air while on the run. I think we only had a drop or two. I thought for a bit that Riley was hurt, but it looked to just be cramping, so that’s good.

- Thoughts to that Central kid that was carted off. I’m assuming that was a pretty bad fracture of some sort. Good to see folks from both training staff support him and players on both sides going over give supportive words.

- Tago had a couple of Beast Mode moments. Nice start to the season for him.

- Penalties. 10 for 96 yards. Un-freaking-acceptable. First game is no excuse.

- Not sure about that fumble by Penn. That really didn’t look like a fumble.

- If we can kick off like this all season, it will be just fine with me. Other than the one that hit the ref on the side of the end zone, all was well.

- Is it me or did our end and interior defensive line play struggle quite a bit today? Outside runs seemed to have their way at times.

- Speaking of struggle, our secondary. Had many great plays. Some good open field tackles, good with staying right on receivers, but too many deep passes completed today.

Well, on to SJSU next week.
 
Ugly. I thought CWU was the better team. My baby biggest concern is for both our O and D lines. Completely outplayed today. Not sure we have the talent to get better. This looks like a Nigel Burton team.
 
VikThunderous said:
Ugly. I thought CWU was the better team. My baby biggest concern is for both our O and D lines. Completely outplayed today. Not sure we have the talent to get better. This looks like a Nigel Burton team.
Click to expand...

Our O-line and our D-line were completely out played. Who is coaching them and why? Our defensive secondary was like a sieve. Who is coaching them and why? Why did it take 3 quarters to figure out that we could not run against them? I was actually surprised when the coaching staff woke up to what was going on. I thought it was going to be like N Dakota all over again. Oh, and we were playing a D2 team!
 
Alan said:
VikThunderous said:
Ugly. I thought CWU was the better team. My baby biggest concern is for both our O and D lines. Completely outplayed today. Not sure we have the talent to get better. This looks like a Nigel Burton team.
Click to expand...

Our O-line and our D-line were completely out played. Who is coaching them and why? Our defensive secondary was like a sieve. Who is coaching them and why? Why did it take 3 quarters to figure out that we could not run against them? I was actually surprised when the coaching staff woke up to what was going on. I thought it was going to be like N Dakota all over again. Oh, and we were playing a D2 team!
Click to expand...

It could have been worse. Western Oregon beat Sacramento State last night 38 to 30.
 
They didn't outplay us; as Barney said, they played us even until the 4th quarter, where our D1 numbers wore them out. Yes, the number of penalties was terrible. And not even one turnover? Still, it's a win and I'll take it.
 
Liked the crowd. 4900 for a DII opponent and playing in direct competition to the Duck game. People are taking notice around town. However, we need to work on the product. Bad ill-timed penalties just killed us. Penn didn't fumble but playing a lower division foe, that shouldn't have mattered. My Griz friends told me when they played CWU a few years back, they succeeded in messing up the game and getting the Griz frustrated, and that seemed to be what they did to us. We had too many mistakes, some that didn't cost us but they will if not corrected before San Jose and U-Dubya.

Maybe Seisay should stay on defense for us?
 
I kept commenting that this looked more Nigel Ball than Barnyball.

I'm a little confused by the offensive line; aren't most of the guys from the recruiting year that received so much hype? they got pushed around pretty good.

I think we need to cut the defensive backs some slack, there were some major graduations last year so some of these guys are inexperienced. Missed coverage is nothing to ignore, I hope they are studying film.

I was glad to see them take the shackles off Kuresa during the 4th quarter and let him do what he does best. That saved the game for us.
 
I went into the game expecting challenges on offense and the defense would be strong. As it turned out it was the other way around. We had a pretty balanced attack with almost 300 yards on the ground and over 200 through the air. We did get pushed around on the left side of the line but the right side did pretty good.

But defensively...ouch. Not the group that seemed to show up at the scrimmages. We got burned by their passing game. Whether it was a slant or a post our secondary needs some help. I'm with @bigskyconf I was thinking we will need Seisay to play defense. Unfortunately I hear that probably won't happen. He really wants to be a receiver.

I think CWU is going to have a pretty good year. Their QB is pretty talented. They came at us with nothing to lose. It was a good first game for us to tighten up some loose ends.

This week will be a good test to see how we respond. Looking forward to that game. We may surprise some people...
 
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