3 Things I Didn’t Like

The Kicking Game Is A Real Issue

Football is the truest of team sports, but in a game of inches, when you leave points on the field, the result is going to be painful losses, which the Wildcats have experienced twice now.

Nick Novak, while a seasoned pro that spent almost a decade in the NFL, has simply not played well thus far for the Wildcats. He is 1/4 on the season and missed two critical kicks on Saturday. When you lose a game by three points and your kicker misses two field goals (granted one was blocked), you have to start exploring the question if a move needs to be made.

Well, that question was answered on Tuesday when Novak was placed on the Reserve/Injured list, most likely ending his season. It is being reported that the Wildcats have signed Kicker Giorgio Tavecchio, who spent time on the active roster with the Oakland Raiders and the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL. Hopefully, this move improves the kicking game for LA and can put them on the winning side of some close games.

Lack Of A Running Game

Once again, the running game was pretty much non-existent. It was another game of air-assault as the Wildcats only rushed the ball 13 times for a poultry 40 yards. DuJuan Harris and Larry Rose led the way with five carries each.

I spoke on the last episode of Bleav In LA Football that I wouldn’t have a problem with Josh Johnson airing it out 35+ times, but I did want to see a conscious effort in establishing the run and giving some balance to the offense. Unfortunately, that did not happen on Saturday.

While active, Elijah Hood was clearly still nursing an injury as he only carried the ball once, and losing Martez Carter for the game after his breakout performance last week, certainly did not help the running situation.

The identity of this Norm Chow offense clearly goes through Johnson and the talented receiving corps, but in order to improve their consistency, they will need to put more emphasis on the run.

Against the Vipers on Sunday, expect 20+ carries out of this running back group.

Confusion On Personnel

There were numerous times throughout the game where players looked lost before the snap. I don’t know if the play call was not getting relayed from Norm Chow to the players quick enough, if whoever is in charge of personnel on the sidelines was lagging, or if players simply didn’t know their assignments and roles, but it cost the team numerous times, from Delay of Game penalties to timeouts being burned, to negative plays due to not knowing assignments.

Four weeks into the season, this is something that has to be cleaned up. Everything is still very new, so I don’t expect it to be running like a well-oiled machine just yet, but it should at least be running at a much smoother clip.

I expect this to be a point of emphasis in practice, and whether play-calling needs to be simplified, or players need to just do a little more homework off the field, Sunday should look much cleaner.