Film Room - Northern Illinois

This is Paul Pasqualoni, BC’s defensive line coach. Why is he so confused? Well, Coach P turns 69 next August. He’s seen a lot. He’s been coaching football since 1972. He was the head coach of Syracuse for 13 years. He had a brief stint as the D-Coordinator for the Miami Dolphins. Coach P even volunteered to coach an intramural team (UConn) between 2011 and 2013. Needless to say, he has seen his share of bad football. But Coach P has never seen a defensive breakdown like the one that BC put on display on national television last Friday night.

There’s not a heck of a lot to even analyze here. I don’t know if we have tapped into the youth football coach market yet, but all you have to do is show your team this and tell them to do the opposite. In fact, I retired from football in middle school (after leading the league in fumbles), but I can still tell you that the sole job of the defensive end, if you do nothing else, is to not lose contain on the outside. You CANNOT get duped by the play-action and wander inside here if you’re Zach Allen. But if you do, you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT allow yourself to get stiff-armed by Ryan Graham, one of the worst QBs in the MAC. This isn’t Jordan Lynch. This is a below-average, 5.2-40, ginger, Northern Illinois QB that is shoving your face into the Dekalb turf.

And I’m not just going to pick on Allen here. Take a look at the bottom left corner after the ball is snapped. What in the FUCK are these guys doing? You have Yiadom and Strachan who shifted over to press coverage on the twins-right formation, who are looking in the exact opposite direction of the ball as soon as it’s snapped. The NIU receivers look like they are legitimately confused as these guys are clearing out the entire left side of the field for their loser QB to run through.

My last bone to pick is with D-Coordinator Jim Reid (who actually coached with Pasqualoni in Miami back in the day, small world). In what universe does this play call make sense? Colt Lichtenberg just nailed a huge 42-yarder to tie the ballgame. This is the Huskies first play from scrimmage after the kickoff. There is 9 seconds to go in the first quarter. And we’re going to call an all-out blitz? Like the suicide blitz play call in NFL Blitz 1999 where you send the house and if you don’t get the sack it’s an automatic TD? Actually, you do have the safety 50 yards away, is this a punt block?

Bottom line, this cannot happen again. This play ended the first quarter, and on the very next play, NIU scored their first TD to go up by 7. Both of Wake’s QBs are dual-threats, so we’ll find out this weekend if the boys learned their lesson. If not, almost-69-year-old Coach P might run out there and form tackle the guy himself.