Northern Arizona Defends Right to Win!

(NAU 2-1, Big Sky 1-0) (ISU 1-3, Big Sky 02)

The Lumberjacks keep grinding out wins. The key to their success is GRINDING. That is because their defense is becoming a dangerous, physical, control the line of scrimmage beast. Their recent win on the road against the Idaho State Bengals was a convincing 32-7 win in their first Big Sky contest. To beat Idaho State is never easy, the Jacks and Bengals are rivals and the game is always intense and very, very physical.

This week the Lumberjacks defense held the Bengals to just 60 yards in the first half. The GRIND. Start with NAU’s Scott McKeever. After NAU took the lead, Idaho State started moving the ball. Then on a fourth down try at the NAU 33, McKeever stopped the drive with his tackle. Later, to rub it in even more NAU’s Isaac Bond dropped ISU QB Hill on his, well, you know, and it resulted in a two point safety.

But the area that the Big Blue D earned its stripes was in throttling a great athlete in the Bengals Tavoy Moore.  TM came into the game averaging over 200 all purpose yards. THE BBD held him to 70 yards with 60 coming from three kickoffs, plus he fumbled a punt return.  You have to mention a great punter when noting a strong defense and the Jacks Drew Zamora did a great job of kicking away from the return man. He also kicked off and kept the ball deep and out of reach. Oh, that safety came after a punt was downed at the ISU four yard line. GRIND.

The other great component of a great defense, the most important actually is when it keeps its foe starting in bad field position all day, thus creating more sure opportunities for its own offense.  It is great for a defense to make stops in critical times, but far more useful if they do so by not allowing the enemy into any real scoring threats. GRIND.

Idaho State came out hard and took it to the BBD. NAU answered by only allowing 37 rushing yards on 27 tries. GRIND. ISU rotated QB’s with Kyle Morris and Russel Hill but all they got was GROUND and finished with 13 of 21 and 114 yards, two INT’s and being sacked evenly six times. GRIND.

So how did the Bengals score? It was an NAU late game, offensive oops when they forced a fumble from the other NAU QB Chasen Stangel. To be certain the NAU defensive line is getting the job done and is the main reason ISU found itself in third and long allllllllll day. NAU Safeties Matt Estrada and Taylor Julio were able to pick off two passes and end drives because of them. GRIND.

So why is the title of this article about NAU about defending their right to win? I do believe this Lumberjack defense can become one of the best in school history. However, because the Lumberjacks have one of the most heralded quarterbacks ever, many are looking for the offense to be the first name on this season’s marquee.

QB Michael Herrick is on so many pre-season award watch lists that it would easy to forget about the defense. The offense this week. Not so bad actually. QB Herrick 21 of 36 for 209 yards and two TD’s.  The total offense was 369 yards and was the result of a balanced attack.

Coach Souers and his staff run a predictable offense. Easy to scout on film, obvious in the way they set up situations for run or pass. I know that is what opposing defensive coordinators think when they are watching film. The other team’s defensive players have to come into each game licking their chops, confident that they “got” what NAU’s other opponents missed.

Just don’t let Zach Bauman have more than 7-8 inches between defenders and wham, he is out of business. Then keep Daiveun Curry-Chapman locked down and what are they gonna do? Everyone knows teams have a couple of top players, work ‘em and force the rest to play above their heads.

Good plan. Just not against this team. Not only did it fail on Bauman (21 totes 112 yards) or Curry-Chapman (six grabs 65 yards) they got blown up by the fact that NAU had eight players catch the ball and three backs run with it. The breakdown on carries, Zach Bauman 21-112-TD, Giovannie Dixon 11-38, Jonathan DeWitt 3-9. On catches, D. Curry-Chapman 6-64, Austin Shanks 5-68, Zach Bauman 4-25, Mike Czyz 2-34-TD, Giovannie Dixon 1-11, Sam Unger 1-10, Nick Larson 1-3-TD, Matt Wilson 1—6.

The only thing worse than facing a team with multiple scoring threats is facing them all on the field at the same time, all the time, in a hurry up offense.  Okay, there is one thing worse and that would an offense with so many threats on the field all at once and a great set of versatile, run/pass blocking linemen and tight ends. If your defense cannot force this offense to commit two to three of the running back or receiving corp to max protect blocking, then you are pretty much, well, you know.

Before I forget, Matt Myers got his toe in the door of this story with three field goals of 20,23,27 yards. Can’t forget the guys with funny numbers.  By the way, NAU is famous for its kickers and punters. Just sayin’.

Back to the BBD. They also have the uncanny ability to throw bombs from nearly every position on the defensive side of the ball thus making it a very long week for the opposing offensive coaches.  NAU is one of those places where the participation chart is overshadowed by players making tackles and filling up the stat sheet.

So the BBD report this week is:  Matt Estrada 5T, FR, INT, Kyle Rath 5T, 1 for loss, Sack, Cody Dowd 4T, 1 for loss, Brandon Vance 4T, 1 for loss, Taylor Julio 4T, 1 INT, R. Worthington 3T, Brian Hunter 3T, Nick Ragland-Johnson 2T,  Isaac Bond 2T, 1 for loss, Sack, Scott McKeever 2T, Alec Hutton 2T, 2 for loss, 2 sack, Anthony Llanos 2T, 1 for Loss, Sack, Phil Pollock 2T, Kainoa Pe’a 2T, 1 for loss, Sack, Darren Watson 2T, Michael Battisti 2T. Some more with at least one tackle, Randy Hale Jr., Taylor Patton, Chase Wick, Taelor Worrell, Tim Wilkinson, Taylor Malenfant and Blayne Anderson with a QB hurry.

The Lumberjacks are still on the road and will next stop in Cedar City, Utah to play the Southern Utah Thunderbirds  at 12:05 PM