Well if you read my comments last week you’d think I was somewhat of a prophet as far as the team’s performance against the Easter Washington Eagles.

As I had mentioned last week, the Cats had a that coming out party I predicted and laid the wood to the 14^th ranked Eagles 31-13.  In addition I posed the question whether or not payback was on the minds of the Cat’s when playing the Eagles ?  You recall why… for messing up their outright Big Sky Championship and a bid for a home playoff game last year ?… I would say maybe a small part was the revenge factor…however the main reason for the Eagle beat down…Necessity and Desperation !

The Cats are and must stay in the “Win or go Home” mode for the remainder of the season.  There is no tomorrow for this team as far as a conference championship or a playoff berth if they suffer another league loss. That’s just a fact. I’m sure seniors Tim Toone, Trevyn Smith, Beau Hadley, Kevin Linehan and Kyle Mutcher (just to name a few of the Cat’s Seniors) know this and are relaying it to their teammates on a daily basis!

In my astute pre-game analysis of last week’s game I mentioned how the Cats needed to jump on the Eagles early and pressure their offense into hpicture1aving to play catch up and abandon their potent running attack. Well that’s just what the Cats did and it resulted in a big conference win.

The Cats jumped on the Eagles early but just as quick as they took the lead they relinquished it with a pick six thrown by Cameron Higgins. But Higgins bounced right back to regain the lead on an 80 yard pass and catch to junior wide out Mike Phillips (whose just so happens to be from my old stopping grounds Central Coast of California). The Cat’s never looked back.

The Cat defense also made a statement on Saturday and played like they had been taken behind the wood shed and whipped with a  switch for last week’ssub-par performance and didn’t want a repeat.  They intercepted Eagle quarter back Matt Nichols 3 times and sacked him 4 times.  They also kept the Big Sky’s leading rusher Taiwan Jones to only 64 yards.

It’s my belief that the Cats though losing a key player in their offense early in the year to injury, i.e. (Cody Nakamura ) are now starting to see the emergence of other weapons in the their arsenal.  Defenses must now pay more attention to receiver Mike Phillips as well as the always reliable and explosive Tim Toone. This will just make both receivers even more dangerous in the passing game. The Cats running game is also even more potent and poses a big problem for opposing defense coordinators.  The ageless wonder Trevyn Smith keep chugging along toward another Big Sky rushing title.  Keeping Trevyn fresh is a luxury the Cat’s have not had in the past, but with the recent explosive play of red shirt freshman Bo Bolen the Cat’s are truly frightening in the running game with these two backs. Bo’s play has and will pay future dividends in this long regular and hopefully post season.

Now to this week’s opponent, the Sacramento State Hornets. The Cats will be facing not just one opponent this week in the Sac State team, they will also be facing a not so obvious opponent that often plagues good teams late in a season; Complacency… After beating a very good Eastern Washington team it’ssometimes easy to let down against a team with a record of 2-3.

However Sac State has been playing very well as of late.  Though they started the year with 3 straight losses, they are riding a 2 game winning streak both wins against conference opponents. The Hornets are led by the 4^th leading rusher in the Big Sky Terrance Dailey who is a transfer from the University of Washington. Daily is averaging over 107 yards per game in conference play.  The Cat defense needs to neutralize the running game which is the Hornet strength and force them to utilize their anemic passing game. In addition the Hornets pose a huge threat on special teams in the dangerous return specialist Sam McCowan who is averaging 30.6 yards per return.

The Cats need a good solid week of practice and focus on the Hornets and the Hornets only.  Again the Cat’s cannot look ahead to next week no matter how tempting that is.  A loss now would virtually end the year for them and their team goals.

The “Win or go Home” mentality needs to be in the forefront of this team’s thoughts.  Nothing else matters but Sac State. The same recipe for success is needed this week as last week.  Jump on this team early and often and don’t let them back up.  A heavy dose of Trevyn Smith and Bo Bolen with a sprinkle of Higgins to Toon and Phillips should do the trick.  Then leave it to that undersized but nasty defense to shut this team down and out.

Once again these are just my humble thoughts, of course I could be wrong…

On a serious note,  I wanted to take this opportunity to extend my thoughts and prayers to former Weber State coach Mike Zimmer and his family.  Coach Zimmer was my defensive coordinator back when I played in 1984-85. In the past week I have spoken to many of my fellow teammates from that era and they also want to extend their well wishes to him and his family.  God Bless, Coach.