Football drop second conference game

The Raider football team’s tough loss to Morningside last weekend was difficult to swallow, and it wasn’t made any easier after Northwestern clashed with upset-minded Doane, who defeated the Raiders 20-8 in Saturday’s game on the road.
The Raider offense went stagnant, especially on third down, where they only converted 3 of 14 chances.
NW gained 96 yards of total offense throughout. Sophomore Theo Bartman led the running attack with 28 yards on six carries, while junior Brandon Smith managed just 26 yards on 13 carries. It was an expected theme that NW will continue to see all season.
“Teams are smart; they are going to do everything to take [Brandon] out of the game early,” said coach Kyle Achterhoff. “If you don’t have a counter move that will free things up for him, they are going to keep doing the same thing. Obviously, that’s something we are going to be looking at.”
Doane kept a stranglehold on the ball, as the Raiders only had possession for 23 minutes throughout the entire game.
“We have to give Doane credit. They are a passing team, but when they jumped out to an early lead and saw our offense struggling, they took the air out of the ball completely,” Achterhoff said.
A few key mistakes hurt the Raiders. In the first half, trailing 15-8, NW botched a punt and recovered it in the endzone, only to be tackled for their second safety of the afternoon. The Raiders final drive ended with an interception in the endzone.
While the loss to Morningside may have been a bit of an issue, there were bigger mental issues at work.
“I think there’s been overconfidence. This team hasn’t earned anything yet,” Achterhoff said. “They can’t rely on what happened a year ago, on preseason press clippings. It needs to be this team doing their thing, not relying on the past.”
Despite all this, both Achterhoff and junior linebacker Aaron Jansen, who led the defense with 11.5 tackles, saw some good things to take away from the defensive end.
“Doane came in averaging 300 passing yards per game. [NW held them to 94]. We had a good game plan about how we were going to cover their talented receivers and get into good coverage,” Jansen said.
Both players and coaches strongly emphasized the importance of moving past the losses.
“We have to get back to the basics—better job of blocking, catching the football. It really is going back to what we are all about: playing fast, physical football,  just playing the game the way it’s meant to be played,”  Achterhoff said.
And while it might be tempting for a team with playoff aspirations to look ahead at the implications of the early season losses, Jansen says the team can’t get caught looking at the conference standings.
“We need to focus on ourselves each and every week from this point forward,” Jansen said.
“We can only control what we can control.”
The Raiders look to bounce back against Dakota State this Saturday.