The best defense in the Northwest Conference against the best passing attack; the second-best offense against the worst scoring defense in the conference; the best wide receiver against the best secondary: For a match-up between the best team and arguably the worst team in the conference, there’s a lot of action to be on the lookout for.
Fifth-ranked Linfield will be hosting Puget Sound at Maxwell Field on Saturday afternoon, with kickoff at 1:30 pm. Linfield will be looking to extend their home win streak to 15 games, while Puget Sound is still looking for its first win of the season.
“They’ve made their mark, at least from a propaganda standpoint, of being able to pass, throw it around a lot, and they do,” Linfield coach Joseph Smith said. “Kniffin is an outstanding receiver, and they’re going to throw the football pretty well, get their yards, but without a running game, it’s hard to sustain drives.”
Linfield is coming off a 20-10 win over Willamette where quarterback Mickey Inns threw for a career-high 329 yards, and the defense forced a season-high three turnovers. On the down side, Linfield’s offense coughed up three turnovers of their own, all on drives where they were moving the ball. All the untimely turnovers are becoming a trend this season, one that the Wildcats hope to correct this Saturday.
“Our guys have the expectations of playing the Whitewaters, Mount Unions, and Saint Thomas,” Smith said. “Those are the guys that right now, our attention turns to what do we have to do in order to play at that level, and we’re not there yet.”
After three games, Inns has proven to be a steady player, completing 53.4 percent of his passes for 661 yards and five touchdowns with three interceptions. While he’s a different quarterback from graduated senior Aaron Boehme, containing Inns is going to be a tall task for the Puget Sound defense.
“I think that Mickey does a really good job of throwing and getting the ball into the playmakers hands,” Puget Sound coach Jeff Thomas said.
Puget Sound is coming off a 21-7 loss to Pacific Lutheran. It was the best performance of the season by the Loggers defense as they allowed a season-low 395 yards and forced a season-high four turnovers. On the season, Puget Sound is giving up 37.8 points and 449.5 yards per game.
“We got to get them off-balance,” Thomas said. “We did a terrific job against a balanced-approach team in Pacific Lutheran last week, and we’re looking for more of the same this week.”
Linfield’s elite defense will face a tough task this week as Puget Sound brings the conference’s top passing game into town. Averaging 356 passing yards per game, the Loggers air raid attack will test Linfield’s secondary, thought to be the strength of the Wildcat defense.
“A team like Puget Sound that throws the ball 60 times a game plays right into our hands as a defense,” Linfield cornerback Christian Hannah said. “It plays into our strengths, which is our defensive backs."
The biggest challenge facing the Linfield defense is Loggers wide receiver Adam Kniffin, who is among the nation’s best wide receivers. Through four games, Kniffin has 519 yards and five touchdowns on 46 receptions, averaging 129.8 yards per game.
“He’s gained some speed since last year, and he’s got great hands,” Hannah said. “It’s just a matter of being disciplined and picking the right angles when they do throw the ball. We need to make sure that we’re aligned properly, and judging by what formation or splits are, we narrow it down to a couple of routes they’re going to run out of that.”
Instead of making an outlandish prediction about the game, let’s look at the keys to the game for both teams:
Keys to the game for Linfield:
-Cutting down turnovers: Linfield’s two red zone turnovers stopped them from putting Cal Lutheran down worse in the season opener, and their three turnovers against Willamette last week stopped them from ending the game by the end of the third quarter, giving the bearcats a chance to come from behind. With Puget Sound’s lowly defense coming into town, Linfield has a great chance to work on ball security going forward.
-Crack the 50 point barrier: Puget Sound’s defense comes into the game among the nation’s worst, but their offense is among the best in passing. If Puget Sound’s offense comes out firing like they did two years ago, Linfield might need to score 50 to win the game. It’s entirely possible that Linfield’s defense will come out and shut down Puget Sound’s offense like they did last season, but it’s better to be safe than sorry for Linfield’s offense.
-Focusing on the now: Coming off a tough, emotional win over a rival, it’s only natural for a team to come out a little flat the next week against a weaker team. If Linfield comes out focused and ready for the moment, this game could very well go the route of the La Verne game.
Keys to the game for Puget Sound:
-Establish the pass: Last season, Puget Sound’s passing game was held to 162 yards and six interceptions in their 55-14 loss to Linfield. If they can cut down the turnovers, they stand a good chance of putting up some points.
-Hope that Linfield overlooks them: While Puget Sound does bring the best passing attack in the conference to the table and arguably the nation’s top wide receiver in Adam Kniffin, the fact is that Linfield is more talented across the board on both sides of the ball. The only way Puget Sound wins this game is if Linfield doesn’t bring their A-game, which is as rare a thing for a Joseph Smith-coached team as it is for Notre Dame to be put in a bowl game that they actually have a shot of winning.
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