What We Learned About Linfield in Week 3

The Wildcat Defense is Elite:  The Wildcat defense opened up the season against two opponents who not only had top-10 offenses last season, but also had offensive success against Linfield's defense.  Last season, Linfield's defense gave up 35 points and 503 yards to the Hardin-Simmons offense before holding the Cowboys to 321 yards and 21 points in the opener.  Last season, Cal Lutheran gathered 30 points and 446 yards against the Wildcats.  On Saturday, Linfield held the Kingsmen to 361 yards and 14 points.  Considering that these two teams had the best offensive personnel that Linfield may face all season, I think Linfield's defense is going to post some impressive numbers the rest of the regular season.    

The 'Cat Attack may be the best offense in the nation:  Granted it's only been two games, but the 'Cat Attack has been averaging 61.5 points and 653 yards of offense per game.  New quarterback Josh Yoder is proving to be one of the most explosive duel-threat quarterbacks in the nation, having completed 68.4 percent of his passes for 672 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions, while rushing for 109 yards and two touchdowns with a 6.1 yard per carry average.  Maybe the biggest surprise is the explosive running game that has emerged with the re-addition of the zone read into the offense; the Wildcats are averaging 282.5 yards per game on the ground, averaging 5.7 yards per carry as a team.  While the majority of the rushing yards have been balanced between Yoder, RB Josh Hill, and RB Tavon Willis, it will be interesting to see who emerges as the leader on the ground as the season goes along.

Linfield is a legit National Title contender:  After two games, Linfield finds themselves ranked #2 in the nation.  Considering that their defense has played well against two offenses that may end up being two top-10 offenses by the end of the season, and their offense has looked better than any of the other teams ranked in the top-10, I would argue that not only is Linfield a national title contender, but that they should be ranked #1.        

Missing Content...

Hey folks!  For a couple weeks, the Blogger website wouldn't let me log into this blog, which prevented me from making any updates.  The problem is now fixed, and below are the links to the missing content from the time the blog log-in was down:

NWC Week 1 Wrap-up:  https://soundcloud.com/j_derby_wildcatspread40/nwc-wrap-up-week-1

NWC Week 2 Predictions:  https://soundcloud.com/j_derby_wildcatspread40/nwc-week-2-predictions

NWC Week 2 Wrap-up:  https://soundcloud.com/j_derby_wildcatspread40/nwc-wrap-up-week-2

NWC Week 3 Predictions:  https://soundcloud.com/j_derby_wildcatspread40/nwc-week-3-predictions

Linfield vs Cal Lutheran postgame analysis video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrjd5ViruqE

NWC Week 3 Wrap-up:  https://soundcloud.com/j_derby_wildcatspread40/nwc-wrap-up-week-3


Starting this week, WildcatSpread40 will begin writing up "What Did We Learn About Linfield" articles, and starting next Saturday, Instant Analysis articles will be written about each Linfield game.  See you soon!  

Northwest Conference Week 1 Predictions...

Just in case you didn't see it on the blog's Facebook page, the twitter feed, the Linfield College Mass Communication Department Facebook page, or on the WildcatSpread40 SoundCloud account itself, here is the link to the Week 1 predictions for the Northwest Conference:

https://soundcloud.com/j_derby_wildcatspread40/northwest-conference-week-1

Hope you all have fun watching/listening to the games, and see you on Saturday night for the week 1 wrap-up show!