The Griffons defense came out like a stampede. Western blitzed like crazy and swarmed toward the ball – or at least where they thought the ball would be.

There were a couple of problems with that approach against Northern State on Thursday night. First, the Griffons didn't tackle all that well when they did get to the ball early – the drawback of not doing much live tackling in fall practice to keep everyone healthy. The second downside, which allowed the Wolves to tie this game heading into halftime and keep it close for most of the third quarter, involved the Wolves' rebuttal to Western's overly aggressive mentality.

In the first half, Northern State did a superb job of sitting back, waiting for Western and then beating the Griffons with screens, play action and bootlegs. For about 35 minutes, this game had the potential to be another Truman State – a mistake-marred upset on the road for Western to an inferior team in a similar stadium. But this time around, the Griffons learned and adjusted in plenty of time to avoid the upset and maintained a composure wholly lacking in Kirksville last November.

Jerry Partridge told me afterward that Northern State put in a few formations that Western didn't practice for and the Griffons weren't prepared for some of the bootleg stuff as well.

But when Wolves quarterback Eric Ellingson faked a handoff in the third quarter and then tossed the ball out to the wide receiver – hoping to get the Griffons to collapse yet again, creating room for another big play down the sideline – Sylvester Gibson reacted and stepped in front of the ball for a pick-six.

Western will have plenty to work on this week with No. 22 Minnesota-Duluth comes to town next week. Between the penalties, fumbles, missed tackles and blown assignments, this was a win filled with relief, not satisfaction.

But the young Griffons at linebacker and safety adapted well enough for a comfortable win, and that has to be encouraging to their fans and coaches.

-- In spite of the holding penalties and a couple of second-quarter sacks on Drew Newhart, the Western offensive line played great. Newhart only missed on three throws all night, and a big part of that was all the time he had. And when Western needed a big run, the interior line paved the way.

-- The Big Kahuna call of the night goes to Tyler Fenwick and Drew Newhart. Facing third-and-four from his 14-yard line in a tie game, Newhart audibled to a post route, stood tall in the pocket and delivered the pass to Cedric Houston in stride, behind the defense, for an 86-yard score. That's ballsy and shows you the confidence level of this offense.

-- Speaking of Newhart, his worst pass all day was a batted ball intended for Ferrell McGhee in the flat. Newhart saw the blitz coming and audibled. The defensive end stopped his rush and batted the ball up in the air. Newhart caught it one handed and was tackled for an eight-yard loss. Outside of that, he was 19-of-22 for 303 yards, three TDs and no interceptions. Two of those incompletions were simple passes to Andrew Mead where it didn't look as if the two of them agreed on the route.

-- I have been hearing throughout fall practice how Thomas Hodges was slimmer, faster and running harder. And for the first quarter Thursday, he did just that. But then he fell into the same bad habits that hampered him last season. He started dancing in front of defenders, trying to be a scat back instead of just running north and south. Then Hodges fumbled twice – once on the goal line where, fortunately for Western, he was ruled down. Hodges showed glimpses of what he is capable of, but Zach Walker was by far the more confident and assertive runner in Western's backfield. He was shifty enough to make guys miss but didn't dwell on horizontal moves. He looks poised for a great year. We'll have to wait and see on Hodges.

-- And finally, Aberdeen is apparently home of the four-poinr field goal. After the Griffons scored their fifth touchdown to go up 35-14 with 1:27 left in the third, the scoreboard operator didn't add the extra point, which Dustin Strickler made. And he didn't change it either as the game progressed. Northern State scored to make it 34-21 with 12:12 remaining, according to the scoreboard. Then Western responded with a long drive that concluded with a Strickler field goal – at which point the score went from 34-21 to 38-21 with 3:46 to go. Even the MIAA – home of the 11-yard holding penalty – thinks that's silly.

More about the Aberdeen trip to follow in the travel logs.