Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1179542
n o r t h w e s t e r n f o o t b a l l • D I G I T A L P R O G R A M • N O R T H W E S T E R N v s . I O W A 21 to this rivalry that will be renewed at Ryan Filed on Homecoming Day, and early in his presser Fitzgerald was asked about this. "I wish I had time right now with this year's team to look a lot at what our opponent is. We don't have that luxury right now," he said politely. "We're trying to get our guys to trust what we're doing during the week and execute fundamentally first and conceptually second, especially on offense, right now. We've got half the season left. We're going to work relentlessly to get it done." The offensive struggles are well known to any observer, and that is true too of the minimal contributions of their quarterbacks. But here Fitzgerald had raised another issue that was arguably as important, and a question about that began an autopsy of that first half he and his team hope to leave in their rear view. This happened when he was asked why getting "our guys to trust" was an issue. "Isn't that the magical question?" he said. "That's why I'm hitting three buttons today. Control, alt and delete. I think it has to do with a lot of things. I think number one, inexperience. Chicken-egg, man, right? Which comes first, experience or confidence? Which comes first?" It's chicken-egg, his interlocutor waffled. "You ask me a deep thought, I'm asking you a deep thought," Fitzgerald picked up. "I don't know. If I knew, I'd fix it right now. I think our o line is playing really well. I really do. I think they're playing really well. I think they're playing at a level that can help us win. I think our QBR (quarterback rating) speaks for itself. It's hard to be in the 30s and win a lot of games, even on Madden (the video game). It's where we're at. We've got to play cleaner there. We've got to take care of the ball, and make shots when we're open, and play a little beyond our experience in that area. Our receivers have to make some plays and our superbacks have to grow up. We've got a lot of work to do. To me, that's the why. Turning the ball over. Not being efficient at quarterback. That's typically why. To name a few." After last Friday's loss to Ohio State he said, "Guys are pressing, trying to do too much." "Exactly," he agreed here. And he has been saying that since the beginning of the season. "Uh-uh," he again agreed.