CHICAGO, Ill. -- Coming off three straight losses, the Vikings (2-5, 1-4) have a great opportunity this week to right the ship against the Titans of Illinois Wesleyan (3-3, 3-2).
The Titans are in their first year under new head coach Jared Williamson and have a home record of 1-2 so far this season. North Park's defense will have their hands full with the IWU ground and aerial attack as their offense is averaging 34 points a game. Dual threat quarterback Dermot Smyth leads the Titans in rushing with 223 yards on the ground and has over 1600 passing yards with a 15-4 touchdown to interception ratio. The rest of the rushing attack for the Titans comes from a three-back rotation with Malik Gray, Danny Kent, and Tony Noto, while receiver Will Nazha has been the top guy for Smyth, logging over 600 yards and 5 touchdowns so far this season. Expect IWU to try and gameplan blocking schemes and plays to combat and go away from the Viking linebacker duo of DJ Johnson and Armando Martinez, who combined for 26 tackles against #1 North Central last week.
Offensively, North Park turned back to senior quarterback Justen Green against North Central and may continue that trend this week. After not putting up any points last week, head coach Kyle Rooker and the offense will more than likely look to be aggressive from the jump this weekend against the Titans, aiming to get the ball into the playmakers' hands early and often. Sustaining drives and scoring often is the best help any offense can give their defense, something that the Viking offense is fully capable of with weapons like Jereme Ombogo, Wesley McCloud, Micah Catron, Bryce Black, and Aidan Delisi. With such a high powered offense on the other side of the field, look for North Park to be aggressive, yes, but also methodical to keep IWU's offense off the field as much as possible to help out their defense. The other side of that coin is the North Park defense getting stops and turnovers to give the ball back to the offense so they can get into a rhythm.
Kickoff is set for 1pm on Saturday, October 25th at Tucci Stadium in Bloomington, Illinois.
