57Johnnie-

You are right that the Oles did not have a fighting chance in yesterday's game.  This is not due to the superior talent of SJU (though Kofoed is an excellent quarterback and the Olaf 4th down attempts were ill-considered).  St. Olaf never had a chance because the officials would not let them.  On many of their pass plays, there was flagrant holding that was not called (on one scoring play, a rushing Ole was tackled from behind as he headed toward the quarterback).  When it looked like the Oles might rally at the start of the second-half, flagrant pass interference in the endzone was ignored.  On a couple of 3rd and short for the Johnnies, it seemed as if the refs just gave them the first down with phantom offsides calls.  St. John's has a good team that is difficult to beat.  Doing so when they have 16 men on the field on every play is impossible.

Kilted Rat-

That's exactly what I meant (that this year's Ole team is much better than the '04 team).  The Johnnies basically handed the Oles the game on a silver platter, and St. Olaf failed to lose the game.  The Ole eams of the past two years would have put up a few more than 21 points in an 8 turnover game I think.  I certainly think the Oles have the potential to win today (based partly on the accounts on this board suggesting that the SJU might be having a relative down year in which they are merely very good, and not the usual insanely good), but I doubt it will be a blowout in their favor.

I doubt the field will be too wet tommorow, as it hasn't rained nearly as much as it did before the '04 game, so there is no convenient excuse (though in fairness, the field had been pretty bad the previous week as well).  I'm hoping for an Ole victory, though if it happens it won't be a blowout win for them (unless SJU re-enacts their '04 performance against a better Ole team).

Congratulations Johnnies (and fans) on a dominant victory.  There were some defintie weaknesses in our defense which you exploited, (and then exploited it again, and again ... ).  The Ole offense just couldn't get much going and all around we had a bad day.  The way the Johnnies were playing today the Oles needed a perfect game to have a chance at winning and came up far short.

I had heard a lot about how great Clemens stadium is for a game, and was not disappointed.  When I first entered, the stadium didn't seem as impressive as it had been made out to be, but as the stands and the surrounding grass filled I realized why gameday there is so well talked about.   I liked the enthusiasm of the student section as well as the sheer number of non-student fans there.

I was wondering what the Johnnies fans thought of the officiating today.  From my biased perspective they seemed awful.  They definitely blew it on the non-call of pass inteference on Olaf early in the game, but they definitely added to the slaughter with their atrocious calls and non-calls.  Whether it was having a very generous definition of offensive holding, waiting until the chains were stretched to spot the ball short on third down, failing to notice a flagrant facemask by St. John's in the second half, or ignoring a hit as our quarterback was in a foot-first slide (unless I'm mistaken, this is a personal foul by rule), they seemed (again in my biased perspective) to be trying to help the Johnnies out. 

Congratulations again on a good game and good luck in the playoffs!

OleGriz

I'm a St. Olaf student who is looking forward to what I hope will be a good game tommorow.  I've heard quite a few good things about the gameday atmosphere at St. John's and am glad for the opportunity to experience it in person (even as an opposing fan).  I was wondering if there were any specific security rules at Clemens Stadium (such as restrictions on backpacks and so forth). 

Thank you,

OleGriz