FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Schwami]

Wabash 48
Chicago 10
FINAL

Centre 34
DePauw 24
FINAL

Wooster 37
Ohio Wesleyan 20
FINAL

Witt 46
Wash U. 0
FINAL

Mount Union 30
Ohio Northern 10
FINAL

[cave2bens]

anyone else have their video stream just up and quit?

Now it's back. Nevermind. 

"Another bad snap...and that's an issue I'll..."  this is kinda like Skype video conferences with Ms. Caves in Namibia this morning. 

Arghhhh

[aueagle]

Stream has been down from Selby...still 30-13 COW...Bishops driving - on  Scot 26....

[aueagle]

Bishops just threw an INT....QB Varner intercepted by COW DeGrand...82 yd return for the touch....
COW 37 - OWU13...so sad....

[aueagle]

Bishops drive to the COW 5....Can't punch it in...MISS the FG from 23 yds out. Wooster on the OWU 23 and driving in........OWU using 2 QB's...again.

[aueagle]

Bishops grab TD with 21 seconds left in game....
Final from Selby......
Wooster 37 - OWU 20

[seinfeld]

Very interesting stat that shows how effective, and yet somewhat ineffective, Wooster's offense has been this year. In 21 drives that didn't end as a result of the end of a half (I'm not counting the end of the Waynesburg game in this, since they were attempting hail mary passes since the clock was running out), Wooster has crossed the 50-yard line in each of them. In 15 of those drives they made it inside the red zone (13 if you take away a special teams and defensive touchdown). Yet they have only seven offensive touchdowns to go with five field goals and one fumble. Not bad, but not good enough. If you are getting into your opponents territory every drive, you need to get more points. This cost Wooster against Waynesburg last week, and it will cost them somewhere else down the road. It's good to know that Wooster may have the best kicker in the league in Palm, but he is kicking too many short field goals.

This has been a pattern that has formed for Wooster. Last year, despite finishing second in the NCAC, Wooster was 7th in red zone efficiency. In 2007 they were 5th, in 2006 3rd, in 2005 8th. Even when they had Sutton in 2004, Wooster was 3rd.

But on the positive side, Wooster defensive line seemed to play much better, with new starting d-tackle Dan Terhune coming out of nowhere with 11 tackles. And Holter has gone two straight games without a pick, and Wooster has just one turnover in two games. Definitely positives to build on.

[Schwami]

NCAC Scores:

Kenyon 45
Hiram 27

Wabash 48
Chicago 10

Wittenberg 46
Wash U. 0

Wooster 37
OWU 20

[wally_wabash]

Some thoughts from Chicago...

- First, wow what a gathering of Wabash fans up at Stagg Field today.  I'd estimate the crowd ratio was 2:1 in favor of the LGs.  Great, great support on the road today. 

- The lines for the LGs were pretty dominant today.  Wabash was able to run at will when they had the ball and then really held the Chicago run game down when the Maroons had the ball.  Parks had no room to run at all today and these new guys on the defensive line deserve a ton of credit for that. 

- Being able to run effectively does wonders for the deep ball.  It seemed like anytime Wabash wanted to take a shot down the field, it was there.  Hudson completed a few nice balls deep down the middle, with the major highlight being the 77 yard pass to Lemond.  That being said, the passing game could be a bit more crisp.  Hudson's first INT was a ball deflected by the receiver but the second one was just really really underthrown.  12-22 is fine against Chicago, but I think the completion percentage will need to be higher when Witt comes to town.   

- Defensively, Wabash was really good I thought today.  Aside from the one Chicago touchdown when Brizzolara got behind the defense, Chicago didn't have much of anything going on. 

- Special teams was a little off today as well.  It was pretty breezy down on the field and I thought Chamblee looked like he was battling that a bit on the muffed punt.  Kick coverage was also just ok...Chicago averaged over 25 yards per return.  On the bright side, the placekicking was perfect today, so it's not all bad for the special teams. 

All in all, a pretty decent day for Wabash.  Plenty of points on the board, the defense was strong...I don't think we're really going to know exactly how good these guys are until 10/17. 

[wally_wabash]

A couple of other finals...

Earlham 37
Anderson 34

Oberlin 6
CWRU 41

[wab64]

      How fleeting it is. DePauw, after years of non-ranking in the top 25 (d3football>com) and very few votes,to my recollection,llooked good- pre-season rank and #20 last week. Then comes Centre and they disappear. Totally. I've written a few owley posts about where Bash was placed over the past couple of years, but this is something else. I sympathize with Wes and dpu fan. On the other hand, ol' Spud seems to have laid a collosal egg-146 TO in 3 quarters before the comeback. Other programs, though, and St.Johns comes particularly to mind, get their rank no matter how bad they look and even a loss or 2.

[Li'l Giant]

If we had lost this week we would have lost every vote we have, too. St. John's has won a title this decade. We haven't. We're not in that league, either.

[smedindy]

Some schools get the benefit of the doubt. Wabash will get some benefit, but not a lot thanks to the cream-puff nature of the NCAC. DePauw won't get any benefit unless they finally beat Trinity and make the playoffs.

Plus, the MIAC (like the WIAC and OAC) usually knocks the snot out of each other, so even if you have 1 conference loss you're a darn good team. So a St. John's stumble doesn't mean they're overrated.

It's just the way it goes.

[Black n Gold]

Very interesting stat that shows how effective, and yet somewhat ineffective, Wooster's offense has been this year. In 21 drives that didn't end as a result of the end of a half (I'm not counting the end of the Waynesburg game in this, since they were attempting hail mary passes since the clock was running out), Wooster has crossed the 50-yard line in each of them. In 15 of those drives they made it inside the red zone (13 if you take away a special teams and defensive touchdown). Yet they have only seven offensive touchdowns to go with five field goals and one fumble. Not bad, but not good enough. If you are getting into your opponents territory every drive, you need to get more points. This cost Wooster against Waynesburg last week, and it will cost them somewhere else down the road. It's good to know that Wooster may have the best kicker in the league in Palm, but he is kicking too many short field goals.

This has been a pattern that has formed for Wooster. Last year, despite finishing second in the NCAC, Wooster was 7th in red zone efficiency. In 2007 they were 5th, in 2006 3rd, in 2005 8th. Even when they had Sutton in 2004, Wooster was 3rd.

But on the positive side, Wooster defensive line seemed to play much better, with new starting d-tackle Dan Terhune coming out of nowhere with 11 tackles. And Holter has gone two straight games without a pick, and Wooster has just one turnover in two games. Definitely positives to build on.

It is a problem, but don't get me wrong.... in the OWU game Wooster scored on their first 6 possesions which is always a plus, but the problem is.....the defense isn't great. They need to capitalize  and finish off these drives with 6 points rather than 3. Holter led the Scots down the field all day long and then they stalled with dropped passes, bad decisions, or just getting stuffed. Wooster will have to score 30+ points a game to stay in it in the upcoming weeks. We can't settle for field goals when Whalen, Hudson and Huffman are putting up 6 on us every time and have a defense behind their backs. 

[BayernFan]

So how is it that Wabash waxes its opponent on the road and then drops in the d3 poll?

rotflmao