FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[aueagle]

End of 3....OWU 32 - Denison 21
Possible "mo" shift to Big Red
DU back Fioroni has 2 TD's....good back

[The_Bishop]

Bishop O looks solid for a season opener.

[The_Bishop]

Let me take that back after the missed 19-yard FG.  Gross.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Is there a live stream or stats for the OWU game?

[The_Bishop]

^^ Go to Denison Football's homepage:

http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/denison.portal#

[wally_wabash]

Back from southern Indiana...some thoughts from Hanover today:

- The Wabash defense was very stout today.  As predicted by BB16 in this forum, Coach Hammer turned the LBs loose and pressured Dexter Britt all day long.  Britt hooked up with Passafiume 9 times today, but just for 67 yards.  They really didn't get anything going down the field because they really didn't have time.  It was a lot of quick slant/screen stuff.  The secondary had a strong day as well.  Austin Hodges had two interceptions (the second went back for the score that sealed it).  Koop had three breakups from his safety position.  Wilkins and Woods played well at the other safety.  Very good day by the defense.  There were a couple of unfortunate penalties on 4th downs on Hanover's second TD drive, but that's really about the only mini-blemish from Coach Hammer's unit today. 

- Two sides to the offensive coin today.  The good: Chase Belton.  Oh was he ever good today.  That is how seniors play quarterback.  Super efficient, his throws looked good (minus the one interception...badly underthrew Hildebrand who had the defense beat...maybe hung up in the wind a bit, maybe just a bad throw...either way one bad throw out of 30+ is fine by me).  The wide receivers were very good today.  I don't recall one drop today by that group and they looked good running after the catch as well.  Laird really stood out.  His TD grab on the opening drive was restaurant quality.  Gibson was also very good today as was Hildebrand.  Plenty of reliable options for Chase and he used them all today. 

- The bad: hard to look the other way at the run game today.  I'm not an expert at line play, but it really looked to me like our RBs were covered by red jerseys before they could even really get going.  Not sure if that was Hanover overcommitting (overcompensating?) to the run because of what happened against IC last week, but they really had Wabash's run game on lockdown today.  Meyers found some room to run on the last offensive scoring drive, but it really wasn't pretty out there.  This will get better as the line gets more game time. 

- Lots of penalties today, but so much of it is correctable.  False starts, some holding...that's typical first game stuff.  Had some roughing the passers in there.  I didn't think those were egregious fouls, but some officials will be hypersensitive to it and some won't.  Really, with the way this defense goes after quarterbacks (especially quarterbacks that are going to throw 50 times in one-dimensional offenses), Wabash is probably going to have to take that penalty occasionally.  The fact here is that all that pressure on the quarterback helped Wabash today way more than it hurt them. 

- Special teams was good.  MacDougall's first PAT was low and got blocked, but was nails after that first kick.  "The Toe" Sobleski kicked pretty well today but his highlight was running down the Hanover player that tried to run back that first blocked PAT.  "The Toe" might  have to be retired in favor of "The Wheels".  I had written those two points off when that kid picked up that ball...great hustle there.  The return game was strong.  Houston Hodges and Justin Woods are a strong combo back on kick return.  I like what I saw there. 

All in all, good day for Wabash.  Was it perfect?  Nah.  Was it good enough to win by 3 TDs on the road to a team that played last week? Yep.  And that's the bottom line...win.  And win they did.  Wabash opens up league play next week at Denison.  WAF! 

[The_Bishop]

Holy moly late Denison TD.

Going for 2 to try and make it 32-29. 

[The_Bishop]

Pass is complete. 32-29 OWU.

Onside kick time.

[The_Bishop]

Great bounce, OWU recovers.

[The_Bishop]

Final.

OWU - 32
DU - 29

[aueagle]

104th meeting goes to Bishops...Watts get first win
Espo with 266 yds....Go Bishops

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Is 77 the center that came over from Heidi? He is quite big.

[wally_wabash]

The_Bishop, aueagle...nice work out in Granville by your guys today.  Might have a spark there after all.  Do it again next week at Oberlin, have a little momentum when CWRU comes in under the lights.  Who knows what might happen there.  Glad to see the Bishops with some life tonight. 

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Congratulations OWU. Nice to see the Bishops win the first game of the Watt era.

[DPU3619]

Missed most of the DePauw game today due to having my own game to deal with. The first thing that sticks out to me in the box is the 4 turnovers.  They were driving with a chance to tie at the end of the 3rd, but turned it over.  Can't ask much more than a chance to take a tie game into the 4th.  I'd say that's an improvement from a lot of last year.  That's a pretty solid team they played today.  Not a horrible debut for a freshman QB - 18-35 for 170, 1TD & 2INTs. 

In my opinion, there are quite a few talented freshmen on this roster.  They'll get better as we go.  There will have growing pains in the meantime, though.