FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Ralph Lee Wilson]

On a bright note, 3 of the first 4 kicks hit the uprights.

[Li'l Giant]

Hats off to Oberlin. They earned this win. They played a whale of a game and deserved to win. What a great win for their program.

Wabash has only one thing left to play for and it's not a minor detail. It's the Monon effing Bell. These seniors surely hate getting beat on Senior Day but they can go out next week and run their record to 4-0 against Depauw. This loss sure sucks but there's a big trophy and a lifetime of bragging rights left for those seniors to win. Gentlemen, go win that Bell.

PS: Welcome back, Lass.

[bashbrother]

Home field disadvantage

[ExTartanPlayer]

Well, after this...whatever it is...it looks like there is still a possibility of a three-way tie in the NCAC for the "A" and Witt I believe has the inside edge for it.

But they gotta watch out for Oberlin. They can play. One wonders if they had numbers and if Mandel was healthy all season.

Did anyone think we'd have to consider the possibility of Oberlin beating Witt, sending the AQ to OWU...or even Kenyon, goodness knows what other wacky results may emerge next week. Zoinks.

As Wally has pointed out...it's possible that two NCAC teams will finish 9-1 and ties for the title...an Wabash would own head to head wins over BOTH of them but lose out because of an Allegheny team that can't score and Oberlin?

[Li'l Giant]

A couple of historical notes here:

The last time that Wabash lost two regular season home games in a season was the craptastic 2004 season. Wabash lost 2 home games in 2008 but one was a playoff game.

The last time that both Wabash and Depauw missed the playoffs and ended their season with the Bell Game was was 2006.

[BASHNSMASH]

2 shutouts in a row and you change the defense unbelievable! !!!!!!!

[nike]

Wooster game was a great, I repeat, great game.  The Scots played their hearts out down to the last second.  More than at any time this year that I have seen.
Have not seen Hohl all year, but he played the whole game. Decent game for a freshman first time out.  No interceptions.
Sorry Bash folks.  Look forward to the breakdowns to follow. 
Kenyon and OWU? And Witt?  Anybody but them. Can Oberlin finish the season with a win?
Wow.   
 

[bashbrother]

Congrats to Oberlin on a HUGE win for the program.

For Wabash,  a couple of huge wins and you thought all you had to do was show up.... You now know it takes more than showing up to win.... really at any level. 

http://youtu.be/Tie0tz7jGDI

[BashDad]

...but there's some bad Monon Bell juju to never say NEVER in a Monon Bell game.

Never.

[nike]

ScotLass?

[Schwami]

Wow, the Bishops are just one win away from a probable trip to the playoffs, AQ or no.

Good to see SL back to console us Bash guys after mutual negative results 

[cave2bens]

Contrary to the halftime interview, this sure wasn't "just another day at the office."  Absolutely great game by one team which knew how to close a deal and an atrocious appearance by the hosts.  It appears there is some major defragging to be done before next week - two weeks running  when adversaries rack up over 400 yards through the air??? Regrettably, this group could finish the job.   

Hats off to Coach Ramsey, his staff, and obviously the Oberlin Yeomen - bloody well done.  Pound Witt - just because!

After my snide remarks about NCAC scheduling and tiebreakers, it may be time to admit a premature verbal ejaculation.

Best thing to come out of the day is being blessed with ScotLass.   

   

[wally_wabash]

First the game, then implications for the playoffs. 

What a game by Oberlin today.  They played awesome, bottom line.  The thing that seems to be lost in the meltdown in here is that Oberlin has good players.  That's the same group of kids that pushed Wabash last year, just a year older and a  year better.  They have very good skill players on offense.  And they played outstanding football today.  The screen call that Witjes broke for Oberlin's go ahead touchdown changed everything.  It put Wabash's blitz on hold right then and there and as we all know, that's the bread and butter for Wabash's defense.  With that out of the equation, Witjes and Weintraub had time to work in the secondary and get open and good things will happen for Oberlin when those two can have time to work. 

I don't have a good explanation for why Wabash's offense couldn't get going.  Holmes was Holmes and had a great game as usual.  But as good as Holmes is, you wipe out his effectiveness when you're playing behind the chains and Wabash did that way too often today.  Let's look at some of Wabash's possessions today:

Fumbled opening kickoff
2Q - Drive ends with a missed FG
2Q - Holding forces 1st and 20, bad snap makes it 4th and 42 and done, but roughing the punter lets Wabash start over...holding immediately makes it 1st and 18.  That's two possessions killed in one. 
2Q - Another bad snap takes the ball way away from midfield and makes it 3rd and 24.  Possession dead.
2Q - Decent drive ends with a missed FG
3Q - Holding forces 2nd and 18, possession dead
4Q - Oberlin stops Wabash on 4th and G on the 1

And after that I won't talk about the last three drives that ended in INTs because Wabash's hand was forced at that point.  Wabash forfeited or abandoned five possessions with poor execution and left points on the field on two other drives (not mentioning the 3Q drive that went backwards from the OC 5 yard line and ended with a FG).  That's how upsets happen...you can't give away that many possessions to anybody, let alone a team that has any offensive firepower at all.  That's 15 possessions, five of them ended because of fumbles, bad snaps, or penalties, three more ended with turnovers in the fourth quarter.  That's the whole story right there. 

So what does it mean for the playoffs?  Contrary to what we think we know regarding two-loss teams and the playoffs, this year is different.  We've been talking seriously about two loss teams being selected for three weeks now and that talk has only gotten more real as more and more teams lose (add Bethel and Concordia-Moorhead to the two-loss pool as well).  As a two-loss team, I believe Wabash STILL has a decent shot to make the field because the Little Giants stack up well against the selection criteria.  Nothing is certain now (it was before today's result), but if Wabash gets to the table, Wabash's 2 wins against ranked opponents ought to get them in in front of 2-loss teams that don't have quality wins.  Remember...the criteria cares more about who you beat than who you lost to.  Wabash's fate will be decided by the regional rankings and how many teams in the North region they get buried behind.  Wabash will definitely move behind Elmhurst and Heidelberg now.  They will probably move behind OWU, but that isn't certain as Wabash will have a better SOS, a h2h result, and better results vs. RROs than OWU.  It may be enough to keep Wabash ahead of OWU in the rankings despite the second loss.  We'll have to see...I wouldn't be shocked either way. 

Anyway, that's a long way to say that Wabash isn't dead yet.  Right now, I would say that the playoffs are not probable, but they are certainly not out of reach.  Winning by 80 next week wouldn't hurt. 

[bashbrother]

I guess at the end of the day,  after having a chance to think about it....  I, as well as many, may forget how young this Wabash team is......  Freshman and Sophomores all over the field.   That truly is the only explanation I can rationalize for playing like we did today after a "winning the tough ones"  like CMU, WITT and OWU....   Bright future for this Little Giants Team,  I hope that none of the injuries from today's game is serious.....   

Credit to Mandell and the Yeoman,  but being real,  we gave that one away.   Can we have all of our games on the road next year? 

WAF!  BELL WEEK!   

[Li'l Giant]

If Wally is right and Wabash can sneak in there's little doubt Wabash would be on the road the entire time.