FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Little Giant 89]

Wabash 35 - Oberlin 21
Final

[bashbrother]

The punt return thing is incredible.  It really is. Wabash has forfeited at least 60 yards of field position today because they don't catch punts.

It's so consistent, it must totally be what the coaches are directing them to do..   Punters can't wait to play us..  good for their average.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Someone must have put the hex on CC and EMU.  They lost their fifth straight today, all by one score margins, today to WMU in OT.  They are now 2-5, but with just a trace of luck they could be 7-0.

[wabashcpa]

Isn't now the time we are normally supposed to be excited about Witt Week?  Especially at home?

Unfortunately, right now I am having flashbacks to the Thunder & Lightning game of 2000.

[ohiofan1954]

Someone must have put the hex on CC and EMU.  They lost their fifth straight today, all by one score margins, today to WMU in OT.  They are now 2-5, but with just a trace of luck they could be 7-0.

Is a shame, hate to mention by Bobcats started that one winning a great game.

[HCAlum86]

Welp, becoming abundantly apparent that Hiram's defense shows up when convenient.

[wally_wabash]

Welp, becoming abundantly apparent that Hiram's defense shows up when convenient.

It's not just Hiram, HCA.  Defense around the whole league has been borderline atrocious this season. 
- 9 teams rank 78 or lower in first down defense (4 are ranked 200+)
- 8 teams rank 100 or higher in 3rd down defense (4 are 197+)
- 9 teams rank 100 or higher in pass yards allowed (SIX!!! are 200+)
- 7 teams rank 121 or higher in rush yards allowed (5 are 150+)
- 8 teams rank 100 or higher in scoring defense (3 are 200+)
- 9 teams are 96 or higher in pass efficience defense (4 are 200+)
- 7 teams are 100 or higher in total defense (5 are 189+)

It's bad everywhere.  Technically, Wabash leads the conference in total defense, but you can hit homeruns against Wabash and Wabash isn't turning people over at a big rate and they're giving up 18 ppg which isn't great.  Despite the yardage differential, Witt is playing the best D in the league.  They're taking it away at a good rate and they aren't allowing points.  But outside of Wabash who is playing ok defense and Witt who is playing pretty good defense, the rest of the league is just bad. 

And I'll not hear about DPU giving up only 68 rush yards per game (11th ranked).  That doesn't matter when you're the 210th ranked pass defense.  Those stats will be relevant on a micro scale in a couple of weeks. 

[sigma one]

I'm just throwing this our to keep a discussion going.  If most of the defenses are so bad, could it be in part because most of the offenses are pretty good?  Or could be a combination:  poor defenses and productive offenses.  Maybe the two are intertwined. 
     

[smedindy]

With only one out of conference game, our defenses could look bad because of the offenses. I know Ken Pomeroy does a lot of adjustments on pace in basketball to make up for the style of play. I think someone does that in football, too. Throw out defensive and special team scores, too, to get a true defensive identity.

Giving up 28 to a team averaging 42 isn't bad - giving up 28 to a team averaging 17 is...

[wally_wabash]

I'm just throwing this our to keep a discussion going.  If most of the defenses are so bad, could it be in part because most of the offenses are pretty good?  Or could be a combination:  poor defenses and productive offenses.  Maybe the two are intertwined. 
   

It's definitely a chicken/egg situation.  There are better offenses operating in the league this year with some veteran QBs.  Wooster is notable.  Hiram really had it cranked up prior to Tucker's injury.  Denison has been more diverse with Minton emerging at RB.  The biggest improvement here has been Allegheny.  Again, Logan Lee is now a third year starter, Tyler Balla is a very good RB, and Alex Victor is a nightmare if you let him touch the ball.  OC Brayden Layer (former Denison standout) has done fantastic work there in just one offseason.  I mean, really fantastic.  We're only two years away from Allegheny not being able to score points at all- they were ranked 242 out of 243 D3 teams in scoring offense in 2015.  Today they're over 30 ppg. 

I do think though that a lot of the numbers we're seeing are products of some really bad defense being played.  Good defenses are still stopping good offenses (see Witt), but we're just not seeing a ton of good defense this year. 

[kraken]

Welp, becoming abundantly apparent that Hiram's defense shows up when convenient.

HCA, I have attended 5 Hiram games this year and plan to continue to attend games for the next 3 seasons. I seriously commend you for your glass half-full approach to the Hiram program. Personally, I find it difficult to watch.

[wally_wabash]

The punt return thing is incredible.  It really is. Wabash has forfeited at least 60 yards of field position today because they don't catch punts.

Last thing I'm going to post about the punt return this season.   On Saturday Oberlin averaged 52.9 yards per punt on 8 punts.  Their average coming in to the game was 36.6 yards per punt (very respectable already).  On the 8 punts, Wabash surrendered a total of 130 yards of field position vs. Oberlin's per punt average entering the game.  That's a lot of yards to just give away for an offense that sometimes (often) really struggles with long fields.  Wabash was fortunate to take back all of those yards on two very long runs by Isaacs James and Avant, but you can't really count on a 75 yard run to get you out of jail multiple times in a game. 

Also of note here is that Oberlin p-b-p guy Don Vincent, who is clear and knowledgeable and funny and calls a fantastic game, pointed out that Oberlin's punter was punting a little more flat than usual and surmised, after 3-4 punts, that this was purposeful.  Wabash not fielding punts is now a thing that teams are game planning for because you can steal yards (lots of them) by short hopping the return guy. Everybody in the league sees it and is now weaponizing it on purpose.  Don Vincent astutely picked up on this just watching and calling the game. 

I'd say there are two options. 
- Have no return guy and sell out to block every single punt.
- Send two guys back, different depths, and fair catch everything.  No returns, just catch the damn thing.  Wabash did this against Denison to great effect.  They then immediately went away from it and got back to watching 65 yard punts roll dead inside the 5 on the regular. 

[/end rant]

Beat Witt! 

[wabndy]

Looks like Putnam County is going to be the beneficiary of some court ordered community service time.http://www.bannergraphic.com/story/2454783.html
http://www.journalreview.com/news/article_5c6c4ea0-b8ba-11e7-a8a8-e7ad7aeab8df.html

[Li'l Giant]

Not D3 related but I had to share this.

Columbia Football Keeps Winning. Some Fans Aren't Happy About It.

[wally_wabash]

I think next year somebody needs to do a 20-year retrospective with an oral history of the Halloween Heist.  That story needs to be told in its entirety.