FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Wabash Hokie]

Any more commentary on the Wabash/Denison game??  Bash seemed to dominate...  I couldn't watch much of it but it seemed they really shut Brown down most of the game.  2 catches for the 2014 NCAC Offensive Player of the Year.  I wonder what the frosh QB thinks about the Wabash D...   

McCullen is a beast!

WAF!

...going for 7 straight Bells...

BB16 - your read on the game was about right.  Only Wabash could stop Wabash on Saturday.  Held Brown without a catch in the first half.  Denision QB was under constant pressure.  Wind seemed to play havoc with both QBs - it looked like duck season when going into the wind.  Wabash's wideouts did a great a job of adjusting to the ball.  Wabash has some freshmen that can play. In addition to the two WRs, the rookie RB from Zionsville, while only in for a couple of series, looks like he could be Zurek clone.


Looks like Wabash rested its kickoff guy - may have tweeked a hammy last week (from what I saw on video). Our backup Kickoff guys are not yet ready for prime time.  Hope he is at full strength next week.


Overall - Wabash looked strong on both sides of the ball.  They are primed and ready to feast on some Tiger tail next weekend.

[wally_wabash]

DuShawn Brown caught just two passes against Wabash, both on Denison's 3rd quarter TD drive.  The first was a long play up the sideline where he just made a great play over the top of Brian Parks, who had good coverage on the play.  The second time they got him matched up on LV in the slot and had enough time to throw a slant.  And that was the full extent of DuShawn Brown's contribution on offense.  Wabash did an excellent job taking away the reigning NCAC OPOY and Denison just didn't have much in the way of contingency plans. 

By contrast, Brown got 7 balls for 138 and 1TD against DePauw last week.

[DPU3619]

Alright here we go - big Monon preview post. Let's get down to brass tacks.

Wabash has the conference's #1 O in pts. DePauw is #2. DePauw has the conference's #1 O in yards. Wabash is #2. Wabash has the conference's #1 D in every statistical category. DePauw is a pretty distant #2 in pts, rush yards, and sacks. DePauw is 3rd in total yards by 3 yards. Specials are still heavily in Wabash's favor.

So, all that spits out, to me, to Wabash probably being roughly 10-14 points better if all goes according to plan for both sides. Turnovers, penalties, special teams, etc, can swing it one way or the other.

DePauw is #2 in the conference in rush yards. Wabash is #1 in both rush yards on O and rush yards on D. Does DePauw run it for the 211 they average, the 38 that Wabash's D averages, or somewhere in the middle? Anything over 125 on the ground has to feel like a win in that phase, doesn't it? That's probably the most important part of the game to me. I know time of possession can be a very misleading statistic. It doesn't always matter. But I think it does in this instance. If DePauw runs anywhere in the area of 20-25 more plays than Wabash does, then they probably win. If DePauw only runs 50 or so plays, they'll certainly lose. 

I don't think DePauw can hit 7 or 8 long ones. I think the nature of Wabash's defense can schematically open them up for long ones, but the dudes are too good back there. They cover a lot of ground and they're very sound. Gonna be tough to get behind them. DePauw tries for a couple long playaction plays just about every week. I love DePauw's playaction series. It's awesome. I stole it from them and my team runs it now. It's so dirty in to the boundary. Even dirtier when you run it in to a boundary blitz. DePauw will need the playaction Saturday. That said, blitz has been a problem for the DePauw OL in this game the past few years. 7 sacks allowed in the past 4 Bell games. But, I think this is the best DePauw OL in that time period. If they handle the blitz and run it with any success, they'll have a shot at it.

The Wabash O vs DePauw D will be what it always is. DePauw is gonna sit in quarters most of the day and try to get home with the front 4. If they do get home, they'll have a chance. If not, then Wabash probably stays on the field for most of the day. Wabash throws quick game well enough that they can probably either force DePauw out of it or score a ton if they don't come out of it. I'd waste more words here, but seriously, throw slants, hitches, and outs and DePauw will have to adjust.

I think DePauw is getting closer every year. This is probably the best I've felt about one of these in the past 5 years. The number of things that HAVE to go right is shrinking. I don't know if this is the year or not, but if they don't turn it over, I think they've got a shot.

[wabndy]

Some useless trivia for bell week.  In looking up some data for my post on the Monon Bell discussion board - I did see that a Wabash player still owns not just one but two HCAC/ICAC records.  David Kogan in 1993 scored 78 points in 5 games for 15.6 points per game. The next best is 2007s R.J. Hartsfield from Franklin who managed 14.6 ppg in 2007.  David Kogan also scored 12 touchdowns in 5 games for a total of 2.40 rushing touchdowns per game, still standing ahead of 2012s James Clay of MSJ at 2.17.


You may now resume your regularly scheduled lives.

[firstdown]

Time for the annual rant about the Great Signal Stealing Scandal of 1998.  Alas, due to the wrist bands now in use with numbers, letters, and colors rotated randomly each week, there are no signals to steal.  Maybe a little dumpster diving on Friday night to purloin an extra copy of the wrist band?  Thanks to cross cut shredders, there will be nothing to find but confetti.  The wrist bands will be in a secure location until they are distributed right before the game.

What is a signal stealing junkie to do?  Here's one signal for you, the fist with a raised middle finger which is a signal that you will see often on Saturday, but I think you understand its meaning.

[firstdown]

NCAA Division III stats through last weekend's game for Wabash:
Rushing Defense - 1
Total Defense -      3
Scoring Defense -  3

[wabndy]

Now for some slightly less useless data:
Playoff teams within 500 miles of Crawfordsville and Greencastle:

Pool A teams
Wheaton
Franklin
Dubuque
Trine/Albion
Lakeland/Benedictine
Mt. Union/John Carroll
Thomas More
W-Oshkosh
Monmouth/St. Norbert
For the SAA qualifier:  DePauw is just under the 500 mile mark to Berry, Wabash is just over the 500 mile mark.  Neither are within 500 miles of Hendrix

Pool C teams:
W-Whitewater
Olivet
W-Platteville
Wartburg
Illinois Wesleyan

[wally_wabash]

That's extremely chivalrous of you to include Greencastle in that analysis.  I'm sure it will come in handy some day...but not this year.   

People should take note of that list though.  As versatile as Wabash is when it comes to bracket building, there's not really going to be a knee-high water game available for Wabash before they go swimming in the deep end.  The teams that live close to Wabash that are qualifying this year are all really good.  If you're a Wabash fan looking for a favorable draw for one round, I think the NACC winner is off the table (probably going to a #1 seed somewhere), you're probably looking at the MIAA winner or the MWC winner (not listed, but it'll be Monmouth or St. Norbert) as a first round opponent.  Those are not easy games, but those would be the best case scenario.  After that, it's four rounds of awesome teams to go all the way.  Just no way around that. 

[wabndy]

That's extremely chivalrous of you to include Greencastle in that analysis.  I'm sure it will come in handy some day...but not this year.   

Hey- its a conference wide board. 
Corrected my post to add Monmouth / St. Norbert.

I'd also see Franklin as a very possible first round opponent.  Given the chaos in the East I would imagine Mt Union getting once again grouped with a bunch of east region teams.

[Mugsy]

NCAA Division III stats through last weekend's game for Wabash:
Rushing Defense - 1
Total Defense -      3
Scoring Defense -  3

This is not meant to imply that Wabash does not have a stellar defense, cause I believe they do.  But it should provide some level of objectivity based on the relative strength of offenses faced that have helped lead to the national rankings.  For instance would Wabash be ranked #1 in rushing defense if they faced stronger rushing teams? (best rushing team they faced is ranked 123rd, with 5 teams in the bottom 25% percentile)

Team	Total Offense Rank	Scoring Rank	Rushing Rank
Hampden-Sydney	#70	#92	#124
Allegheny		#241
Wittenberg	#66	#44	#162
Hiram	#182	#201	#194
Oberlin	#201	#191	#200
Kenyon	#151	#155	#123
Wooster	#180	#181	#201
OWU	#194	#148	#206
Denison	#167	#138	#190

[wally_wabash]

Maybe those teams would have higher Rush Offense ranks if they didn't have to play against Wabash.  That cuts both ways, right? 

[Mugsy]

Maybe those teams would have higher Rush Offense ranks if they didn't have to play against Wabash.  That cuts both ways, right?

Absolutely.  I don't question that at all. 

But Wabash is only 1 of 8 opponents each team has faced.  It would seem that none of those teams have exactly lit the world on fire against their other opponents either?

Probably falls into the hard to quantify topics since Wabash has played and shutdown the offenses they have been scheduled to face.  Much of the conversation outside of that is difficult to corroborate.  Any question will be answered when the playoffs start.

In hindsight probably not much value to discuss, particularly in the midst of rivalry week.

[jknezek]

H-SC was 4th of 8 teams rushing in the ODAC during conference games only. So pulling out Wabash and the other OOCs, they were mid-pack. Averaged 4.1 ypc and 170 rushing yards per game. The ODAC didn't play outstanding defense this year, so lots of teams have put up lots of yards.

Just to round this out, they were 3rd in total offense in the ODAC and 3rd in yards per game. Again, only conference games. They do get RMC this week who is third in total defense but second in rushing yards allowed per game. So they do have one of the tougher defenses on tap yet.

[Desertraider]

Maybe those teams would have higher Rush Offense ranks if they didn't have to play against Wabash.  That cuts both ways, right?

Absolutely.  I don't question that at all. 

But Wabash is only 1 of 8 opponents each team has faced.  It would seem that none of those teams have exactly lit the world on fire against their other opponents either?

Probably falls into the hard to quantify topics since Wabash has played and shutdown the offenses they have been scheduled to face.  Much of the conversation outside of that is difficult to corroborate.  Any question will be answered when the playoffs start.

In hindsight probably not much value to discuss, particularly in the midst of rivalry week.

Could look at it in terms of % below their average for a better take on Wabash D. In the case of Denison they average 113.6 yds rushing per game (granted this is including the Wabash game) and Wabash held them to 6 yds. Don't care how you look at it - holding a team to 6 yds rushing is good D.

[wally_wabash]

In hindsight probably not much value to discuss, particularly in the midst of rivalry week.

I think it's really valuable.  One piece of Wes's preview is that DPU probably has to be able to run at least a little bit.  If we're saying that DePauw is substantially better in this area of the game than other teams Wabash has played, it'll be something to keep an eye on. 

DePauw is currently ranked #34 in rush offense, FWIW.