FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

Thank goodness for Ike James!

You can say that again.  Wabash has run the ball 17 straight plays!  I like it.  Keep the ball out of Gebele's hands. 

[wabashcpa]

Ike has been the man today.  Holding Denison to 7 pts so far pretty stout as well.

[wally_wabash]

A lot of really good stuff today at the Hollett, almost all of it in the second half. 

- Denison has a turnover bugaboo early in big games.  Witt got a fumble on their opening drive last week and immediately turned it into a touchdown.  Today, Wabash forced a fumble on Denison's opening drive and then scored off of that turnover.  Last year two Denison turnovers on their first three plays led to 14 quick Wabash points.  They're digging a hole early in these games and they're not quite getting out of those holes. 

- Denison had the better of the first half play.   Longer drives, outgained Wabash about 2:1, but still really only had the one scoring opportunity.  LGs did a really good job of hanging in here during the first half against Denison's efficient offense. 

- Key sequence early in the 3rd quarter.  Denison goes three and out, punts into the wind, and Wabash gets the ball at midfield after a fair catch.  LGs score on the short field.  Next possession- Denison goes 3 and out again, punts into the wind again, and Wabash gets the ball at the DU 34 after a fair catch, plus a 15 yard penalty for kick catch interference.  LGs score on the short field again, and all of a sudden it's a 21-7 game and Wabash is in full control.  Wabash did a great job with field position today, and an awful lot of it started with having two return guys back to catch punts- actually catch punts.  The yards Wabash has been forfeiting in this part of the game matter, and not giving those away today was a really big deal, particularly in the decisive third quarter. 

- And then the defense was just full lockdown in the second half.  Denison's 2nd half possessions:
3 plays, 7 yards, punt
3 plays, 6 yards, punt
3 plays, 2 yards, punt
3 plays, 8 yards, punt
1 play, 0 yards, INT**
6 plays, 21 yards, punt

** indicates the point at which the game was effectively done

Hard to do much better than that.  That's NCAC champion level defense and I'm pretty fired up that we got to see it today.  I hope we see it every week. 

- I know I kinda blew up the OC here last week over a 3 and G call that made things a lot harder than I think it needed to be, so now's a good time to for some praise.  In a similar situation (though with a lead and not trailing), Wabash went with a play fake to the RB on 3rd and G at the 2...the entire DU defense went to the RB while Wes Murphy crab walked into the end zone for the dagger.  Smart call and it was going to work 100% of the time in that spot.  The same thing would have worked last week.  Wabash isn't going to stray too far from their Ike James hulk-smash brand of offense, but the occasional wrinkle is useful.

All in all, huge win for Wabash and this was the best game of the year by about a zillion times for the LGs.  Halfway done, but the second half sees a double dose of Tigers and a bunch of road games.  Still a lot of work to do here.  But today was cool. Let's do more of this.   

[Li'l Giant]

- And then the defense was just full lockdown in the second half.  Denison's 2nd half possessions:

This was the best our defense looked all season, imo. Great job today totally shutting Denison down.

[HCAlum86]

A) Thank God you 'Bashers didn't burn the whole Athletic Center down after that abysmal 4-0 start... LOL. Great win by Wabash, congratulations are well in order.

B) Congratulations to Danny Robinson - first player to hang 200 rushing yards on a Witt defense since 2001.

[wally_wabash]

B) Congratulations to Danny Robinson - first player to hang 200 rushing yards on a Witt defense since 2001.

That really is impressive against Witt's defense.  They're the real deal, as is Danny Robinson.  Would love to see Ike James hang two bills on the Tigers as well here in a few weeks. 

[wally_wabash]

Nice piece on Ike James in ATR today. 

[bashtownie]

This is really tough to watch.

[cave2bens]

Congrats to a very game bunch of Bishops - the streak is over.  Not to detract from an excellent effort from OWU or a plethora of LG injuries, when the kicker scores 100% of the points there're problems in Crawdadsville.   

[Li'l Giant]

Wow. That was.....something.

First, congrats to OWU. They did everything they needed to win the game. And it wouldn't even have been in doubt but for the fluky TD on the blocked kick.

Now, I know some folks on campus don't like me saying this. Well, IDGAF. Y'all have my number. Call me and we can talk it out. I'm not apologizing for what follows because some of us saw this coming last year. We knew this would happen. We knew that a mistake was made.

Hoffman said around the end of the 1st Quarter "this game doesn't feel good". Yeah, just like we said during Albion, Hiram, and Wooster and several games last year, too.

This has been coming for the last 15 games. Wabash was a late TD against Albion and defending a last second play into the end zone against Denison away from being 6-4 last year.

This year we escape Hiram, escape Wooster, and now lose to OWU. We still have to play Witt and Depauw.

I'd say it's time to turn over the QB keys to the freshman kid from Roncalli but does it matter? It's like having a Ferrari driven by Stevie Wonder.

I'm calling it now, if we don't see some changes at the end of this year we'll be a .500 program by 2019. This is not Wabash football. The people who have been entrusted with Wabash football need to fix it.

[wally_wabash]

I'll have an answer later when I have time to do the research, but I'll take guesses as to when the last time Wabash didn't score an offensive touchdown was. 

Before today, of course.  Because that's a thing that happened today.  Going forward, I think when Wabash goes without an offensive touchdown, we'll just call it a Knoche. 

"Hey, did Wabash win today?"
"Nah dude, LG's lost 10-3 today."
"Oh man.  The ol' Knoche.  That's rough."

[sigma one]

Congratulations to OWU.  Wabash was out coached and out played.  The way Wabash has been playing this year it was only a matter of time, injuries or not.  Simply sub-par.  There continues to be a lack of imagination on offense as well as a passivity on defense.  Why do you continue to rush three when they can't get pressure and the OWU QB has just enough to pick apart the secondary? 
     Let me add that I don't trust the Wabash administration, including the AD and president, to think about making a change.  If Wabash goes 7-3, or a little better or worse, they will allow the program to hobble along.   

[Li'l Giant]

Going forward, I think when Wabash goes without an offensive touchdown, we'll just call it a Knoche.

I like this

Let me add that I don't trust the Wabash administration, including the AD and president, to think about making a change.  If Wabash goes 7-3, or a little better or worse, they will allow the program to hobble along.   

Well that's just great.

[sigma one]

 Wabash had one sack today--and that was their only tackle for loss!  Wabash was 13-34 passing; their longest gain was a pass that went through the hands of one receiver into the hands of another, a fluke.  Their TD was the more than rare blocked FG picked up by the kicker and run in, a fluke.
     Two flukes were the biggest piays; otherwise  . . .

[Old Gold Tiger]

The rise of the Denison program in 2016 was impressive.  Kickoff gives them high marks ahead of both Wabash and DePauw.  Gebele is a marquee athlete at QB, for sure.  But their line play and overall physicality leave me wondering if they can be as competitive as touted.  An OK DePauw defense looked like the '85 Bears against them last season.  Denison will need to be stronger up front to beat 'bash and DePauw.

I won't pretend to be objective, but I do think the DePauw team preview is a bit unenthusiastic even if their conference ranking is fair relative to returning talent.  Everyone will say DPU lost QB Hunt, who accounted for so much of the offense, including all five touchdowns and 400 yards of offense in the Bell game.  But the program grows stronger with many other players around the QB and a solid O line.  Some very good young QBs are in camp, among them Chase Andries and Cam Haynes, who may see increased action as the season progresses.

I think the Wabash guys would agree that a Wabash preview that doesn't mention DePauw obviously misses a high priority in that camp right now, not to mention some surprising scrutiny / criticism of the head coach voiced on this board following last year's outcome.  Somewhat similar to DePauw, the QB situation will be interesting to follow in C-ville even if 'bash is not quite as QB-centered as DePauw has been.

Witt is the clear favorite.  No surprise there.

This pre-season post was pretty much blown up for not joining in the coronation of Gabele and Denison as the team to beat outside of Witt.  Thought it worth referencing now that Denison went 0-3 against the top tier of the league without once breaking 20 points.  The stretch saw Gabele average 139 yards passing while yielding 0 passing TDs, 5 interceptions and 2 fumbles lost.   DePauw beat them today with their third QB.  Don't get me wrong -- lot of respect for Denison and Coach Hatem, but the 2nd best team in the league they do not appear to be right now.

DePauw is fortunate to be 6-0 with a lot of injuries, including both OPOTW Labus and first-year Andries at QB.  But it obviously reflects the quality of the program Bill Lynch has built, and continues to build, across the roster.  Tough fall break matchup looming with Witt.