FB: American Rivers Conference

[old school ENP Tiger]

Sounds like Wartburg made some great adjustments on defense to bring home the win.  Tough loss for UD but for the conference its always good to have the rated teams winning....A few of the Dutch fans couldn't understand how that could be at the game today but if you're in a conference that just beats each other up as far as the national picture goes you aren't very good.  congrats to the winners better luck next time for the losers

[old school ENP Tiger]

This just in....Tim Connell is good.... 4 td's with a limited running game again.  Schuring started today 13 carries for 46 yards but 25 came on 1 run.  BV was ready to stop him and the run and they did....Forgot about that guy that has 14 TD passes and finally picked up the first rushing TD of the season (good to see the legs back) 

[Purple Heys]

Tale of two halves:
Luther 13-0 in the first half
Cornell scores 20-12 in the second half

Disappointed but undaunted.

Ah yes, the old Dan McCarney "We won the 2nd half" bit.
I didn't post earlier because I was waiting to see some stats of the game, but I am ecstatic about Wartburg's win over UD today. Sounded like Wartburg absolutely dominated the 2nd half.
I hope the UD players carted off are OK. BTW, what was with all the injuries to UD today? On the radio, it seemed like about every possession there was an official's TO to get an injured player off the field.

I believe the correct McCarney-ism on that is preceded by a "Yes, but..."

No such qualification here...Cornell did not get out of the gate on offense...out of sync...bad execution...good Luther D had its hand in that, but it was just as much self-inflicted.  Cornell tried to go deep on the 1st play from scrimmage, pass was 5 yards short and got picked, a gamble that didn't pay off.  Luther put the ball in Sherden's hands.  No surprises.  Norse ask too much of Sherden really...the kid couldn't finish the game.

2nd half:  Cornell RAN the ball right at and through a rested Luther D on the 1st offensive series.  Was wondering why they didn't try that package of plays in the first half.  Cornell continued to have success the entire 2nd half running the ball and passing to keep Norse off balance.

[Purple Heys]

I think the real story of the game was dictated by the Norse O-line and kicking game.

Norse punting was good for the entire day for the most part.  Pease made 6 of 6, that's the obvious diffence.

Not so obvious was that after Sherden went down, Luther got a bit more balanced and the Rams couldn't get to the Luther QB.  As the game went on he gained confidence and connected on passes to sustain drives for FG's.  He played the first half with a serious case of the yips.

When I saw Sherden w/o his shoulder pads in the 2nd I thought we would get our thing going, but the Luther o-line stepped it up.

[Purple Heys]

Bring on your negative K.

I still came away from the game feeling encouraged.

The game, taking the consensus of most posters, wasn't going to be close.  Luther had to sweat out the final 5 minutes.

Luther was supposed to ground the Wing-T.  When Cornell committed to the offense in the 2nd half, Luther had trouble stopping it.  Three 2nd half TD's prove that.

Cornell wasn't supposed to be able to match Luther physicalness.  I think there are some awfully sore young men on both sides...

The ingredients for winning in this league are there and there are winnable games still on our schedule.

[Old Dutch]

Congrats to all the winners yesterday, great day in the IIAC.  Especially impressed that the Simpson O got rolling against Loras, The Dutch need to get better again next week.  Not so impressed with BV.  Seemed to lack any serious offesive threat.  Dutch had two starting LB's out and they took advantage with short passing game and dumps to the RB. 

Schuring was in but not used much, BV crowded the LOS in the first half and took away the run.  Not wise since Connell is a huge offesnive threat, throws the deep ball MUCH better this year than previous, must be Coach Anderson's strength program!

Most of the Dutch injured will be back, so if they survive the Storm next week, it will be a great second half of the season.

As an old McCarney backer, all I can say is Go South Florida Bulls!

[Thunderbolt]

  RamsFan and AshPark, Great call on Chameleon's. Bleu cheese burger and several Shiner Bock's on tap. My kind of place.                                                           I think I can see reasons for some of the Ram fans optimism. Maybe not the purple shaded Heys kind. They are better than last year. I thought their coaching staff made some nice adjustments, and took some calculated risks, to put them in a spot to succeed. They are a gritty bunch. They had several chances during the game to pack it in, to their credit they did not. The Norse played extremely conservative on both sides of the ball. Probably, to be expected with a QB with about 5 minutes of game time under his belt and a defense thats given up a ton of big plays. The QB was tenative in the first half, started letting the ball go much better in the 2nd half and made some plays with his feet. Norse scored on all four 2nd half possessions. On defense, the safetys were 20 yards off the line by the snap of the ball, linebackers were getting good depth. May account for the wing t running at and through the rested Norse D for a 3.2 yard average. Lastly, it was Grim that missed the long field goal attempt not Pease.

[Ash Park]

aaah the bleu cheese burger is one of my favorites. Glad we could be of good service to you.

Talk about a frustrating Saturady!!    The Hawks lose to Indiana then the Rams lose a tough one to Luther. Congrats to Luther though, I thought they were a very physical team and it didn't look like we started to match their intensity and physicality until the 2nd Quarter. Thunderbolt I agree with much of your take on the game. Although much of the 2nd half when Cornell was running their wing-t stuff the safeties were creeping up especially in the 4th quarter. They were playing their safeties deep to begin with mostly because of what Cornell had done in the passing game the previous two games. Luther did a good job of rattling the QB and not giving him a chance to get into much of a rythm. Luther did not want to give up the deep ball and were giving up the underneath stuff but Cornell did not make those adjustments until the 2nd half. I thought Dillon had a good quote in this mornings paper, "The second half, we were a different football team offensively, but you've got to play 60 minutes." Dillon also said "Cornell is on the right path, but that's the tough thing as a coach, is to be patient and the players too. This is a world of instant gratification but we need to stay the course."
Yes!! Stay the course Cornell...I think anybody that was at that game saw a team that will not give up and can tell that things are changing. Still dissapointed about the loss but sometimes you gotta find the positives in a loss like that. Go Rams!! Lets go up to Storm Lake and get our first Conf. W.

[Ash Park]

By the way I saw Alex Mcgrew played yesterday for Loras. Glad to see he was able to play. Also, whats a guy have to do around here to get some positive Karma??

[doolittledog]

Also, whats a guy have to do around here to get some positive Karma??

Don't sweat the karma thing.  Everybody on here is down in the Karma department.  I've gone from +10 to +1 in about 4 weeks time.  I think Walston said he was down 30 or 40 in that time frame.  Something is up with that, don't know what. 

Great weekend for football as far as the weather was concerned.  Just not the results I would have wanted in all the games but the sun still came up this morning and there are still games to be played next weekend. 

[Purple Heys]

...Lastly, it was Grim that missed the long field goal attempt not Pease.

Bolt, you are absolutely correct on that...thanks.

BTW, I made the Channel 9 News...that was me in the Ram Horns!  I am now famous on 2 different media channels.

[DutchFan2004]

The game at Central was a game of quarters.  The team that had the wind behind them had a decided advantage.  Throwing into that wind was unbelievable.  The ball hung up and floated for both quarterbacks.  I do think that we had the better with the wind though as the second quarter we shredded the defense.  The 3rd 1/4 Central tried to get a running game going but BV just did a good job of keeping us penned in.  That left throwing the only option and our QB made them pay.  All the points were scored with the wind.  Tuff weather in Pella yesterday but a good win none the less. On to week six and the Storm.  Congrats on your win over Loras.  You guys over came a good D.


Congrats to Wartburg and Luther for their wins as well. 

[Purple Heys]

The impressive thing about Luther's 2nd half is that they kept the ball moving and away from the Rams' Offense.  They didn't get in the end zone but they kept moving down into FG range where Pease converted, keeping the Rams at arms length for most of the afternoon.

[DutchHawk]

What was the wind like up on the hill at Dubuque?

[DutchFan2004]

wow this is rediculous  -4 in one day for one post that congratulated the winners.  The Karma bandits are a joke.