FB: American Rivers Conference

[dutchfan1]

Wow -- surprising week in the IIAC. I was pulling for more victories....the BV, Loras, Coe and Cornell losses surprise me.

Congrats to Wartburg, UD and Central for fine non-con wins! It sounds as though Wartburg and Central still have some question marks before the conference championship in a couple of weeks.

Best of luck -- here's hoping for no major injuries.

Heys, how long are you in the Hawkeye State?

[Old Dutch]

I'm with you Klompen.  I was disappointed in that Wartburg could have-should have-would have made a real statement with a more dominating win.  Warts with 15 returning starters, SNC with 10, Midwest Conference vs IIAC etc.  D3 rankings have them erroneously as low as #23.  If Central is worthy of a 9, then WB ought to be up around 10 (In this matter I wouldn't dare disagree  with D3 and put WB ahead of the Dutch)    

As it is congrats to Warts on a  big win, they did great and worked through mistakes as did Central.  I also hope IIAC gets it done in the coming non-con games, we are 4-5 now, MWC is 5-4    Thats not gonna help our 2nd place team get in the playoffs!

Well, Old Dutch, I too would have ranked Wartburg higher, and I rarely disagree with anything Pat and his crew come up with.  Then again, who are we to argue.  Pat knows his DIII football, can't argue with that.  Even Devine thinks we expect too much from Wartburg.  Maybe we're the one's who are wrong.   

Well I played and a 24 point win is a big win.  I don't know why DD is thinking we dissed his team by saying we were surprised the win wasn't bigger.  I'll go on record as projecting a big win over Augie Saturday, revenge for the orange.   24 points will not be disappointing.

[DutchHawk]

I'm curious. If you have played college football before,  do you think a 24 point margin is a close game?

I sure as hell don't. Winning by 2 scores is one thing, but 4 is completely different.  Especially when you factor in that a team might have 9-11 possesions the entire game.       

I think hes trying to say it should have been 40 something to 7 or less with all the numbers Wartburg had coming back, either way a win is a win...

Also disappointed in the rest of the conference in losing some of those games...we have to be winning against "inferior" competition in order to get 2 teams in the playoffs with higher seeds. Cornell was supposed to be back again this year and lose to Grinnell?? Ouch. Hopefully everyone picks it up next week, aside from the teams that won of course.

Im going to be bold and guarantee a win for the Dutch next week!

[Old Dutch]

you mean like Central did, right  DutchHawk?

[DutchHawk]

you mean like Central did, right  DutchHawk?

Of course, and like Wartburg, Dubuque and Simpson did. Im cutting Coe some slack because I dont consider Augie inferior by any means. Other than that I dont see any excuses available.

Glad to see Central come out and dominate in every aspect as is expected. Good luck to everyone this week and we will see the burg in 2!!

[Thunderbolt]

 Congrats to the Dutch, Knights, Storm and Spartans on their wins. My sympathies to the Beavers and Rams on their gut wrenching losses. No such problem in Decorah yesterday.
The Norse offense in the first half, was more anemic than even the most skeptical poster could have guessed. One first down and around thirty yards of offense. The special teams were not very special, missing two field goals, bouncing a long snap off the punters personal protecter, and giving up a long kick off return. The defense looked pretty good in the first half, but could get no help from the offense and special teams what so ever.
The offense and special teams played better in the second half, but the defense reverted to their old ways, of not being able to get off the field in 3rd down situations or making key red zone stops. Add it all up and you lose handilly to an average team.
At the end of the day, I think I'm more disappointed in the defense than the offense. They only gave up 260 yards of offense but, this was not the Ole offense of the past few years. It's was probably, in hind sight, fair to expect the O'line to struggle adjusting to a zone blocking scheme and a new offense.
There were some bright spots and things to build on, just not many come to mind at the moment. The Freshman QB has talent, and may turn into a very good one. Starting a Fresman QB is like going on a series of blind dates. You never know when you are going to get the good, the bad or the ugly. You just know that eventially you will get all the above.

[DutchFan2004]

you mean like Central did, right  DutchHawk?

Of course, and like Wartburg, Dubuque and Simpson did. Im cutting Coe some slack because I dont consider Augie inferior by any means. Other than that I dont see any excuses available.

Glad to see Central come out and dominate in every aspect as is expected. Good luck to everyone this week and we will see the burg in 2!!

Well IMHO I think you can add UWP in that mix.  Yes they are a bottom feeder in the WIAC but if you put them against St Norbert they might give them a run for their money.  The WIAC isn't considered the #1 conference in the US for nothing.  I would say the BV being in the bottom of the IIAC and UWP being in the WIAC it might have been even or tilted in UWP's favor.  The other game that I would consider a toss up was Loras/Monmouth.  I don't think Loras scheduled up but they didn't schedule down either.  Coe IMHO didn't schedule down but scheduled even.  I think the game was close and this should prepare them for a tough IIAC schedule.  The only reason I picked Auggie to win in the pickems was the home field advantage.  If it were played in CR then maybe they pull out a W.  The only games I thought were locks were Wartburg, Simpson, and Cornell and I was wrong on the third one.  I feel for the Rams I really do.  But I hope they can use this as a positive and get it going. 

[davedevine]

panties aren't in a bunch.  you'll know when they are in a bunch.
  I simply asked a simple question to see what others had an opinion on. 
  I don't care if they win by 49 or 1, it's a win at the end of the day.

I also  meant to post in my previous post that I only mentioned " college" as I feel there is much more parity in college than high school.  A college team is going to make plays, it's inevitable. I don't care how bad they are.  That's why a shutout in college is so impressive, regardless of who or where you're playing. A lot of people just don't realize this.  I never said that "if you didn't play college" you can't form an opinion.

I also wanted to state that I haven't had many experiences with losing, But I did lose to Osage by 21 & Pacific Lutheran by 35 and they were both severe beatings.
I guess my perspective of 24 pts is completely different from others. 

[Klompen]

A college team is going to make plays, it's inevitable. I don't care how bad they are.  That's why a shutout in college is so impressive, regardless of who or where you're playing. A lot of people just don't realize this. 

So, let me get this straight.  You were impressed with the Dutch performance yesterday. 

And you were happy that Wartburg won by 24, in fact, you would have been glad just to win by one. 

Got it.   

[DutchFan2004]

Well the term monkey stomp is and has been used for a 21 point win.  I think that anytime you lose by three touchdowns or more it is a whipping.  It may not be as clean of a win in the end and having mistakes but Wartburg's win was decisive IMHO.  You have a few mistakes you correct them and move on.  Wartburg did not scheule up but they didn't schedule way down either.  They took on a conference champ and won you have to give the credit for that.  

[Klompen]

Well the term monkey stomp is and has been used for a 21 point win.  I think that anytime you lose by three touchdowns or more it is a whipping.  It may not be as clean of a win in the end and having mistakes but Wartburg's win was decisive IMHO.  You have a few mistakes you correct them and move on.  Wartburg did not scheule up but they didn't schedule way down either.  They took on a conference champ and won you have to give the credit for that.  

I'm not trying to take any credit away from Wartburg.  I was giving them credit for being able to do even better than they did.  I just find it humorous that at least a couple of us Dutch fans thought Wartburg was really going to take it to SNC and their fans seem to be taking offense to the compliment.   

Central took on a conference champ and won too, though I would give you that SNC is better than Lakeland.  Still, if I had heard the two scores before the game, and admitting that I didn't know a whole lot about Lakeland, I would have thought WB would win 41-0 and Central would have had the 24 point win. 

[DutchFan2004]

Well the term monkey stomp is and has been used for a 21 point win.  I think that anytime you lose by three touchdowns or more it is a whipping.  It may not be as clean of a win in the end and having mistakes but Wartburg's win was decisive IMHO.  You have a few mistakes you correct them and move on.  Wartburg did not scheule up but they didn't schedule way down either.  They took on a conference champ and won you have to give the credit for that.  

I'm not trying to take any credit away from Wartburg.  I was giving them credit for being able to do even better than they did.  I just find it humorous that at least a couple of us Dutch fans thought Wartburg was really going to take it to SNC and their fans seem to be taking offense to the compliment.   

Central took on a conference champ and won too, though I would give you that SNC is better than Lakeland.  Still, if I had heard the two scores before the game, and admitting that I didn't know a whole lot about Lakeland, I would have thought WB would win 41-0 and Central would have had the 24 point win. 

That makes sense from the standpoint if every thing was equal. I would have said that Wartburg having all the experience back and Central having so many question marks Wartburg may have shut their opponent out.  The trouble is we are saying that Lakeland and SNC were equal and clearly that was wrong or if they were equal one team performed better (SNC) and one worse (Lakeland).  That is also a possibility. 

[5 Words or Less]

... Pretty tough to just name "1" factor but I'm going to have to say turnover margin.

I'm not sure what it is exactly for college or D3 but I have read/seen that an NFL team that is +2 for the game wins 80% of the time.  That's a pretty telling stat ...

TURNOVER MARGIN         
---------------------------------

Simpson College	+4	Win
Buena Vista	+2	Loss
Luther	+2	Loss
Wartburg	+0	Win
Loras	+0	Loss
Central	+0	Win
Cornell	-1	Loss
Dubuque	-1	Win
Coe	-2	Loss

[Wartburg Fan]

 I have to admit that when I read old dutchs first statement, I was alittle upset, as it came across that it was a poor win to win by 24. I won't say what I thought cause that would really cause problems. I was hopeing Central would have had a harder time with Lakeland then they did. But I was impress with Central's win after losing lot of senior. But then I don't know anything about lakeland.

[dutchfan1]

LOL -- interesting commentary. I suppose this is where the Dutch fans come across as cocky....winning  by 24 isn't "decisive" enough for some people. Hmm.

I don't know about you guys, but it scares the hell out of me!