FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[frank uible]

Mr. Ypsi: In the 1950 second game between the then reigning world champion Eagles and the Browns, the Browns defeated the Eagles without throwing a credited pass. Undoubtedly there are other NFL games where the winning team had no more than 17 yards passing. There is a story that goes with that Eagles/Browns statistic which I will repeat if someone requests.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Mr. Ypsi: In the 1950 second game between the then reigning world champion Eagles and the Browns, the Browns defeated the Eagles without throwing a credited pass. Undoubtedly there are other NFL games where the winning team had no more than 17 yards passing. There is a story that goes with that Eagles/Browns statistic which I will repeat if someone requests.

Until the 1960s, the NFL was what the NHL has again become (if it was ever above that level!) - a minor sports league.  (That pains me to say, since the Lions dominated the 1950s and have been a joke ever since, but it is true.)  Anyone ever pass for 17 or less yards since 1960 and win?

And I would certainly be interested in the Eagles/Browns backstory - I'll leave it to you to decide if it should be a post or a PM?

[Wizardman]

Interesting how no one's mentioned MUC in the polls (unless I missed it). Apparently someone thought Capital just wasn't ready since they have 23 first-place votes instead of 22. It's interesting since the #2 team faced the #6 team, so this week it should've stayed the same if it was going to be any.

[Mr. Ypsi]

BTW, Frank, I'm intrigued by the NFL all the way back to the days of Jim Thorpe and Red Grange, but I'm not sure HOW to compare Bronko Nagurski to a current player.  Is there any way to know how players who dealt with the Decatur Staleys would handle the Chicago Bears?  (Much less the players of today?)

Many of the players of those eras would be too small by today's HIGH SCHOOL standards.  Would they be stars today - at their actual sizes, of course not; had they been born 60 years later, probably.  To some degree this is true of all sports, but I think especially it is a problem in football.

[Superfoot Wallace]

Was gonna hit yer karma as a request Frank, but yer standin on Wiricks number.  Respect ya both enough stand on a dime and rap some sophistry.

Shooter McGavin

[frank uible]

I thought youse guys would never ask. In 1946 the All-America Football Conference was formed in competition with the NFL. The Browns were one of the original AAFC franchises and were the champion of that league each year from 1946 through 1949. At the end of the 1949 season the AAFC folded due to lack of financial strength on the part of most of its franchises. Three of its franchises remained intact and were taken into the NFL as separate franchises. The AAFC players whose teams were not taken into the NFL were dispersed throughout the NFL - for instance, Lennie Ford (a future HOFer) who had played for the AAFC Los Angeles Dons went to the Browns, one of these three franchises. With the exception of the Browns faithful and a few other mavericks, generally football fans, NFL managements, NFL players and the media believed that the Browns would be crushed in playing a NFL schedule and often said so openly, calling the Browns a "high school team" (a slap at the high school football background of Paul Brown, the Browns' HFC) and the like. The wily NFL schedule maker (probably Bert Bell, the NFL commissioner) pitted the Browns against the Eagles (the 1948 and 1949 NFL champions) in the 1950 regular season opener on the Saturday night in Philly the day before the rest of the league opened its schedule in order to have the dramatic spotlight of professional football directed solely on that game. To the surprise of most, the Browns seething from the insults to their competence defeated the Eagles easily, 35-10, in front of a sold out house. Foolishly shortly after the game the Eagles' HFC, Greasy Neale, dismissingly stated to the press something to the effect  that all the Browns did was to throw. Paul Brown, a proud man, remembered Neale's statement. When the Browns faced the Eagles later that season in Cleveland, the Browns defeated the Eagles again, this time 13-7 without the Browns throwing a credited pass - actually one and only one was thrown technically by the Browns, but it was nullified by penalty. And now you know. Remember  -  you heard it here first.

[Pat Coleman]

Interesting how no one's mentioned MUC in the polls (unless I missed it). Apparently someone thought Capital just wasn't ready since they have 23 first-place votes instead of 22. It's interesting since the #2 team faced the #6 team, so this week it should've stayed the same if it was going to be any.

Except that #2 didn't exactly look overwhelming this week and lost another key part of its run game.

[frank uible]

Mr. Ypsi: I measure professional football players (like individuals involved in other human endeavors) for greatness solely against their contemporaries. Otherwise, one is comparing apples to oranges. Because George Washington might not be comfortable with some of the peculiarities of the modern age does not mean that he was not a great leader in his time. After all, modern world leaders probably would have difficulty mastering many of the leadership challenges of the 18th century. Modern football players have the advantages of superior modern lifetime nutrition, medical care and training - however, they would have trouble playing under the rules and other conditions of the 1950s. First, each current NFL franchise would have to cut its roster to 33 players in order to conform to the 1950 NFL roster limit - meaning that there would be little or no room for specialists of any sort, almost every player would need to have competence sufficient to play a backup role at a position other than his primary one - many modern football players do not have the versatility to accompish that action - and most players would have to adequately undertake participation on at least one special team. Secondly, in 1950 the rule permitting arm extension in blocking did not exist - severely handicapping the big, fat, slow players with poor cardio-pulmonary systems, of which there are currently many. Thirdly, do not underestimate the high athletic quality of the 1950 professional football player pool compared to the modern pool - in 1950 there was about 400 players in the game (33 players per franchise times 13 franchises). Today there are about 1700 players in the pool - the bottom 3/4s of today's pool being relatively poor athletes from a genetic standpoint compared to the athletes in the 1950 pool of 400. For instance, I have it on good authority that a player could not have made the 1950 Cleveland Browns roster at any position if he could not run at least a 4.7 40 - as measured by running on a comparatively slow surface by today's standards. And the beat goes on. As I said, apples and oranges.

[Wizardman]

Interesting how no one's mentioned MUC in the polls (unless I missed it). Apparently someone thought Capital just wasn't ready since they have 23 first-place votes instead of 22. It's interesting since the #2 team faced the #6 team, so this week it should've stayed the same if it was going to be any.

Except that #2 didn't exactly look overwhelming this week and lost another key part of its run game.

True I'm saying that I would've guessed that person would've  moved their vote to MUC last week when Justin Beaver went down as opposed to this week. I'm fine with it though, they're startign to see how dominant MUC is against everyone (except BW, but they only needed to beat them anyway).

[HScoach]

Whoever is running the polls, how about starting one that is for Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year?

Let's start by listing the potentials:

OFFENSE:
Pentello
Jorris
Kmic
Meadows
Steltzer
others?

DEFENSE
Trusnik
Stickley
Kostelnik
LB from BW (can't remember his name...?Berger?)
Hausler
others?

[cufan]

Trusnik vs Stickley

Trusnik
vs. Cap--no tackles
vs. MUC-- 2 tackles and no sacks

Stickley
vs. Cap 4.5 TFL and 1.5 sacks
vs. ONU 2 TFL and 1 sack

Stickley gets my vote.

[cut above]

derrick alexander from capital is another potential offensive player of the year.

[reality check]

hscoach

I think both Jason and Lenny Trusnik should be on that finalist list for defense along with Kieran Johnson from Otterbein.  Lenny leads the Bears in tackles and is fourth in the conference.  Kieran Johnson led the OAC in tackles last season and is doing the same this year.  He flys under the radar but the kid is a tackling machine.

I'd leave Meadows off the list only because he's not going to be adding to his numbers for the rest of the season.  Kmic will leave RJ in his dust on the stat sheet this year.  I also noticed a WR from JCU that appears to be the second (tell Mount I'm) coming of Antoine Dunklin.  Joseph Konrad is averaging 100+ yards per game and has 11 TD's so far on the season while also leading the OAC in receptions.

cufan

I know MUC and CAP are great teams but they also happen to be the two games this season Jason was playing with a pretty significant injury. I'm not saying Stickley didn't shine; I'm just saying it's unfortunate that Trusnik was hurt because CAP and MUC fans didn't get to see the real Jason Trusnik in those two games.  That said, Stickley is no slouch and played big in big games.  In fact he excells (sic) in big games managing 2.5 of his 4 total sacks and 6.5 of his 11 total TFL's.  

But POY's IMO are measured on the entire season.  And Jason is having another very, very good year despite the injuries he's been playing with/through.  He leads the OAC in sacks and TFL's (again) with 9.5 and 17.5 and is back to his old ways of late recording 14 total tackles against Baldwin-Wallace.  

[2minuteO]

RC.... As a former player having gone against both Trusnik and Stickley I would give the nod to Stickley... Stickley is stronger and quicker than Trusnik...  Trusnik I think is more sound of the both... He uses great technique and a variety of moves (reminds of a player from Marietta named Furby)
Played against Trusnik 2 season ago and Stickley last season... I think both players are class acts and play with emotion and discipline..

I was able to watch Trusnik this season and he seems to have lost a step from 2 years ago... Maybe it is his Nagging injury from last season I am not sure, but Stickley continues to create havoc...

Stickley shows up in games where is needed most... I have been on the other end of many of those plays

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

OK, per HSCoach's request, here is the Poll for the OAC 2007 Offensive POY Award.