FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[rscl70]

27 - 13 Mount Union. 

[Kehresma]

27-13. 6:54 remains  in 3rd quarter.

[Kehresma]

34-13 Murray score.  Was about to say something pessimistic about HS Coaches's spread when Driskill picked one and ran it in. UMU 41 BW 13.

[B38W]

Can not give up 14 points on turnovers and a kickoff return for a touchdown and expect to have any chance of winning. Especially to Mount Union. 27 to 13 fourth and a foot and what does our coach call? A half back pass. Are you kidding me. What a joke. Nice job today and best of luck the rest of the way.

[fat_old_LB]

It was a great game for the whole first half, BW played aggressive had some big hits, I was happy with that half.  Second Half they left their energy and effort in the locker room, too bad could've been a good one for the ages.  Mount is just a machine!  You gotta love watching them work.  Cecil is on another level for sure, hope he gets his chance at the pro's.

[B38W]

Miller is the real deal also.

[Raider 68]

It was a great game for the whole first half, BW played aggressive had some big hits, I was happy with that half.  Second Half they left their energy and effort in the locker room, too bad could've been a good one for the ages.  Mount is just a machine!  You gotta love watching them work.  Cecil is on another level for sure, hope he gets his chance at the pro's.

It was a good game today. B-W has some real defensive talent this year, but as mentioned before, you give up the plays against a good team and come out on top. Great to see Cecil return, K. Miller had another good game and so did J. Murray in the second half. It is vital that the Raiders had a tougher game before the playoffs. Great crowd on both sides!

[reality check]

At the risk of losing karma points for making some true observations I think the Mount Union season has to be a little behind where the Purple Raider faithful would like it to be.  Usually this time of year, Mount is winning by 40-50 points over OAC foes but they've been in some competitive contests as of late; way more competitive than I'm sure they would like to be.  In 2009, the last four OAC contests were won by Mount by an average score of 56 to 3.5,  In 2008, the final four OAC games were 49 to 7.  In 2007, it was 46 to 0 for their final four OAC foes.

I expected the closer contests to occur as this young team learned who it was and came together as a team in the early part of the season.  Today's game may have ended as a 28 point win but the scoring margin doubled in about two minutes of real time.  It was closer than this for much of the game.

They've outscored their last three opponents by an average of 36-8.  That's still a comfortable margin but not what Mount Union or the OAC is used to seeing.  Of course, in 2006 the Raiders sort of limped into the playoffs with a final four margin of 32 to 10.  It worked okay for them back then so there's no reason to panic now I suppose.

I just wonder if any of the Mount faithful are concerned as this didn't seem like a week 9 Mount Union effort.  Beating Marietta by two touchdowns is something Mount Union just doesn't do.  They have won five of their nine games by less than 28 points.  Most teams wold love to say they win games by that margin but when was the last time Mount won half of their regular season games by less than four touchdowns???  I looked back and there were 4 games in the 2005 season that qualified but that included the regular season loss to ONU.  2002 was the last time five of the first ten games were settled by less than 4 touchdowns.  Beyond that, who knows?

Now Mount could very well come out and beat Muskingum 66-0 next week but I am just saying I wouldn't be surprised if they win 41-17 either with the way things are going for the Raiders.  They just don't seem to be clicking the way we are used to seeing this time of the season.  Of course, I think Mount might be the only program in the country that would win its final four games by a four-score margin and feel any kind of concern over the state of the team so this should all be taken with a grain of salt.  

Interested to hear if any of the Raider faithful would agree or blow this concern out of the water.  

[bushman]

RC      I agree in part with what you have observed from afar.  Mt. biggest problem this year seems to be turnovers and a lot of youth.   However, even though their games are somewhat closure than you may expect, they are learning how to win.  To me they are a work in progress.  For sure there is no for sure win.  For me I like the uncertainty to some degree.   The playoffs should be very interesting this year.  Excitement yes   some close ones  to be sure.   Maybe the regulars will actually start yelling and screaming.   GO RAIDERS!

[rscl70]

At the risk of losing karma points for making some true observations I think the Mount Union season has to be a little behind where the Purple Raider faithful would like it to be.  Usually this time of year, Mount is winning by 40-50 points over OAC foes but they've been in some competitive contests as of late; way more competitive than I'm sure they would like to be.  In 2009, the last four OAC contests were won by Mount by an average score of 56 to 3.5,  In 2008, the final four OAC games were 49 to 7.  In 2007, it was 46 to 0 for their final four OAC foes.

I expected the closer contests to occur as this young team learned who it was and came together as a team in the early part of the season.  Today's game may have ended as a 28 point win but the scoring margin doubled in about two minutes of real time.  It was closer than this for much of the game.

They've outscored their last three opponents by an average of 36-8.  That's still a comfortable margin but not what Mount Union or the OAC is used to seeing.  Of course, in 2006 the Raiders sort of limped into the playoffs with a final four margin of 32 to 10.  It worked okay for them back then so there's no reason to panic now I suppose.

I just wonder if any of the Mount faithful are concerned as this didn't seem like a week 9 Mount Union effort.  Beating Marietta by two touchdowns is something Mount Union just doesn't do.  They have won five of their nine games by less than 28 points.  Most teams wold love to say they win games by that margin but when was the last time Mount won half of their regular season games by less than four touchdowns???  I looked back and there were 4 games in the 2005 season that qualified but that included the regular season loss to ONU.  2002 was the last time five of the first ten games were settled by less than 4 touchdowns.  Beyond that, who knows?

Now Mount could very well come out and beat Muskingum 66-0 next week but I am just saying I wouldn't be surprised if they win 41-17 either with the way things are going for the Raiders.  They just don't seem to be clicking the way we are used to seeing this time of the season.  Of course, I think Mount might be the only program in the country that would win its final four games by a four-score margin and feel any kind of concern over the state of the team so this should all be taken with a grain of salt.  

Interested to hear if any of the Raider faithful would agree or blow this concern out of the water.  

I think Mount fans have expressed concern here already.  I also think we've been spoiled and our expectations may be a tad high.  This is a good Mount Union football team, and I expect to be watching them play in Virginia.

[rscl70]

Coach K said on the radio today "I may be the only one who thinks we're playing pretty well."

[bleedpurple]

At the risk of losing karma points for making some true observations I think the Mount Union season has to be a little behind where the Purple Raider faithful would like it to be.  Usually this time of year, Mount is winning by 40-50 points over OAC foes but they've been in some competitive contests as of late; way more competitive than I'm sure they would like to be.  In 2009, the last four OAC contests were won by Mount by an average score of 56 to 3.5,  In 2008, the final four OAC games were 49 to 7.  In 2007, it was 46 to 0 for their final four OAC foes.

I expected the closer contests to occur as this young team learned who it was and came together as a team in the early part of the season.  Today's game may have ended as a 28 point win but the scoring margin doubled in about two minutes of real time.  It was closer than this for much of the game.

They've outscored their last three opponents by an average of 36-8.  That's still a comfortable margin but not what Mount Union or the OAC is used to seeing.  Of course, in 2006 the Raiders sort of limped into the playoffs with a final four margin of 32 to 10.  It worked okay for them back then so there's no reason to panic now I suppose.

I just wonder if any of the Mount faithful are concerned as this didn't seem like a week 9 Mount Union effort.  Beating Marietta by two touchdowns is something Mount Union just doesn't do.  They have won five of their nine games by less than 28 points.  Most teams wold love to say they win games by that margin but when was the last time Mount won half of their regular season games by less than four touchdowns???  I looked back and there were 4 games in the 2005 season that qualified but that included the regular season loss to ONU.  2002 was the last time five of the first ten games were settled by less than 4 touchdowns.  Beyond that, who knows?

Now Mount could very well come out and beat Muskingum 66-0 next week but I am just saying I wouldn't be surprised if they win 41-17 either with the way things are going for the Raiders.  They just don't seem to be clicking the way we are used to seeing this time of the season.  Of course, I think Mount might be the only program in the country that would win its final four games by a four-score margin and feel any kind of concern over the state of the team so this should all be taken with a grain of salt.  

Interested to hear if any of the Raider faithful would agree or blow this concern out of the water.  

I don't know about "blow this concern" out of the water, and I'm not a Raiders' backer (although I've come to respect the heck out of them), but I'd like to weigh in.  I do not believe the margin of victory of the games this year is a concern in the least. As you and others' have pointed out, this is a young team.  What may or may not be a concern (I haven't seen any games and I haven't analyzed the Play by Play Summaries), is mistakes and other negative plays (turnovers, big plays allowed, special teams mistakes, etc.).  Those kind of tendencies can get you beat in the playoffs.  However, the margin of victory would not be a concern for me if I were a Mount fan.  Over the last 3 years Mount has not only dominated the OAC, but has won their playoff games leading to the Stagg Bowl by an average of 30 or 40 points as well.  Winning playoff games by 7 or 10 or 17 instead of 30 or 40 will still get them to Salem.  

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

I liked the margin of victory today.  As was stated earlier on the boards this week, BW usually plays UMU pretty close, especially at Finny, so I am ok with this victory.

I was really surprised at the Marietta score, but that horse has already been sufficiently beaten.

Also, Cecil, their only real Superstar Threat, has been injured as of late, so that may have been another reason for the lower margins of victory.

Just take it one game at a time and things should take care of themselves.

[108Vincent]

I'm not sure it's necessarily a good thing when we have years where Mount Union is pulling all its starters early in the 3rd quarter, and it's a credit to OAC teams that they're not rolling over for the machine this year.  You don't like to see the turnovers and dumb penalties, but we had a pretty convincing win over a 7-1 team today.  If you look at the UWW - Oshkosh score, it's somewhat encourageing.   

[Raider 68]

I liked the margin of victory today.  As was stated earlier on the boards this week, BW usually plays UMU pretty close, especially at Finny, so I am ok with this victory.

I was really surprised at the Marietta score, but that horse has already been sufficiently beaten.

Also, Cecil, their only real Superstar Threat, has been injured as of late, so that may have been another reason for the lower margins of victory.

Just take it one game at a time and things should take care of themselves.

Agree, still a work in progress that will only get better. Give B-W credit, they are much better than many previous years. When you beat a team by 4 TD's in their backyard, you are still doing some things right.