FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

I just find it interesting that a team wins a few football games and all of a sudden they invented the game. Mount Union has played in 16 of the last 20 national championship games, winning 11. They have made it to the semifinals 18 straight years. They have won at least one playoff game in each of the last 20 seasons. Think about that. 16/20, 11, 18, 20. For whatever reason JCU was unable to win. Even Whitewater, that went toe to toe with Mount, and even won the seven game series, failed to make the playoffs last year. To me, this just points out how remarkable the Purple Raiders have been for two decades now! It's hard to win a playoff game, let alone 16/20, 11, 18 and 20.

You can quote me in your class on that.

To me the 18 straight Final Fours is the most ridiculous.  That level of consistency is light years beyond what any rational fan could ever dream of.  Pushing 2 decades and never once a down year.  Not even a down year...never once anything but a great year.  Ever.  Insane.

[Craft_Beermeister]

JCU could not handle field conditions.  Their receivers were not able to run routes or adjust and QB threw where they should have been on a dry day and they weren't there.
SJF had decent coverage all day, but the Blue Streaks were sooooo disappointing. Thought they could score after kickoff return that put them down 22-16, but int ended the threat.  JCU qb after great season looked pedestrian. forced passes into double and triple teams all day...
Better team, IMO didn't win, but the team that hung tough and handled adversity did. They were better today when it counted.
Congrats to Fisher.

About as strongly as would be deemed appropriate for a public board -- this kind of post is infuriates me and strongly disagree with it.

The whole "they were a better team today" is the back handed compliment that smacks of -- we just can't believe we lost to you little people, and we're really better than you --- its the same kind of posts you see from MUC'ers often last 5 or so years when UWW beats them in the Stagg.

JCU had one cup of coffee over decade ago, and then has barely been a winning program since -- SJF is a better program and a better team than JCU. 

Went back the last 1-5 is the playoff record of the last 5 times an OAC team that doesn't have Raiders on their helmets have fared. Getting steamed by a team in your conference annually doesn't make you a good program or better than others just for showing up. 

SJF, the better team, the better program, won - Period.  Get over it, and start prepping for 2nd place in your conference again next year.

Wow you should stop trying to fit into your tight shorts. I have a lot of respect for SJF but wining the turnover battle 6 to 0 contributed greatly to the final score. Very easily on a clean field SJF could have gotten blown out. SJF did good in the nasty elements enjoy the results and try not to be so sensitive.

Hey Craft, the best teams consistently win the turnover battle, oftentimes by wide margins.  I haven't checked Mt's turnover ratio, but I'll wager they have taken a lot more than they have given.  You know why?  Because the better teams force turnovers in any number of ways.  Sometimes it's just be being a better balanced team and thus, not as impacted by snow on the ground.     

"SJF could have gotten blown out"-I guess anything is possible.   STJ could have passed for 500 yards, or run for 1,000 yards, or they could have run every play backwards, or maybe if they were in the mood they could have alternated every player on the roster at QB.  But it looks like they put together a great game plan based on their team strengths against JCU's weaknesses and won a playoff game.

As I mentioned earlier I have a lot of respect for SJF they work hard to do things the right way.  After losing to Mount Union in the 3rd round of the 2007 playoffs 52-10 they did something similar to what UW- Whitewater did in 2002 & 2003 by scheduling  a home and away series with Mount Union to try to improve their program by trying to play one of best Div 3 teams and see how they measure up.  In 2008 both teams opened the season in Alliance with Mount prevailing 33-3 and the next year at Pittsford the Cardinals were within 28-10 at half though ended up losing 52-10 to Mount Union.

My attempted point in my post was that I thought raiderpa was fairly right on with his observation that the weather conditions yesterday had a significant impact on JCU performance and their offense was significantly offset by the elements.  I can't remember much about the performance of Meyers against Mount last year but in this year's Mount Union game he was often well instinct with his receivers sometimes throwing before they made their cuts as well as getting away with throwing into tight coverage  on several occasions.  With the slippery field at University Heights the precise run routs weren't there which took away larger part of JCU's strength.  Losing the turnover battle 6 to 0 had a lot to do with how well both teams executed and SJF was excellent in this area.  However I feel the weather played a major role in turnovers and it seems that maybe up to half of the Div 3 playoff games yesterday were impacted by adverse weather which my informal count indicated that those games had an average of over 4 turnovers.  I agree that often good teams are good at creating turnovers and use them to their advantage.  Teams that end up on the wrong side of the turnover battle by significant numbers have a difficult time wining and usually don't though there are exceptions, such as, Mount loosing the turnover battle 0-4 (or 0-5 if you count W&J's successful onside kick to start the end half), but winning the game by a couple of scores.

JCU was the higher ranked team going into the game based on various poles and the NCAA itself.  JCU should be disappointed.  SJF played a great game and should be excited.  I agree that SJF is a good balanced team and they proved that are less affected by adverse weather conditions.  What is great about the Div 3 playoff format is that the games are often very exciting and adverse weather can have effects on many of them including the Stagg game.  The teams that best adjust often have the best advantage to keep on wining.  Good luck to SJF on their playoff run.

[SJFF82]

Well said...

[Desertraider]

Clearly JCU could win the battle 8/10...I mean all they have to do is not get turned over SIX times by a weak program from the East that now has 4 ROAD wins in the tournament against top 25 teams in last 10 years and score more points than they give up in those 8games and presto....

Wow. For such a storied and elite program I would have thought you did more over a 10 year period, or at the very least you would have locked up some home field games  . Sorry but this one makes as much sense as BWs 'streak of mediocrity'. So what - you won 4 road games in 10 years over Top 25 opponents. What have you actually won? SJF won the game. No one is saying JCU lost it (essentially) - but JCU was abig let down. They are the D3 equivalent of a "dome team" - the tag always hung on Peyton Manning's teams. The weather turned bad and the most complete team won the game - SJF.

[middlerelief]

Clearly JCU could win the battle 8/10...I mean all they have to do is not get turned over SIX times by a weak program from the East that now has 4 ROAD wins in the tournament against top 25 teams in last 10 years and score more points than they give up in those 8games and presto....

Wow. For such a storied and elite program I would have thought you did more over a 10 year period, or at the very least you would have locked up some home field games  . Sorry but this one makes as much sense as BWs 'streak of mediocrity'. So what - you won 4 road games in 10 years over Top 25 opponents. What have you actually won? SJF won the game. No one is saying JCU lost it (essentially) - but JCU was abig let down. They are the D3 equivalent of a "dome team" - the tag always hung on Peyton Manning's teams. The weather turned bad and the most complete team won the game - SJF.

This was a discussion in the other region -- it was pointed out, that SJF had gone on the road in its prior NCAA invites and won - Which didn't seem to happen all that often. They have had home games in the NCAAs as well, and are 5-0 on that front.  Losses have come at the hands of MUC ('06/'07), STU ('11), and to Del Valley back in '04.

[SJFF82]

Clearly JCU could win the battle 8/10...I mean all they have to do is not get turned over SIX times by a weak program from the East that now has 4 ROAD wins in the tournament against top 25 teams in last 10 years and score more points than they give up in those 8games and presto....

Wow. For such a storied and elite program I would have thought you did more over a 10 year period, or at the very least you would have locked up some home field games  . Sorry but this one makes as much sense as BWs 'streak of mediocrity'. So what - you won 4 road games in 10 years over Top 25 opponents. What have you actually won? SJF won the game. No one is saying JCU lost it (essentially) - but JCU was abig let down. They are the D3 equivalent of a "dome team" - the tag always hung on Peyton Manning's teams. The weather turned bad and the most complete team won the game - SJF.

Did I imply we are storied or elite?  Certainly not going to have this debate with MUC...

Haven't checked so maybe I'm way off base here...but I doubt there are many programs that have won multiple road play off games against Top 25 teams...

Obviously MUC UWW MHB etc win many games and are far superior in NCAA.  Im simply referring to the other 230+ programs that could never consistently go on road in yhe NCAA ag top teams and win...

[Schwami]

Haven't checked so maybe I'm way off base here...but I doubt there are many programs that have won multiple road play off games against Top 25 teams...

Wabash has done it 

[bleedpurple]

Clearly JCU could win the battle 8/10...I mean all they have to do is not get turned over SIX times by a weak program from the East that now has 4 ROAD wins in the tournament against top 25 teams in last 10 years and score more points than they give up in those 8games and presto....

Wow. For such a storied and elite program I would have thought you did more over a 10 year period, or at the very least you would have locked up some home field games  . Sorry but this one makes as much sense as BWs 'streak of mediocrity'. So what - you won 4 road games in 10 years over Top 25 opponents. What have you actually won? SJF won the game. No one is saying JCU lost it (essentially) - but JCU was abig let down. They are the D3 equivalent of a "dome team" - the tag always hung on Peyton Manning's teams. The weather turned bad and the most complete team won the game - SJF.

Did I imply we are storied or elite?  Certainly not going to have this debate with MUC...

Haven't checked so maybe I'm way off base here...but I doubt there are many programs that have won multiple road play off games against Top 25 teams...

Obviously MUC UWW MHB etc win many games and are far superior in NCAA.  Im simply referring to the other 230+ programs that could never consistently go on road in yhe NCAA ag top teams and win...

Actually, if you are talking about real road games in the playoffs (as opposed to a neutral field), I'm not sure Mount Union HAS won 4 road games in the last 10 years. 

[ohiofan1954]

Sorry guys but every time I think of SJF I think of the football player who thought he was a drummer in 07.

[boobyhasgameyo]

That wasn't our finest moment. 

[SaintsFAN]

FYI, we'll be holding our annual Quoting 101 class again this Wednesday night at 7:00 PM.   $25 if you pre-register.   $30 at the door.

I don't think this is necessary. The nasty weather is causing the problem with quoting in addition to causing teams to not play their best.

[emma17]

Haven't checked so maybe I'm way off base here...but I doubt there are many programs that have won multiple road play off games against Top 25 teams...

Wabash has done it 

That's because Wabash Always Fights   
I figured I'd beat someone to the punch. 

[Craft_Beermeister]

Clearly JCU could win the battle 8/10...I mean all they have to do is not get turned over SIX times by a weak program from the East that now has 4 ROAD wins in the tournament against top 25 teams in last 10 years and score more points than they give up in those 8games and presto....

Wow. For such a storied and elite program I would have thought you did more over a 10 year period, or at the very least you would have locked up some home field games  . Sorry but this one makes as much sense as BWs 'streak of mediocrity'. So what - you won 4 road games in 10 years over Top 25 opponents. What have you actually won? SJF won the game. No one is saying JCU lost it (essentially) - but JCU was abig let down. They are the D3 equivalent of a "dome team" - the tag always hung on Peyton Manning's teams. The weather turned bad and the most complete team won the game - SJF.

This was a discussion in the other region -- it was pointed out, that SJF had gone on the road in its prior NCAA invites and won - Which didn't seem to happen all that often. They have had home games in the NCAAs as well, and are 5-0 on that front.  Losses have come at the hands of MUC ('06/'07), STU ('11), and to Del Valley back in '04.

Home playoff games are huge for those teams that get them.  Besides all the typical advantages of not having to travel and playing in a familiar place in front of home fans maybe an even bigger advantage is the ability to have potential recruits at home playoff games.

[Craft_Beermeister]

Haven't checked so maybe I'm way off base here...but I doubt there are many programs that have won multiple road play off games against Top 25 teams...

Wabash has done it 

That's because Wabash Always Fights   
I figured I'd beat someone to the punch.

Or maybe it is because the Little Giants are coached by Vince Kehres's cousin Erik Raeburn

[Dr. Acula]

Actually, if you are talking about real road games in the playoffs (as opposed to a neutral field), I'm not sure Mount Union HAS won 4 road games in the last 10 years. 

Definitely not!  I don't think they've even played a road playoff game in the last 10 yrs, let alone 4.