FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[mr_mom]

Well, I sure didn't help anyone catch 02 Warhawk with this week's contest.  I was hoping for a game like last year's 7-point and 8-point MUC-JCU contests, and for a half I did.  Without a close game, the side bets were all too easy and conventional wisdom prevailed.  Kudos to FCGrizzliesGrad for squeezing out 18 of those 20 points.  [And Sir Battlescars, feel free to remind me of this day]

So congratulations to 02 Warhawk, the 2015 Regular Season OAC Pick-Em champion, and the first one to go wire-to-wire.  Although other players got close at times, he never relinquished the lead he held from week #1.

Spreads for the first round of the 2015 OAC Playoff Pick-Em will come out Monday or Tuesday night.  Everyone starts at zero, so those committment-averse types who were unwilling to play the eleven-week regular season game ... feel free to play the Mini-Me Playoff version.

Year		Regular Season		Post Season
2007		D3Poster & runyr		Acky & RIC
2008		Bobo & RIC		Mr. Mom
2009		reality check		Bashbrother
2010		USee		Jaypeter
2011		HScoach		BWJacket
2012		Chess4Me & praiderguy		Shark
2013		FCGrizzliesGrad		bleedpurple, FCGrizzliesGrad & NCF
2014		theaprof		Raider 68
2015		02 Warhawk		TBD

[bluestreak66]

I'm going to be sleeping like a baby after that game. Waking up every ten minutes crying and screaming!

In all honesty, I don't think I've ever seen a defense at any level of football more dominant that Mount Union's this year. I really don't think anyone has a chance of beating them this year. At least finishing a a three way tie for second behind the national champions won't be too bad.

[Spurrier]

I'm going to be sleeping like a baby after that game. Waking up every ten minutes crying and screaming!

In all honesty, I don't think I've ever seen a defense at any level of football more dominant that Mount Union's this year. I really don't think anyone has a chance of beating them this year. At least finishing a a three way tie for second behind the national champions won't be too bad.

hyperbole much dude?  85 bears...steel curtain...Nebraska black shirt...Miami hurricanes of the 90's...doomsday defense...to name a few

opps...almost forgot the 1999 st. cloud junior midget pop warner team...they were really dominate

 

[ExTartanPlayer]

I'm going to be sleeping like a baby after that game. Waking up every ten minutes crying and screaming!

In all honesty, I don't think I've ever seen a defense at any level of football more dominant that Mount Union's this year. I really don't think anyone has a chance of beating them this year. At least finishing a a three way tie for second behind the national champions won't be too bad.

hyperbole much dude?  85 bears...steel curtain...Nebraska black shirt...Miami hurricanes of the 90's...doomsday defense...to name a few

opps...almost forgot the 1999 st. cloud junior midget pop warner team...they were really dominate

I don't think he's saying that the Mount Union defense is better than the 85 Bears in a literal sense.  I think he's saying that they're more dominant on their own level.  Which is probably true.  Mount gave up 34 points total in 10 games, had six shutouts, gave up more than 7 points in ONE game (17, vs. Heidelberg, and the last 14 of those points came when the score was already 52-3).  In the first half, when games were actually still competitive, they allowed a touchdown vs. Capital, a field goal vs. Heidelberg, a field goal vs. John Carroll...and that's it.  That's the entire list of scores against the Mount Union defense in games that were within 35 points.  One touchdown and two field goals in ten games.

In an era of no-huddle offenses and games that go 49-35 almost every week, that's insane.

[bluestreak66]

I'm going to be sleeping like a baby after that game. Waking up every ten minutes crying and screaming!

In all honesty, I don't think I've ever seen a defense at any level of football more dominant that Mount Union's this year. I really don't think anyone has a chance of beating them this year. At least finishing a a three way tie for second behind the national champions won't be too bad.

hyperbole much dude?  85 bears...steel curtain...Nebraska black shirt...Miami hurricanes of the 90's...doomsday defense...to name a few

opps...almost forgot the 1999 st. cloud junior midget pop warner team...they were really dominate

I don't think he's saying that the Mount Union defense is better than the 85 Bears in a literal sense.  I think he's saying that they're more dominant on their own level.  Which is probably true.  Mount gave up 34 points total in 10 games, had six shutouts, gave up more than 7 points in ONE game (17, vs. Heidelberg, and the last 14 of those points came when the score was already 52-3).  In the first half, when games were actually still competitive, they allowed a touchdown vs. Capital, a field goal vs. Heidelberg, a field goal vs. John Carroll...and that's it.  That's the entire list of scores against the Mount Union defense in games that were within 35 points.  One touchdown and two field goals in ten games.

In an era of no-huddle offenses and games that go 49-35 almost every week, that's insane.

Not only that, I was born in 1990, so I wasn't around for the 85 Bears!

[Spurrier]

Ahh grasshopper...then u may post only after you snatch the pebble from my hand

[Dr. Acula]

Good work by BW.  They showed well last week and then beat Berg today to finish 7-2 in OAC play and splitting with the other 7-2 teams. And they put up 44 points and 546 yds without Moeglin playing today too.  That's a long way from losing to Bluffton. 

[ExTartanPlayer]

Good work by BW.  They showed well last week and then beat Berg today to finish 7-2 in OAC play and splitting with the other 7-2 teams. And they put up 44 points and 546 yds without Moeglin playing today too.  That's a long way from losing to Bluffton.

Agreed.  Sometimes on these boards we can get a little overly critical and dismissive of non-playoff teams, forgetting that 7-3 and 8-2 seasons are still very good for most programs.  It's especially neat to see teams that started off poorly and, instead of quitting, put their nose to the grindstone and churned out a strong finish.  Good for BW.

[SaintsFAN]

I'm going to be sleeping like a baby after that game. Waking up every ten minutes crying and screaming!

In all honesty, I don't think I've ever seen a defense at any level of football more dominant that Mount Union's this year. I really don't think anyone has a chance of beating them this year. At least finishing a a three way tie for second behind the national champions won't be too bad.

I don't feel like UMU has really played anyone yet.  Maybe JCU?  But opening with Bethany.. They played fantastic defense against their schedule, no doubt.  I'm with holding judgement until the second or third playoff game IF the bracket isn't dominated by teams from the East Region or JHU.

[Desertraider]

I'm going to be sleeping like a baby after that game. Waking up every ten minutes crying and screaming!

In all honesty, I don't think I've ever seen a defense at any level of football more dominant that Mount Union's this year. I really don't think anyone has a chance of beating them this year. At least finishing a a three way tie for second behind the national champions won't be too bad.

I don't feel like UMU has really played anyone yet.  Maybe JCU?  But opening with Bethany.. They played fantastic defense against their schedule, no doubt.  I'm with holding judgement until the second or third playoff game IF the bracket isn't dominated by teams from the East Region or JHU.

I get what you are saying but would like to offer this on the Mount D.
Team                   Total Off Rank                 Rush Rank           Pass Rank           Total Offense Avg.           Off. vs. Mount
Berg                          50                                  73                     57                        440 yds/game                    244
ONU                          52                                  81                     52                         437                                    184
JCU                           82                                  99                     74                        414                                     168
CAP                          98                                   5                       237                     402                                      199
ETTA                        194                                 100                   216                       312                                    151
OTT                          206                                 204                   154                      299                                     44
Wilma                        218                                216                   163                      286                                     87
Musky                       233                                153                    228                      233                                    69
BW                            92                                  54                      161                     406                                     148
Bethany                     67                                  74                      86                       425                                     69

I can't just look at scores and ranking. I have to look at a teams total offense and see what Mount did with them. With the exception of Berg, Mount has limited every team to 50% of their output on average. I know these numbers are also skewed a bit because Mounts starting D was not on the field in the 2nd half of a lot of these games and that is when a lot of the offense is put on the board (such as with Berg). For me that is the hardest thing to account for with any Mount defense in the last 10 or so years: they are only playing 2 to 2.5 quarters a game on average. The backups will give up more (granted not much more) but the numbers get out of whack. Mounts D has played some decent offenses - granted not top 10 - but putting up 450 yards total offense per game is not bad. And they have shut them down and kept them off the scoreboard.

BTW: When you consider that Mount is giving up like 3.4 points a game, 40 yds rushing, and 100 (est.) passing and the backups are playing so much - it kinda makes it even more impressive.

[HScoach]

The OAC is full of horrible offenses.  The Mount D is very good, as expected.  I'll reserve judgement on great, dominant and other like terms until they play someone.

[Toph]

Yesterday's first half went better than I expected, and the second half showed the depth and overall talent of Mount Union.  I'm still excited for what next season and the next few years might bring JCU.  Recruiting seems to be continuing at a very high level that the school hasn't seen for a very long time, and I am very interested to see what Anthony Moeglin can do if he is the player that wins the starting job at QB.  There are a lot of sophomores and juniors making an impact this season, the future is bright for the JCU program.

[Raider 68]

I'm going to be sleeping like a baby after that game. Waking up every ten minutes crying and screaming!

In all honesty, I don't think I've ever seen a defense at any level of football more dominant that Mount Union's this year. I really don't think anyone has a chance of beating them this year. At least finishing a a three way tie for second behind the national champions won't be too bad.

I don't feel like UMU has really played anyone yet.  Maybe JCU?  But opening with Bethany.. They played fantastic defense against their schedule, no doubt.  I'm with holding judgement until the second or third playoff game IF the bracket isn't dominated by teams from the East Region or JHU.

I get what you are saying but would like to offer this on the Mount D.
Team                   Total Off Rank                 Rush Rank           Pass Rank           Total Offense Avg.           Off. vs. Mount
Berg                          50                                  73                     57                        440 yds/game                    244
ONU                          52                                  81                     52                         437                                    184
JCU                           82                                  99                     74                        414                                     168
CAP                          98                                   5                       237                     402                                      199
ETTA                        194                                 100                   216                       312                                    151
OTT                          206                                 204                   154                      299                                     44
Wilma                        218                                216                   163                      286                                     87
Musky                       233                                153                    228                      233                                    69
BW                            92                                  54                      161                     406                                     148
Bethany                     67                                  74                      86                       425                                     69

I can't just look at scores and ranking. I have to look at a teams total offense and see what Mount did with them. With the exception of Berg, Mount has limited every team to 50% of their output on average. I know these numbers are also skewed a bit because Mounts starting D was not on the field in the 2nd half of a lot of these games and that is when a lot of the offense is put on the board (such as with Berg). For me that is the hardest thing to account for with any Mount defense in the last 10 or so years: they are only playing 2 to 2.5 quarters a game on average. The backups will give up more (granted not much more) but the numbers get out of whack. Mounts D has played some decent offenses - granted not top 10 - but putting up 450 yards total offense per game is not bad. And they have shut them down and kept them off the scoreboard.

BTW: When you consider that Mount is giving up like 3.4 points a game, 40 yds rushing, and 100 (est.) passing and the backups are playing so much - it kinda makes it even more impressive.

It was posted earlier that the 2007 Raider team defense allowed only 24 points in the regular season, and this year's
team allowed only 34 points.

In 2007 the Raiders scored 543 points for a 54.3 ave during the regular season, scored 236 in the playoffs for a 47.2 average
             and allowed 80 points or 16.0 for the playoffs

In 2015 this team may be judged not only for its defense, but will the Raiders win the title this year? In 2007, the Raiders
             lost to UWW 31-21 So how good or great they are will be decided by winning the Walnut and Bronze, IMHO

[SaintsFAN]

The OAC is full of horrible offenses.  The Mount D is very good, as expected.  I'll reserve judgement on great, dominant and other like terms until they play someone.

What does UMU do, as far as conditioning goes, with their starters not playing a full game for at least the 9 games?  I'm fascinated at how the Fighting Purples don't look gassed at the end of the playoff games that are close.

[raiderpa]

Love the projected brackets and arguments that go with them.  Sorry to see Ohio Northern left out, but understood.  Hope the committee disagrees, but you only missed what? two choices total the last two years??  Not a bad batting average....
If Guilford does get the trip to Alliance, it does't look very good.  They gave up over 500 yards of offense to Emory and Henry yesterday...
They are 6th in their region, ONU 7th, strength of schedule close, so I will hold out hope for the OAC.
Also agree with HS Coach...will determine the strength of the defense at the end of the playoffs.