FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[WRMUalum13]

Wartburg seems to be extremely well coached. They have some good athletes, but their play calling was great and kept them in the game. They did what they needed to put their team in a position to win. Great season for them and great fans to interact with.

Mount looked like Jeckyl and Hyde today.... Plunk looked like a star at points today and had some bad misses. Echeverry was quick, strong and fight for extra yards when needed.  Manley was TOUGH today! Great catches and extra yards in meaningful spots. Special teams had some great plays with a kick and punt  return to give mount momentum,  but a missed kick, PAT and bad punt were self- inflicted wounds. All in all, the players and coaches stepped up when they needed to win the game. This was another "Mount Union magic" type of game with that comeback.

What a great season so far....Now NCC will provide its own incredibly tough challenge. They seem like an unstoppable freight train right now. Heal up, watch the tape and give it all you've got Raiders!

The failure to score from the 1 yardline was pretty self-inflicted too. Not the best playcalling IMO.

[bluestreak66]

Coach Dartt and his staff will have to go back to last year's Stagg Bowl game film to figure out how to slow down and possibly beat North Central.  Not going to get anything from todays game film.  MHB didn't even come close to slowing them down.  Very large task ahead for Mount.

Issue is last year Lehnen had an injured throwing shoulder so he was hesitant to run (taking hits) and couldn't really throw. Game plan was completely different.

Don't have to go quite that far, Carnegie Mellon slowed this offense down for 3/4 of their playoff game, final was 28-7 but it was 14-7 going into the 4 quarter

Good point.

Due to the lack of out of conference games, there actually still remains the possibility that Carnegie Mellon is secretly one of the top 5 teams in the country 

[WRMUalum13]

Coach Dartt and his staff will have to go back to last year's Stagg Bowl game film to figure out how to slow down and possibly beat North Central.  Not going to get anything from todays game film.  MHB didn't even come close to slowing them down.  Very large task ahead for Mount.

Issue is last year Lehnen had an injured throwing shoulder so he was hesitant to run (taking hits) and couldn't really throw. Game plan was completely different.

Don't have to go quite that far, Carnegie Mellon slowed this offense down for 3/4 of their playoff game, final was 28-7 but it was 14-7 going into the 4 quarter

Good point.

Due to the lack of out of conference games, there actually still remains the possibility that Carnegie Mellon is secretly one of the top 5 teams in the country 

Sure, they were a very good team.

[MUCRaker]

Wartburg was the real deal!! Congratulations on a great season! Second year coach is doing a terrific job, River Conference beware!!
Mount won, but they left a lot of points off the board.  We can't do that in the Stagg.  It seems to me that if they can stop the run and force NC into one dimensional play they have a chance. Congratulations Mount on a hard fought win!!  Best of Luck to you in the Stagg!!
Bring home the Walnut and Bronze!  Shoutout to the Wartburg Faithful, They are now hoarse, they have no fingernails, and they probably have a head ache from yelling, but they sure did support their Team!! Safe travels on your return to Iowa.
Wish I knew what the attendance was seem like a good crowd.

[rscl70]

Wartburg was the real deal!! Congratulations on a great season! Second year coach is doing a terrific job, River Conference beware!!
Mount won, but they left a lot of points off the board.  We can't do that in the Stagg.  It seems to me that if they can stop the run and force NC into one dimensional play they have a chance. Congratulations Mount on a hard fought win!!  Best of Luck to you in the Stagg!!
Bring home the Walnut and Bronze!  Shoutout to the Wartburg Faithful, They are now hoarse, they have no fingernails, and they probably have a head ache from yelling, but they sure did support their Team!! Safe travels on your return to Iowa.
Wish I knew what the attendance was seem like a good crowd.

2,251.  That leaves around 3,000 empty seats.  For a National Semifinal! Sad.  Of course, that's from Mount Unions stats which also say the weather was "Sunny".

[WRMUalum13]

Wartburg was the real deal!! Congratulations on a great season! Second year coach is doing a terrific job, River Conference beware!!
Mount won, but they left a lot of points off the board.  We can't do that in the Stagg.  It seems to me that if they can stop the run and force NC into one dimensional play they have a chance. Congratulations Mount on a hard fought win!!  Best of Luck to you in the Stagg!!
Bring home the Walnut and Bronze!  Shoutout to the Wartburg Faithful, They are now hoarse, they have no fingernails, and they probably have a head ache from yelling, but they sure did support their Team!! Safe travels on your return to Iowa.
Wish I knew what the attendance was seem like a good crowd.

2,251.  That leaves around 3,000 empty seats.  For a National Semifinal! Sad.  Of course, that's from Mount Unions stats which also say the weather was "Sunny".

2251 is also the listed attendance for last years semi final game... having exactly the same number of attendees seems like a weird coincidence

[ADL70]

Due to the lack of out of conference games, there actually still remains the possibility that Carnegie Mellon is secretly one of the top 5 teams in the country 
[/quote]

?? Lack of out of conference games? Perhaps you're thinking about next season when sadly there won't be any. This season CMU beat Whitworth and RPI out of conference and beat DePauw in playoff before NCC. As for the other conference teams W&J beat John Carroll (Top 25) and Hobart, Westminster lost to Del Valley and Grove City played two games out of conference with its ECAC bowl game.

But you're right they might be the fifth best team.

[rscl70]

Wartburg was the real deal!! Congratulations on a great season! Second year coach is doing a terrific job, River Conference beware!!
Mount won, but they left a lot of points off the board.  We can't do that in the Stagg.  It seems to me that if they can stop the run and force NC into one dimensional play they have a chance. Congratulations Mount on a hard fought win!!  Best of Luck to you in the Stagg!!
Bring home the Walnut and Bronze!  Shoutout to the Wartburg Faithful, They are now hoarse, they have no fingernails, and they probably have a head ache from yelling, but they sure did support their Team!! Safe travels on your return to Iowa.
Wish I knew what the attendance was seem like a good crowd.

2,251.  That leaves around 3,000 empty seats.  For a National Semifinal! Sad.  Of course, that's from Mount Unions stats which also say the weather was "Sunny".

2251 is also the listed attendance for last years semi final game... having exactly the same number of attendees seems like a weird coincidence

Maybe they used the same form and just didn't change those numbers.

[hsbsballcoach7]

Wartburg seems to be extremely well coached. They have some good athletes, but their play calling was great and kept them in the game. They did what they needed to put their team in a position to win. Great season for them and great fans to interact with.

Mount looked like Jeckyl and Hyde today.... Plunk looked like a star at points today and had some bad misses. Echeverry was quick, strong and fight for extra yards when needed.  Manley was TOUGH today! Great catches and extra yards in meaningful spots. Special teams had some great plays with a kick and punt  return to give mount momentum,  but a missed kick, PAT and bad punt were self- inflicted wounds. All in all, the players and coaches stepped up when they needed to win the game. This was another "Mount Union magic" type of game with that comeback.

What a great season so far....Now NCC will provide its own incredibly tough challenge. They seem like an unstoppable freight train right now. Heal up, watch the tape and give it all you've got Raiders!

The failure to score from the 1 yardline was pretty self-inflicted too. Not the best playcalling IMO.

Mount certainly left points on the field (throwing from the 1 yard line) or gave Wartburg an easier path (Plunk fumble). Wartburg was able to get pressure with 4 linemen. Versus NCC you can't leave any points on the board. Lehnen is healthy this year and is a big threat to break runs on the read option. On defense,  you're probably not bringing Greenfield down one on one. Then you have Hardy who is similar to Wayne Ruby. The Raider defense must play solid assignment football and tackle well.

[Raider 68]

After attending the Raider Wartburg game yesterday, I could help but thinking the Braxton Plunk should be the Gagliardi
Award winner. He had a great game, and the interception should not have happened since it was a wrong call.
Coach Dartt really blew that one and two other calls which force Mount to give up possession.

Wartburg was extremely good in so many areas and deserved to be in the semi's. They will be a force in the coming years
and I was impressed with their HC.

Mount lost to NC last year 27-13 I believe due a great O line and E. Greenfield. For Friday the Raiders have a chance
this year against them, but NC will be favored to win their second Stagg Bowl. I hope the D. Parker is OK, but if he cannot
play it will a real challenge for Mount's running game. The defense stopped Wartburg's talented running game and they
will need to slow down Ethan Greenfield. He will get his yards, but can Mount make it difficult. We will see on Friday.

[WRMUalum13]

Any thoughts on our vulnerability to Wartburg's passing attack? In the post game presser Dartt said the defense was put in bad positions several times and the defenders got tired, but I feel like that's not a great explanation.

Not sure if it was scheme or what but it felt like Wartburgs receivers were getting wide open pretty regularly

[Raider 68]

Any thoughts on our vulnerability to Wartburg's passing attack? In the post game presser Dartt said the defense was put in bad positions several times and the defenders got tired, but I feel like that's not a great explanation.

Not sure if it was scheme or what but it felt like Wartburgs receivers were getting wide open pretty regularly

WRMUalum13,

The D line did a great job both on Wartburg's run game and QB pressure. I thought Mount's pass defense was confused
at times and left the middle wide open. The one long open TD was caused in part to a late substitution of defensive backs.
The Coach's comments about bad positions and being tired is a little misleading.

NC relies first on their run game. L Lehnen has thrown for 2,568, 70% completion 185/266 and 35 TD's. B Plunk is 74%, 355/477 and 47 TD's. Whartburg's passing game had  more yards but less TD's than NC.  NC will probably run as much as they can, until Mount slows it down and then mixes passes to keep the defense honest. Lehnen likes to run the ball as well.

[New Tradition]

Any thoughts on our vulnerability to Wartburg's passing attack? In the post game presser Dartt said the defense was put in bad positions several times and the defenders got tired, but I feel like that's not a great explanation.

Not sure if it was scheme or what but it felt like Wartburgs receivers were getting wide open pretty regularly

WRMUalum13,

The D line did a great job both on Wartburg's run game and QB pressure. I thought Mount's pass defense was confused
at times and left the middle wide open. The one long open TD was caused in part to a late substitution of defensive backs.
The Coach's comments about bad positions and being tired is a little misleading.

NC relies first on their run game. L Lehnen has thrown for 2,568, 70% completion 185/266 and 35 TD's. B Plunk is 74%, 355/477 and 47 TD's. Whartburg's passing game had  more yards but less TD's than NC.  NC will probably run as much as they can, until Mount slows it down and then mixes passes to keep the defense honest. Lehnen likes to run the ball as well.

Likes to run is an understatement. He's actually outrushed Greenfield in each of NCC's playoff games.

[WRMUalum13]

Any thoughts on our vulnerability to Wartburg's passing attack? In the post game presser Dartt said the defense was put in bad positions several times and the defenders got tired, but I feel like that's not a great explanation.

Not sure if it was scheme or what but it felt like Wartburgs receivers were getting wide open pretty regularly

WRMUalum13,

The D line did a great job both on Wartburg's run game and QB pressure. I thought Mount's pass defense was confused
at times and left the middle wide open. The one long open TD was caused in part to a late substitution of defensive backs.
The Coach's comments about bad positions and being tired is a little misleading.

NC relies first on their run game. L Lehnen has thrown for 2,568, 70% completion 185/266 and 35 TD's. B Plunk is 74%, 355/477 and 47 TD's. Whartburg's passing game had  more yards but less TD's than NC.  NC will probably run as much as they can, until Mount slows it down and then mixes passes to keep the defense honest. Lehnen likes to run the ball as well.

Oh yeah just to clarify I was only talking about the defensive backs not the dline. I thought the dline got consistent pressure for most of the game especially on that last drive. Yeah it just seemed like our DBs didn't know who was supposed to cover what or just weren't able to run with Wartburg's receivers over the middle or for out routes.

I was very impressed with how well the Mount D stopped Wartburg's running game, "Turbo" was basically a non-factor with Wartburg held to only 58 rushing yards (26 net after the sacks).

The Mount Run defense is playing as advertised, but I'm very curious as to how they'll hold up against NCC.

[D3fanboy]

Any thoughts on our vulnerability to Wartburg's passing attack? In the post game presser Dartt said the defense was put in bad positions several times and the defenders got tired, but I feel like that's not a great explanation.

Not sure if it was scheme or what but it felt like Wartburgs receivers were getting wide open pretty regularly

I don't typically give Dartt too much credit, but I'm guessing that, while fantastic, those long kick/punt returns and the fumble recovery on the 1 set up some pretty short drives for the Mount offense in the 2nd half and not giving the defense too much rest.  It was two drag routes that beat the Mount secondary with little pressure being applied to the QB.  Should be able to clean up the blown coverage/communication in film.  A tired defense wouldn't have been much of an issue with the 14 extra points that the offense left on the field in those situations