FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[TheeBuffaloSabres]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3115933

[reality check]

from their days of dominence

Want one more shot at it?

So who is the beast from the east this year?

This year it's Mount, remember?

MUCs only weakness?  The punter.  He probably doesnt get a lot of action though!

It sounds like it wasn't his best day today.  He's been pretty good from what I've read/heard throughout the year though.  I suspect I'd shank a ball or two if I had to remove so much rust from my kicking leg for each kick.







I was about to call it a night but I was bltantly held while shutting down the computer and those damn NCAC zebras missed it again.

[bushman]

I guess you could say that.   We are in eastern Ohio.   

[bambord]

Yesterday at Mount Union Stadium, an exciting, good game - not a great game, for the Raiders - was played.  Penalties, such as a personal foul after a PAT may cost a game as the Raiders move toward the Stagg Bowl and games that can be expected to be contested more closely.  If you saw Larry Kehres walk to the locker room at halftime, you and one player got quite a good idea of what he thought about that.

There was some awesome hitting going on, on both sides of the ball.  Kmic and Garcon were terrific among numerous outstanding perfromances.  It has been said that the game may be good to prepare Mount for the coming weeks.  That is important because, whereas I had been dreaming of a Mount:Capital Stagg Bowl and a backup of Mount: W&J, Capital and W&J are out and Ithica unmasked a serious Mount weakness.

A number of times, during the regular season, I told myself Mount DBs can be exploited by a good quarterback, given some time.  I told myself to shut up, not be negative, everything is great with the Mount defense.  Did the d-line sack Juvan four times?  Did wide open receivers drop six of his passes?  Did Millings make a terrific interception of a touchdown pass?  Geesh, he looked like an All-American DB.

I did a quick search of NCAA stats and came up empty handed regarding the stats I wanted.  Making due with what could be quickly found, Ithica is 39 in passing offense.  Dan Juvan ranks 11 in passing efficiency, couldn't find his name in top 50 in yards passing, 47 in yards/game.  Those numbers are a threat to the number 1 defense in the land?  That passing attack, with no running game, fairly well shredded the number 1 defense.  Surely, in coming games Mount will face a team that can give a better quarterback (Juvan is good and he is tough) better protection to throw to receivers that will catch wide open passes.  Bad omens yesterday, for sure.

A number of people have written that Mount learned they will need to work on pass defense.  They haven't worked on pass defense?  This terrific program just learned yesterday that its DBs could be exploited, when this ignoramus suspected it throughout the year.  I immensely enjoy watching Matt Kostelnik but maybe he will have to play less in the backfield of the offense and more in his own.  Maybe Cameron Rose will fully return to his level of play in 2005.  Whatever is in store, it will be interesting (and fun?) to see how Mount handles a pass oriented team in the coming weeks.  It shouldn't be a factor next week.

I did suspect the DBs while, also, quietly telling people that this just may be the best yet at MUC.  In spite of penalties, less than the best special teams (particularly defending KORs) this is a heck of a football team.  I look forward to next week and, hopefully, three more after that.  Can this team adjust, adapt and thrive on a tenth Stagg?  I think Coach Kehres and his staff can make it happen.  In so doing, he should earn the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award.  Keep voting, every day.

[Jonny Utah]

Another thing I noticed about the game is that Ithaca still had the threat to run, forcing MUC to keep at least 6 defenders worrying about the run.

And it seemed to me that the majority (75%?) of Ithacas passes were off play action, keeping MUCs LBs and rover up close to the line of scrimmage worrying about ICs backs. 

Ithaca also seemed to keep their backs in to block more often than not.  This also kept MUCs defenders worrying about flares or screens.

And about Juvan (Ithaca's QB).  I can say that although his stats might not be top 10 in the country, this kid is getting better every week.  I saw him last year, and really worried if he was the QB of the future for IC.  Yesterday, Juvan had his best passing game in his carreer.  He might be one of the top Qbs in the country next year.

Another thing I noticed about MUC and what I notice about all great teams.  Every offensive player can block.  The key to big breakaway runs (to which MUC had 2 Tds on) is having key blocks by backside players and second blocks on dbacks that would otherwise make a tackle. 

[union89]

Kind of surprised this hasn't been asked previously, but......those who saw the game, seems like MUC made a concerted effort to stop the run at the expense of the passing defense.

Thoughts??

[JT]

Very few of the Eastern posters have actually seen TCNJ play.  Many times this season the Lions "didn't deserve to win", and yet they won anyway.   I can't say how they'll perform in Alliance.  Yes, RPI has a good spread offense.  Yet still the Engineers only scored 14 points.  Would they have played better against Mount Union, when they didn't beat TCNJ?

TCNJ has a very good defense.  Front four is very good.  LB's are good.  Secondary is opportunistic.  The secondary might be the weakness, if the team isn't getting pressure.  When I saw them against Rowan, the Profs had very little time to throw.

Offensively it looks like they've improved from the Rowan game.  They seem to make plays when they need them.  I think the team is putting up over 300 yards per game and averaging 23-25 points per game.

The punter is very good at kicking away from players.

If TCNJ can move the ball, I think it could be decent game.  Hopefully +41.5 is very high.

[DustySJU]

Kind of surprised this hasn't been asked previously, but......those who saw the game, seems like MUC made a concerted effort to stop the run at the expense of the passing defense.

Thoughts??

Yes, I think someone mentioned The Raiders have problems playing pass defense.

[purpled]

I was at the game and saw that IC was going nowhere on the ground but Mount's pass D was getting drilled. IC's passing game plan was excellent and perhaps it was that plan that made our passing D look bad. IC's qb made some great throws with a lot of pressure on him and he took some hard shots.

If that's the best the NCAA can do with regards to the refs then all of D3 is in trouble! Anyone see the play where they first called a pass complete when you could hear the ball zip across the turf?

[JT]

If that's the best the NCAA can do with regards to the refs then all of D3 is in trouble! Anyone see the play where they first called a pass complete when you could hear the ball zip across the turf?

It was NCAC officials that worked the Bridgewater vs. Rowan game in 2001.  I never want to see officials from this conference.

[skunks_sidekick]

Some "next day thoughts".....

I think credit has to be given to Ithaca's QB.  That kid is pretty special, and if he has any kind of supporting cast next year he will be scary!

Props to IC's play call when Kostelnick blitzed.  At least three times that I can recall, Kostelnick would blitz, and Juvon would throw a little "flats pass" to a guy right in the area that was vacated. 

Calls that I think were missed both ways......Kostelnick rushing the punter RIGHT IN FRONT OF THAT LOSER wearing the white hat, and gets horse-collared, no call.  The OBVIOUS interference call on Mount's linebacker on the pass over the middle.  The two phantom holding calls on Mount on a kick return, and on a sweep going the other way where the D-lineman from Ithaca gets "snipered" so the ref figures there must have been holding.  The "skip pass" that has to be debated for a few minutes before it was decided it was a no catch.  THESE GUYS STUNK.

Oh..and for the record...when you are playing a receiver 12-15 yards off the ball....AND have double help from the safety..said receiver BETTER not get behind you.  That is how IC played Garcon all day.  Actually, that is how they played all the Mount receivers all day.  Hence the short stuff, hence Micheli's what?......19-24 day?

Oh...and what a GREAT interception by the IC kid.  That was as acrobatic, athletic play by a d-back that I have seen in a while. 

[HScoach]

I thought it was just the NCAC schools that didn't take football seriously.  Guess it's their officials too.  That was a poorly officiated game, but thank goodness it didn't have any effect on the outcome and very little effect (if any) on the final score.   

I know going into the game that MUC was a lot more concerned about Ithaca's good O-line and RB's than they were about the passing game.  There defensive attack proved that too.  It's awfully hard to take everything away, so if you're going to pick your poison, I'd rather take away their running game first.  Which is what most teams will try to do against Mount too.  A strong running game controls the entire game and is less prone to mistakes and turnovers than passing.  If you can make a team one dimensional, wouldn't you want to make them go to their 2nd phase if possible? 

Mount is not the kind of team to try to get into a shootout with.  The only way Ithaca was going to win the game was to control the ball and the clock which does two things:
  1.  frustrates Micheli and Company as they stand on the sideline
  2.  tires out an undersized defense built on speed, not power
Those are only possible via the running game.  MUC was a lot more concerned with Ithaca's running game than they were the passing game.  Credit to Ithaca for being able to switch offensive gears and make it a game.  Congrats!

Ric and I gave HUGE props to Juvan throughout the game for his stellar play.  He was by far the best QB to play against Mount this season.  Infinitely better than any OAC opponent's QB.  Capital had one early in the season, but a blown ACL cost them a chance to test Mount.  Was very impressed by Juvan's strong and accurate arm in the face of pressure.

What was interesting to watch was that the MUC pass defense was better off only rushing 4 and dropping 7.  Almost all of Ithaca's big plays came when they blitzed.  Mostly because Juvan made the proper snap read and perfectly hit the receiver before getting drilled.  Very impressive.

Before we get too worried about the actual secondary play, this Mount defense is built around getting to the QB before he can throw it (or at least disrupt his throw), not sitting back in coverage and locking down the WR's.  I was much more impressed by Ithaca's offensive play than disappointed in MUC's defensive play.

How soon we forget that BW had some success throwing the ball too because their O-line was good enough to pick up the blitzes some times.  The difference between BW and Ithaca was that Juvan made much better throws under pressure than Mental did.  BW drove inside the MUC 20 four (4) separate occasions (and 3 more times inside the 35)  but couldn't get over the hump due to inconsistent QB play.  If Mental had the pocket presence that Juvan had, BW would have score a couple times too.

[Jonny Utah]

Some "next day thoughts".....


Calls that I think were missed both ways......Kostelnick rushing the punter RIGHT IN FRONT OF THAT LOSER wearing the white hat, and gets horse-collared, no call.  The OBVIOUS interference call on Mount's linebacker on the pass over the middle.  The two phantom holding calls on Mount on a kick return, and on a sweep going the other way where the D-lineman from Ithaca gets "snipered" so the ref figures there must have been holding.  The "skip pass" that has to be debated for a few minutes before it was decided it was a no catch.  THESE GUYS STUNK.

I dont think you had a good view of the punt return TD holding on MUC.  The MUC player grabbed the IC player with both hand on his jersey.  He had to hold him.

And the "skip" pass was wierd.  I really couldnt tell if he caught it or not.  As he was going down, his helmet or pads hit the turf and then as the ball went in he had both hands on it as it was a catch.  I thought he trapped it too, but the way he had it right in his hands made me think twice (and the refs obviously)

One more thing I remember is on a few of MUCs bootlegs, if the qb had the option to throw, he had Garcon deep twice.  I think if MUC did a little more play action (boots with long throwbacks) they could have had a few more big plays.

[purpled]

Is the game being replayed today? Is it on Time Warner and if so, what channel? Haven't been able to find it listed.

[runyr]

Thanks to all for great analysis comments on yesterday's game.  You guys (you know who you are) make this board worth reading.  +karma to all of you.

NCAC Refs:
Are they just really bad, biased against Mount Union, or both? 

JT:
Amazing it was NCAC refs that robbed you guys in that Bridgewater game!  I had forgotten that.