FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[seventiesraider]

I know we all want this to be the game of the week, game of the year, whatever, but before we run off to Westerville and don't take care of business at home, this is still the core of a team we ran up 727 offensive yards against in what was Greg Micheli's second career start one year ago.  As I remember it was 49-0 after the first possession of the third quarter and we kicked three field goals after that to keep the score down. It was one of the games we didn't need to punt in last year.

Nobody respects Coach Loth more than I do and before some of the recent hirings of younger coaches around the league would have easily called him the second best coach in the OAC. That being said and giving Otterbein the home field advantage, I don't expect it to be close after the half. Problem is the OAC is pretty down down across the board and I don't think either team can make too much out of being 8-0.

With Otterbein bringing back three of the same 4 d-liners from last years game makes me wonder if time won't tell that JCU was more of a test than the Card's will be, None the less, I'll be there, standing with my cane if I have to.

[bushman]

Remember it is better to show up than be shown.

[OldRaiderGuy]

I called the Otterbein athletic office last week.  There will be a limited time of open ticket sales at their stadium on Thursday and Friday.  They will not take ticket orders by phone, as there is no will call available.  They also plan to open the box office an hour earlier on Saturday morning. 

[tv112]

seventies, This will be a slightly different team from last years squad on both sides of the ball. First on D OTT will come out with two new D linemen with - Hopkins;  32 tackles,3.5 sacks,3.5 TFL,1 FR - King; 35 tackles, 7.5 TFL,4 sacks, 4FR,1 Interception. Three new DB's Woodfork; 31 tackles,4 Interceptions,4 Brkups - Lynch; 37 tackles,2 interceptions,1 FR - Hochstetler; 43 tackles, 4 TFL, 1.5 sacks, 1 interception. One new LB - Reinhart; 39 tackles,4.5 TFL,1 sack,1 interception,1FR. ON O OTT retirns four OL, has a new QB, Two different RB's and a completely new recieving corp.. They are a different team than last year. I hope this is a great game and both teams stay healthy after it. "GO OTT"

[HScoach]

I'm so glad Otterbein has taken care of business so far to set up this showdown in Week 9.  Looking at the schedule before the season started, it sure looked like the last test for the Raiders would be Capital in Week 5 and they'd sleep walk thru the last 5 weeks.  But now we get to look forward to a good road test to get tuned up for the playoffs.

In case it hasn't been mentioned elsewhere, the winner gets the OAC's automatic qualifier.  Regardless of what happens in Week 10.


In terms of the game itself, I'm very curious to see the battle at the line of scrimmage.   We all know about the skill guys (Micheli, Kmic, Rafferty, etc) but the game will be won or lost because of the play up front.  

To date, Mount hasn't played a team with a legitmate running game.  St John Fisher lost too much from '07, Ohio Northern is a shell of it's former self and Capital, BW and JCU were all so pass-happy it made it very easy to defend.  Just get to the QB!  I'm very interested in seeing how the undersized MUC defense stacks up against a team that can run the ball.  

I think the most important thing for Otterbein offensively is to get positive yardage on 1st down.  Doesn't have to be big yardage, just 3 or 4 yards to keep the defense on their heels a bit and to set up managable situtations on 3rd down.  If Otterbein is facing a lot of 3rd and longs, it's going to be a long afternoon for Rafferty because I seriously doubt there is any O-line in the OAC that can block Millings and Herbert when it's a pure passing situation.  Make them play the run a little bit and it's a huge help to the O-line.

And on the opposite side, the Mount O-line is decent and getting better, but they're not very deep and a couple of the guys are banged up.  

[cufan]

First off great game by the Crusaders.  I am not sure how good the Muskies are but Cap played very well on both sides of the ball.  It is a shame that Cap is so banged up this year because I really felt going into the year this may be one of the better teams they have had.  The bright side is they are very young on both sides of the ball and with a lot 2nd teamers playing this year may help them in 09.

OTT-MU
I really hope this is a great game.....I think somebody already said this but Mount has made a living making big conference games sleepers.  The Otters need to have success early or it will get ugly in a hurry.

[Toph]

Thoughts on the JCU/MUC game from the JCU perspective:

Hats off to the D, especially for the first half.  I'll tell you what, only giving up 20 points, one touchdown being a pick six, and one touchdown with Mount taking over at the JCU 11, they deserve credit for playing very tough in the first half.

As for the referees, I think there were a couple questionable calls (one pass interference call seems to stick out in my mind where there was minimal contact on the part of the Mount defender), but overall I think some of you are seeing the game through very purple glasses.  Mount is an extremely aggressive, physical team.  They've are usually one of the most penalized teams in the country.  I hate to break it to some of you, but it's not a conspiracy on the part of the officials.

As for the "let's go for it on our own 11" call...I'm as big a fan of Coach Scafe as you're ever going to find.  I think some of that has to do with the fact that I got to know him during my four years at JCU.  He's a great guy, he and his staff were always very accommodating and open, and he's done pretty well when it comes to W's and L's.  But I said it Saturday, and I'll say it again.  That was the wrong call.  At that point in the game, with your defense playing well, the risk/reward simply wasn't worth it.  Even if your offense picks up the first down, you've still got over 80 yards to go.

Sorry it took so long to get my thoughts down.  See you in Westerville assuming they still have tickets.

EDIT:  By the way, if that's true about Otterbein not taking phone orders or having will call, why not just put a sign on your ticket office that says, "We want to make this as difficult as possible for non-Otterbein fans to get tickets to this game."

[raiderpa]

when your program is as respected and dominant as Mount Union, I feel that you are held (and should be) to a higher standard of behavior and performance.  The personal foul on Millings was a good call.  I always felt Garcon deserved more than he got, and as a life long Raider I want to see total class on behalf of my team and its fans.
I want to be successful, but it is as important to be respected for sportsmanship, leadership, and class.
Although I don't like getting some of these penalties, if they were overlooked we would be hearing how Mount gets away with murder and is a no class bully.
Aggressive and hard play is great, but if the line is crossed, throw the flag as much as it takes to calm it down...

[HScoach]

Hats off to the D, especially for the first half.  I'll tell you what, only giving up 20 points, one touchdown being a pick six, and one touchdown with Mount taking over at the JCU 11, they deserve credit for playing very tough in the first half.

I agree 100%.  The JCU defense played very well.  Easily the best we've seen to date.

As for the referees, I think there were a couple questionable calls (one pass interference call seems to stick out in my mind where there was minimal contact on the part of the Mount defender), but overall I think some of you are seeing the game through very purple glasses.  Mount is an extremely aggressive, physical team.  They've are usually one of the most penalized teams in the country.  I hate to break it to some of you, but it's not a conspiracy on the part of the officials.

I agree to a point.  The fans are always going to be slanted to their team.  But the problem I had with the refs on Saturday is not calling the game straight up once the outcome was decided.  Once MUC was up 34-0, they completely quit looking at holding.  If anyone has the game taped, go back and look at the blatant holding on DE Steigerwald on the JCU scoring drive.  It was almost criminal.  I don't care what the score is, a penalty is a penalty.  Calling the game differently just because the score is lopsided is wrong and doesn't help either team learn how to properly play the game.    For the offensive tackle that gets away with mugging the DE, it slants his view of what's allowed which can impact his play next week.   

In general, my problem with any ref is the obvious calls that are NOT made instead of the questionable calls that are made.  In the MUC/JCU game there were a couple calls that could have went either way, and I don't necessarily think they went against Mount.  But the completely blatant calls right in front of a ref that isn't called is what drives me nuts.

As for the "let's go for it on our own 11" call...I'm as big a fan of Coach Scafe as you're ever going to find.  I think some of that has to do with the fact that I got to know him during my four years at JCU.  He's a great guy, he and his staff were always very accommodating and open, and he's done pretty well when it comes to W's and L's.  But I said it Saturday, and I'll say it again.  That was the wrong call.  At that point in the game, with your defense playing well, the risk/reward simply wasn't worth it.  Even if your offense picks up the first down, you've still got over 80 yards to go.

That might be the dumbest strategy I've ever seen.  Only thing I can guess is that Scafe let his emotions get the better of his tactics.  If JCU heads to halftime down only 13-0, they're in great position.  A 13 point deficit at halftime would have been about as good a showing as one could have realistically hoped for.   By rolling the dice Scafe completely removed any chance JCU had of making it a game in the second half. 

EDIT:  By the way, if that's true about Otterbein not taking phone orders or having will call, why not just put a sign on your ticket office that says, "We want to make this as difficult as possible for non-Otterbein fans to get tickets to this game."

Maybe they don't know how to handle this situation because they've NEVER been in the situation of playing a big game......

[bambord]

when your program is as respected and dominant as Mount Union, I feel that you are held (and should be) to a higher standard of behavior and performance.  The personal foul on Millings was a good call.  I always felt Garcon deserved more than he got, and as a life long Raider I want to see total class on behalf of my team and its fans.
I want to be successful, but it is as important to be respected for sportsmanship, leadership, and class.
Although I don't like getting some of these penalties, if they were overlooked we would be hearing how Mount gets away with murder and is a no class bully.
Aggressive and hard play is great, but if the line is crossed, throw the flag as much as it takes to calm it down...

raiderpa,

Well said, thank you.

[rocketraider]

I did not see the Mount/JCU game the other day but as I was reading the comments on the officiating I had to check out who actually officiated the game and low and behold the Katafias brothers from Toledo were part of the crew who did the game. I am not official-bashing but those guys have a history of bad performances when they officiate a Mount game. Last season (maybe the season before) that crew had a heckuva time getting off the field at halftime at a game at Mount they were so bad.

Does anyone know how they evaluate officials in the OAC? Players can be at risk if the officials lose charge of the game obviously, but it's the one-sidedness that bothers me. Just wondering.

[JK]

JCU's Defense is very good.  The turnovers were the reason they beat Cap, but their defense also limited the Crusaders to 220 total yards...

Debating on whether to listen to Cap on Saturday or the MUC-OTT game...

[usee]

JK,

There were turnovers in the JCU/Cap game??  8)

[JK]

Capital finally ended the three game skid and got a W... please don't attempt to ruin my good mood by bringing that up.

Isn't it amazing how complete the turnaround is at Cap when a three loss season (if they take care of business these last couple of weeks) is considered a disappointment?  In the mid-90's we would have killed to go 7-3 or even 6-4.  Cap's best record from '93 to '00 was the 5-5 of my Freshman year (93).

[purpled]

Mount / OTT common opponents scoreboard...

Mount - 346 - 30
OTT - 247 - 65

Yeah, I know, boring but very interesting! 

RUN NATE RUN!!