FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Final from Rock Island...

IWU 7
Augustana 0


The Titans came out on top in a good old fashioned, grind-it-out, field position type of game.  IWU scored early in the 1st Q on a pass from Brien Rooney to Mike Sloboda, and that was it for points in this game.

Huge tip of the cap to IWU's defense, which held Augie to 135 total yards of offense and 6 1st downs.

The Titans played without starting QB Kraig Ladd and sophomore WR Joey Driver.

[Titan Q]

The IWU/Augie game took just 2:15 to play.

[Mugsy]

The IWU/Augie game took just 2:15 to play.

That's Buehrle-esque.

[Mr. Ypsi]

IWU was not exactly an offensive powerhouse today, either - 220 total yards and 12 first downs.

Since I had only livestats to go by, it was impossible to know - were the defenses THAT good, the offenses THAT bad, or (most likely) some of each?  Any eyewitness reports?

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst beat NPU, 47-10. The stat line was even more horrible than the final score, as Elmhurst outgained NPU, 572-172. In spite of that, Elmhurst really didn't look like any great shakes as compared to, say, Wheaton, in spite of the fact that the Bluejays actually beat NPU by a bigger score than Wheaton did. The story of the game was that the Vikings were absolutely brutal on defense in terms of tackling. Bluejay ballcarriers were running through the arms of Vikings all day, especially that little waterbug of a running back, #3 Scott Williams. Elmhurst just ripped off one long run after another that should've been stopped at or near the line of scrimmage. To Elmhurst's credit, though, the 'jays made great use of Williams, running a lot of sweeps and lateral screens to get him on the edge where he could use his speed.

It was 17-10 in the second quarter and NPU was driving when Shelby Wood, who did a lot more running today that I've ever seen from him, didn't put the ball away on an inside run and coughed it up. Elmhurst recovered and scored on the short field. Next drive, the exact same thing happened -- Wood fumbled the ball on an interior run at midfield, Elmhurst recovered, and scored a quick touchdown. It all fell apart that quickly for NPU.

The bright spot for the Vikings was the kick-return game; Michael Lee ran back a kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter, and ran back another first-quarter kickoff 52 yards. After that, however, Elmhurst started squibbing the kick after each score and conceded NPU field position at about the 35 or 40 yard line rather than risk another big runback.

It's another long year for North Park football.

[oldnuthin]

NCC  putting it on Carthage already, Sulo left game with a leg injury 12-0 NCC two blown pats

[Mugsy]

Wow NCC can score in bunches.  They already have 39 against Carthage and it isn't even half yet.  39-21.

Guess it will take a small miracle to keep NCC "under" 44 points.

Oh yeah... 368 yards total offense for NCC in the first half and that's without Sulo who left early in the game.

[wheels81]

Congrats to Wheaton for spoiling another teams homecoming game.    
Wasn't the best game for the offense but thankfully didn't need much as the defense was more than ready.  Who'd a thunk it that the veteran offense would need to depend so much on the younger defense.  
It also looks like Gingg has a good replacement in Velling.  
One thing I wish would go away from the Wheaton playbook is the option.  The 3 times I've seen it run were either a mishandled pitch or fumble resulting in loss or no gain.  I think they tried it again tonight and also lost yardage.   I guess they can still keep it to kill a drive to give the other team some hope.    Norris doesn't need the option he can scramble and draw without it just fine when he doesn't hold the ball too long.   Velling is able to get around the end w/o stringing out the defense when he needs to  but he really shines moving the pile or breaking one between the tackles.  

Also Great radio guys on WETN.  DR on the color is excellent as well as insightful.  Always positive and not a homer at all great obersvations.
Play by play guy is also much improved over past talent.  Both guys gave score and time remaining often as is necessary when your audience may be on outskirts of the broadcast zone and signal drops in and out.  
One criticism I have and it's minor.  When play by play guy would say some one just went over a given yard line I didn't know if he was crossing it meaning going upfield (toward the 50) or going inside meaning going downfield (away from 50).  Again it really helps the listener get a mental picture of where the ball is on the field.  I think one call was "he just went over the 30 yard line" and I assumed he was crossing to towards the 35 but in fact he was going towards the 25.  With spotty reception the audience may not follow or miss an earlier play. Saying "going from left to right on the dial" or vise versa is ok too just a little too "bears" radio.  

[Pat Coleman]

I don't think "left to right" is restricted to Bears games.

[Carthage Fan]

Crazy game at Carthage last night.  Deja vu allover again (IWU) in the first 3 minutes!  All in all you had everything, a blocked punt for a TD, a mishandled fumbled punt return, several INT's, fumbles on both sides, personal fouls, etc.  The Red Men could not run the ball, but, NCC D gave us 562 yards passing and we fought back.  With the aid of some key NCC penalties, a long interception return and a couple big pass plays, surprisingly we got back in this game.  The Cardinals took advantage of our turnovers and were able to score.  We could pull within a TD but could never tie it up.  Credit their kick return team who managed to give them great field position all night.  Their O tore our D apart with a good option play and could run up the middle on us as our our LB's and Safeties were not coming up filling the gaps.  Plus it was some of the worst Red Men tackling I have seen.  Several times we had contact at the first level but forgot we had arms and would not wrap up! Even with Sulo out (I sure hope he is OK) the #2 and #3 guys were very very good.  Fanthorpe made a couple mistakes and we did get some pressure on him but he still made some good throws. 

Definitely not the Cardinal's best outing but, they allowed us to stay in the game.  A sharper Red Men performance and it may have been closer.   Good Luck to NCC.

[Titan Q]

IWU has won @ Carthage and @ Augustana, and lost at home vs Millikin.  The Titans have the following road games left: @ Elmhurst, @ North Park.  At home, IWU will host Wheaton and NCC.

When was the last time a CCIW team went undefeated on the road, and winless at home?  I guess it's happened before, but it would seem to be pretty rare.  If IWU wins the games it's supposed to win and loses the games it's supposed to lose from here on out, that's what the Titans will be looking at.

[lakeshore]

Congrats to Wheaton for spoiling another teams homecoming game.    
Wasn't the best game for the offense but thankfully didn't need much as the defense was more than ready.  Who'd a thunk it that the veteran offense would need to depend so much on the younger defense.  
It also looks like Gingg has a good replacement in Velling.  
One thing I wish would go away from the Wheaton playbook is the option.  The 3 times I've seen it run were either a mishandled pitch or fumble resulting in loss or no gain.  I think they tried it again tonight and also lost yardage.   I guess they can still keep it to kill a drive to give the other team some hope.    Norris doesn't need the option he can scramble and draw without it just fine when he doesn't hold the ball too long.   Velling is able to get around the end w/o stringing out the defense when he needs to  but he really shines moving the pile or breaking one between the tackles.  

Also Great radio guys on WETN.  DR on the color is excellent as well as insightful.  Always positive and not a homer at all great obersvations.
Play by play guy is also much improved over past talent.  Both guys gave score and time remaining often as is necessary when your audience may be on outskirts of the broadcast zone and signal drops in and out.  
One criticism I have and it's minor.  When play by play guy would say some one just went over a given yard line I didn't know if he was crossing it meaning going upfield (toward the 50) or going inside meaning going downfield (away from 50).  Again it really helps the listener get a mental picture of where the ball is on the field.  I think one call was "he just went over the 30 yard line" and I assumed he was crossing to towards the 35 but in fact he was going towards the 25.  With spotty reception the audience may not follow or miss an earlier play. Saying "going from left to right on the dial" or vise versa is ok too just a little too "bears" radio.  

Over 500 yards of offense for Wheaton while it appears they were missing 4-5 starters from that unit due to injury.  Pretty impressive.

[AndOne]

Anyone know the severity of Sulo's injury?

[Tailgater]

As I feared a shoot out in Kenosha and the RedMen took the fatal bullet. Just like last week against Elmhurst.......where are the defenses?? A combined 111 points scored and 1,152 yards in combined offense. That's just crazy. As has been the issue all year with Carthage they had no running game or never tried to establish one. What a great record breaking performance by QB Evan Jones......again. Jones was fast approaching the 100 pitch count and a relief pitcher would possibly need to be brought in from the bull pen. Jones threw 84 passes for 562 yds , 6 TDs and 4 INTs. It appears the INTs proved to be fatal as one was returned for a TD and 2 others set NCC up on the 5 & 6 yard line of the RedMen for short scoring possessions. NCC also had 2 other drives that started deep in RedMen territory at the 26 and 23 yd lines. That's 5 TDs with little offensive yardage required. A lot of turnovers in this game, 5 for NCC and 7 for Carthage and a lot of penalties with approx 100 penalty yds against both teams. This was the most penalized Carthage has been all season. Carthage, as has been the case all year, also lost the time of possession 36 to 24 min.

An entertaining game if you like to see a lot of scoring. Congrats to both teams in this game. NCC was in control of the game from the start and although Carthage fought with a lot of heart throughout the contest, NCC took the hits from the RedMen and successfully answered with counter blows of their own. I hope Evan Jones got a good Ice down on his arm last night.

[Tailgater]

Quoting Coach Tim Rucks on the Oct. 17 North Central Game:  "Even with all those points, we lost this game on turnovers.  You can't win a football game with seven turnovers.  We also had way too many stupid penalties and a poor special-teams effort.  We didn't achieve anywhere near the kind of consistency we needed to win this game.  We can be really good, at times, and we can also be really, really bad, at times.  We had some unease about playing a highly-ranked team, but after a awhile, we sensed that we could play with them.  I told our guys at halftime that we would come back and make a game of things, and we did that.  Both teams were gassed by the end of the game.  It was CCIW football.  North Central is very good, and they don't make as many mistakes as we do."