FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Wheaton 35
NCC 21

Wheaton is really good.

[robertgoulet]

Am I wrong in saying that Swider seems to make better adjustments (halftime and rematch) than Thorne? Just seems like NCC has the upper hand in the first half only for Wheaton to completely take them apart after halftime.

[duckfan41]

Philip Nichols with 10 catches for 207 yards and 3 touchdowns. What a performance from him. The NCC secondary let up multiple deep routes where Thunder receivers just ran past them and Anthony let them go get it.

What an impressive showing on both sides of the ball by Wheaton in the second half. The Bell stays home!

[Titan Q]

Luke Anthony threw some absolutely perfect deep balls today.  I was really impressed with him.

[Mugsy]

Key difference IMO was Wheaton brought blitz in 2nd half leading to a bunch of sacks and pressures

[USee]

Wheaton 35
NCC 21

Wheaton 65 plays 447 yds (96 rushing, 351 passing)
Luke Anthony 21-30-0 351 yds 5 TD's
TJ Williams 23 carries 96 yds
Phil Nichols 10 catches 207 yds 3 TD's
Wheaton D 7 sacks

NCC 83 plays 398 yds (85 rushing, 313 passing)
Broc Rutter 27-45-0 313 yds 2 TD's
Ethan Greenfield 29 carries 111 yds

A heavy weight battle in Wheaton today. What a great D3 game. Tied 21-21 going into the 4th quarter the Thunder Defense simply took over and Luke Anthony became the best QB on the field. At halftime NCC led 14-7 and had a 259-159 advantage in yds. Broc Rutter was 13-20 174 yds at half. The Cardinals had neutralized wheaton's DLine and was the better team in the first stanza. That said I think holding the Cardinal offense to 14 points in the first half was a big deal.

The second half was all Wheaton. Outscored the Cardinals 28-7. Rutter was 14-25 for 124 yds and 1 TD in the second half. Wheaton sacked him 7 times in the game and 4 times in the 4th quarter with the game tied.

Luke Anthony had an absolutely monster game and threw some incredible dimes agains the tight coverage of NCC.

While hindsight is 20-20 I really question Coach Thornes decision to go for it on 4th and 3 at the Wheaton 48 with 10 minutes left in the game. At the time NCC was down 21-28 and it seems to me a punt deep into Wheaton territory flips the field and if they get a stop they get the ball back in good shape with plenty of time. Instead, Rutter was sacked and Wheaton scored 6 plays later with the short filed to go up two scores. I really thought that changed the game and took NCC's running game off the table when they finally got the ball back with 6:40 left.

I also think structurally the NCC defense depends on Jake Beesley and the Braden Lindmark to play bump and run defense for most of a game. Today the Thunder really took advantage of that with several deep balls to all conference quality WR's in Nichols and Terrini. I'll be interested to see how NCC plays IWU in a few weeks.

Outstanding job by the Wheaton defense and Luke Anthony as well as the Wheaton WR's.

[USee]

I was really impressed with NCC WR Blake Williams. He is a very talented WR (6 for 158) and made several big plays today.

Also, zero turnovers in the game today which is very rare.

[wally_wabash]

Key difference IMO was Wheaton brought blitz in 2nd half leading to a bunch of sacks and pressures

However they did it, it worked.  Even Broc Rutter is going to have limited effectiveness when he doesn't have any time to throw.  I was impressed with the manner in which Wheaton just completely overwhelmed NCC's offensive line, particularly in the second half.  I know WashU is still out there, but with IWU and NCC out of the way, the runway is pretty clear for a Wheaton return to the postseason.  Great ballgame between these two today. 

[USee]

NCC mostly was able to block the pressure when Wheaton blitzed. The key to the blitz was the ability of those 4 Dlineman to draw single blocks vs double teams. That made a big difference to the pressure. Wheaton got to Rutter in the second half with and without the blitz. Rutter is clearly a different QB when you can pressure him. 78% completion percentage coming in. 60% today 56% in second half

[USee]

In other games:

Augie 40
Millikin 14

IWU 42
Carroll 14

WashU 35
NPU 10

Carthage 38
Elmhurst 14

[Gregory Sager]

For those of you still interested in that discussion of streaming platforms, add Millikin to the list of schools that struggle with Sidearm. Yeesh, what a mess. Today both the livestream and the live stats have gone down from Decatur.

[shepherd]

For those of you still interested in that discussion of streaming platforms, add Millikin to the list of schools that struggle with Sidearm. Yeesh, what a mess. Today both the livestream and the live stats have gone down from Decatur.

IMO: Youtube is the best. While other platforms like box may be equal in smooth streaming youtube software is made to look like tv as they even offer youtube tv now.  I also never had a problem with wheatons livestream.  All my problems have come with stretch.

[CardinalAlum]

Well...hats off to Wheaton.  They once again did everything they had to to win.  I thought the first half went fairly well for NCC.   Two awful punts and a missed 4th down conversion were huge in this game. The battle up front was all it was billed as.   Need to win out from here to get in the playoffs.  Augie game looks interesting all of a sudden.  Are they for real?

[USee]

Well...hats off to Wheaton.  They once again did everything they had to to win.  I thought the first half went fairly well for NCC.   Two awful punts and a missed 4th down conversion were huge in this game. The battle up front was all it was billed as.   Need to win out from here to get in the playoffs.  Augie game looks interesting all of a sudden.  Are they for real?

I think Augie is much improved. I would put them on a par with WashU in terms of talent. They force a lot of turnovers and they have a veteran OLine and Senior QB. take care of the ball and you should be ok.

Sidenote: no turnovers in the Wheaton/NCC game yesterday. That is some kind of record

Sidenote2: Shout out to Keith McMillian as the only D3.Com staffer to believe in the Thunder Defense yesterday!

[AndOne]

No TOs, but the home team more than made up for it as, despite the fair weather, it was raining (Orange) men on the Cardinals in the form of seven sacks. Amen.