FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[TitanBacker]

There still interchanging Q-backs not only in quarters but series.  This makes no sense.  Cant think of many championship teams doing this.

Chris Leak and Tim Tebow at UF? 

Any updates on all games??

[CCIW]

Very strange offensive game plan by the Thunder today.  Sure did not take what the Augie D would give you until the 4Q.  Hard to figure.

The officials did not help the Thunder.  Some VERY friendly spots of the ball for Vikings....especially at the end of the game.  And they sure slowed down and took their time spotting the ball at critical times in the game for the Thunder. 

But the game was lost by a very sub-par performance and coaching on the offensive side of the ball.  This certainly not a great Augie football team, but today they were good enough to beat an unprepared Thunder squad. 

[Titan Q]

Overtime final:

IWU 12
Millikin 6

IWU scored a TD to start overtime but missed the extra point.  The Titans held Millikin on 4th and goal from the 5 to end the game.

[ncc58]

Well of course the NCC-Elmhurst game came down to turnovers. Wenger's 52 yard interception return was a big play --- he could be the anchor for the NCC defense through 2009.

But, earlier in the week there was all kinds of talk about how good the Elmhurst defense was, especially the DL. I was completely unimpressed by the EC Defensive Line. The only time they put real pressure on was when they came with 7 guys, but they didn't do that nearly enough times. They did get burned a couple time when they came with blitzes. I was more impressed with the NCC DL who stuffed the run and put a lot of pressure on the QB. Sulo had another strong game, so the EC defense wasn't up for the challenge. The EC defense was very discipline and took away a lot of NCC's favorite plays --- the split screens, the shovel passes, the counter plays.

What happened to Terrence Young - he left limping after catching an early pass and never returned. And the switching of QBs for EC  was maddening.

[michaelpbecker]

per Carthage's website:

Carthage 52
North Park 7

[FatalImpact]

79,
Why did Freund not get all of today at QB for Elmhurst?....it appears to me he is the better of the two and should take all of the snaps

[Mugsy]

Hey CardinalAlum,

The Ghost of Langhorst has a strange resemblence to one Elmhurst coach who was posting here not too recently, don't you think?

[ncc_cardinal_fan]

First of all,

Congrats to the Cardinals puuling out a big win and also to Augustana upsetting #10 ranked Wheaton, not anymore. Big day for the cards!!!!

To Mugsy and all other Studebaker lovers:

You were saying this guy was supposed to be the DPOY for the conference and goes against Augie and has one measly tackle. Just like I said at the beginning of the week. Studebaker cannot play against running teams which was entirely proven by the statistics.

So, once again, congrats to Augie for knocking out the Thunder and to NC on a good win against the bluejays.

Looks like it will be an interesting matchup Augie  vs. NCC after they have to face millikin in decatur.

[CardinalAlum]

Hey CardinalAlum,

The Ghost of Langhorst has a strange resemblence to one Elmhurst coach who was posting here not too recently, don't you think?

Hmm...could be.  I saw good old coach Harris today in person.  A LOT shorter than I thought.  He is the coach that wears the headphones and never actually does anything in my opinion.  Great job by the Cardinals.  I was not impressed with the Elmhurst defense that Jaybird has been hyping.  Sorry, J.

ncc_c_f,
Drop it already!  Augie always takes you out of what you normally do defensively.  Defensive linemen rarely make a lot of tackles against Augie.  Studebaker is the best defensive player in the conference and I hate to see that he has one more year!(any chance he applies for the NFL draft?)    When Radtke was here, we all talked about the tremendous player he was, what is wrong with others hyping their top players?

[CardinalAlum]

Mugsy,

Don't worry.  ONE of your alma maters won today!     Wish you could have made it!

[Mugsy]

Mugsy,

Don't worry.  ONE of your alma maters won today!     Wish you could have made it!

CardinalAlum,

Sorry I didn't make it.  I took the twins to see my 90 yr. old grandmother in Rockford who recently had her shoulder replaced due to a nasty fall.  Time with family takes precedence.  I'll take a look at the schedule and see if there is another week that may work.

Congrats to the Cards on a good win against the upstart Bluejays.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective), I have nothing really to contribute concerning the Wheaton/Augie game as I obviously didn't go and in fact didn't hear one play of the game.  Sounds like it was a nail-biter.

Sounds like Wheaton's offense wasn't in-sync all day (which Augie's tough defense has a tendency to do) and had some key turnovers (one in the red zone from what someone posted).  That isn't going to cut it against the likes of Augie.  If you told me we'd hold Augie to 17 points, in most cases I'd tell you I like Wheaton's chances.   Didn't happen and that's a credit to Augustana.  Congrats to them on a huge win (I'm so depressed).

Still a lot of action left in the CCIW race.  Augie is sitting pretty on top, but they have some big games left.  Race is still wide open.  Still a lot of fun remaining.

[ncc58]

Maybe Jaybird will have some insight on why EC did the quarterback shuffle. It was interesting that the first qb change seemed to occur right after a fumble, and another occurred after the perfect pass to Wenger.

Some interesting stats from the game ... EC had 36 rushing attempts for 49 yards. Freund and LaFleur had 28 of those yards, so the running backs amassed 21 yards. During the game, my reaction was that the EC running backs never got away from the first hit for additional positive yardage. This seemed to be a weakness of their team. Also, EC had 3 TFL where NCC had 10. So, NCC was making bigger impact plays on defense. That's also supported by NCC winning the turnover battle 5-2.

EC won the time of possession, a 35-25 edge. However, it was nearly even in the 2nd half. EC kept the ball 11 1/2 minutes in the second quarter, due to one of NCC's turnovers. EC had a 20-10 TOP advantage at halftime.

This game had everything. A fake punt, a blocked punt, a blocked field goal, an interception return for a TD by a LB. The first half was crisp, but only 9 points were scored. The thrid quarter seemed to take a long time, but NCC won that quarter 21-0 so it was worth it.

[CardinalAlum]

What is the tiebreaker for the automatic bid?

[Mugsy]

What is the tiebreaker for the automatic bid?

A really good question, as I see a really strong possibility of a 2 or 3 way tie.  Rather than spend the time looking it up, I'll rely on usee.  He is the king of "what-ifs" and tie-breaker scenarios.

The way I see it, the CCIW championship comes down to Augie, NCC and Wheaton. 

From the details of how Elmhurst play against NCC, it doesn't sound like they are quite there just yet.  Only 48 yards rushing against NCC?  Not going to cut it.

Augie is the front runner right now, but they've got a matchup with NCC looming.  Wheaton has got Elmhurst and IWU at home, so I like their chances to win out.  If NCC beats Augie, things could get quite interesting.

[usee]

In the CCIW if you want to win a championship you have to win on the road. a win in Rock Island has been statistically very hard to come by over the years. It is particularly difficult when you turn the ball over 2x and spot the home team 14pts all in the 1st quarter.

Just back from Rock Island. Wheaton did not deserve to win this game. Most of the playmakers for wheaton made key mistakes. Chaz Black fumbles on the Augie 5 going in on the first drive. Jeremy Chupp throws a slant to the augie defender for a pick on drive #2 (a mirror image replay of the ncc pick last week), Joe Chupp dropped a key pass, Noah Dryer dropped at least 3 passes, Fossum dropped 1 (and made an incredible catch on the last td drive), Itersaagen dropped an int, pagh fumbled the ball at the augie 30 after picking up their fumble. there were missed tackles, missed blocks, poorly thrown balls, all very elementary mistakes by wheaton. certainly not the mark of a championship team in a statement game.

For their part Augie did what they do. they ran the ball and played fundamental defense. they tackled chaz black very well and for 3.5 quarters gave up no plays longer than 12-15 yds. This was not a good game to watch. This Augie team is not as good as the Augie team that I saw a year ago. That doesn't say much for Wheaton. they played poorly and got beat by a gritty, determined Augie team that deserved to win.

As for Studebaker, he was a force. Wheaton played him exclusively to the defensive right side (Augie's left) which I don't understand. I can remember Augie running left 2x the whole game (it may have been a couple more but it wasn't much) and Studebaker made a tackle in the backfield. All of Augies yards came up the middle from the fb or off tackle/outside to their right.