FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[dansand]

Mugsy,

Keep your chin up. Now you know how we've felt the last five years after playing you guys. At least you've still got six weeks to recover.

[Mugsy]

From what I have heard from friends at Wheaton is the o-line has been the biggest challenge for the coaching staff.  

I'm not so sure... they hadn't given up a sack until tonight.  In the games I had seen, by-in-large Chupp had time to throw.  Tonight it didn't sound like he was running for his life on the interceptions.  Probably a combination of things... young, inexperienced receivers have to factor in a bit.

[Mugsy]

Mugsy,

Keep your chin up. Now you know how we've felt the last five years after playing you guys. At least you've still got six weeks to recover.

Touche... right you are.  Like I said earlier... it is a long, tough CCIW season.  A pretty good chance no one is going to run the table.  Wouldn't surprised if 3 teams end up with 1 loss.

[augievike93]

augievike93,

I'm not sure what the idea is on the punt formation, but their punter Brandon Watts is also a wide receiver and a pretty good athlete (he started out at Western Illinois). I'm guessing that they're just giving the defense something to think about, seeing as he's definitely a threat to take off running. He does have a heck of a leg though.

Haehn was battling low snaps all day and although they only had one sack, I think they had decent pressure on him most of the day.

I just thought that the "roll out option" that he had was interesting.  As far as the low snaps, I think that Haehn did a GREAT job of only not getting one of those snaps.  They were shooting at his ankles all day long.  Unfortunatly, I think you are right about the other QBs.  Although one of them just threw 5 ints.....  You never know what will happen.

[augievike93]

Mugsy,

Keep your chin up. Now you know how we've felt the last five years after playing you guys. At least you've still got six weeks to recover.

Touche... right you are.  Like I said earlier... it is a long, tough CCIW season.  A pretty good chance no one is going to run the table.  Wouldn't surprised if 3 teams end up with 1 loss.

Is this too early to start talking about tie breakers?  Will there be any changes with the new playoff format?

[usee]

congratulations to NCC on a much deserved win. it was a tale of two halves. wheaton totally dominated the first half leading 20-7 with 293 yds total offense. Chupp picked a bad time to play the worst half of his career and kniss and company cashed in turning 5 second half turnovers into a 28-6 run to pull away. wheaton turned it over 4x going in to score.

couple keys to the game: wheaton took the opening drive of the second half, drove the ball down the field into the redzone of ncc and threw a pick. the defense stiffened and sacked kniss on 4th down, wheaton promptly went down again and put the ball into the redzone only to throw another pick. ncc cashed in several playes later to make it a 6 point game. wheaton then returned the ensuing kickoff 69 yds to the ncc redzone and then fumbled it away. another chupp pass was picked when he underthrew brother chupp in the endzone. bad day for thunder fans

kniss played great. holden was a stud. mario smith made big plays. great day to be a cardinal fan. lot of character coming back like that to make plays. congratulations.

[CCIW]

.....they just kill especially when you are in a position to score.

[augievike93]

I just got my first karma point...Is there anyway to find out who gave that to me?

[CCIW]

Chupp had a very bad day (really just one half).  that is surprising for a veteran QB...but maybe his young WRs crossed him up.  NCC won and they came back in the 2H down by two TDs....got to tive them credit.

congratulations to NCC on a much deserved win. it was a tale of two halves. wheaton totally dominated the first half leading 20-7 with 293 yds total offense. Chupp picked a bad time to play the worst half of his career and kniss and company cashed in turning 5 second half turnovers into a 28-6 run to pull away. wheaton turned it over 4x going in to score.

couple keys to the game: wheaton took the opening drive of the second half, drove the ball down the field into the redzone of ncc and threw a pick. the defense stiffened and sacked kniss on 4th down, wheaton promptly went down again and put the ball into the redzone only to throw another pick. ncc cashed in several playes later to make it a 6 point game. wheaton then returned the ensuing kickoff 69 yds to the ncc redzone and then fumbled it away. another chupp pass was picked when he underthrew brother chupp in the endzone. bad day for thunder fans

kniss played great. holden was a stud. mario smith made big plays. great day to be a cardinal fan. lot of character coming back like that to make plays. congratulations.

[usee]

since hindsight is such a remarkably powerful tool:

i really question the onsides kick by the wheaton coaches. down by 1 w 3+ min left and all 3 timeouts. kick it deep and make ncc make plays. they gave ncc the ball at the wheaton 33!! Kniss is the best qb in the conference (having not yet seen the other qbs play qualifies me to say that) and he has more than just spencer to toss it to. game of the year in my opinion will be ncc/carthage. i may just come to that one.

[CardinalAlum]

Mugsy,

You missed a good game. not great, except for the final score for me.  Nice comeback by the Cardinals.  Some seriously questionable play calling took NCC out of the first half.  Interception return was huge,  Wheaton tried throwing one of those "Bubble" passes and Smith saw it all the way.  Incredibly stupid play call by NCC allowed them to score the last TD.  On 3rd and a foot, Kniss threw a play action fake for a TD after almost getting sacked.  It worked but it was stupid.  Wheaton RB ran hard.  I can't believe they didn't give him the ball more.  Holden doesn't get enough carries either.  Ok, enough, I'm heading to the Lantern to celebrate.  Go Cards!

[CardinalAlum]

Usee,

Did you think that Wheaton could have run # 38 more?

[usee]

in hindsight they should have run everyone more because the qb was killing them.

i would be a little concerned w ncc defense. they are not as good as i thought they would be. they were better last year w mostly the same players. 293 yds at home in the first half of a big game like that is too much.

[usee]

having said that, ncc d stepped up in 2nd half!!

[Mugsy]

since hindsight is such a remarkably powerful tool:

i really question the onsides kick by the wheaton coaches. down by 1 w 3+ min left and all 3 timeouts. kick it deep and make ncc make plays. they gave ncc the ball at the wheaton 33!! Kniss is the best qb in the conference (having not yet seen the other qbs play qualifies me to say that) and he has more than just spencer to toss it to. game of the year in my opinion will be ncc/carthage. i may just come to that one.

Usee,
During my updates of the game in earlier posts, I questioned that call immediately.  As you say, 3 time outs, 3+ minutes to play... who knows?  NCC could have driven the ball and run out the time anyway?  As they say... "hindsight can make a genius out of an idiot"!    I'm not a head coach, never will be, I've never been in that situation.  I can have an opinion on what I would have done, but it's a much easier decision when your not in the middle of the game with everything riding on your decision.