FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[FishHack76]

Would agree with what you just said. High quality broadcast .. better than yesterday's Blackhawks-Ducks game

[cardinalpride]

All the chatter about NCC being ready for the purple powers can be put to rest.  This terrible loss proves that.  National championship contenders don't blow 21pt leads in the 4th quarter.  National championship contenders put you away! This loss is tough swallow.  Hats off to Wabash for the heart they displayed this afternoon. 

[wally world]

By the way, that Wabash video stream production is the best I've ever seen for a Division III game.  Great graphics, multiple camera angles, replays, etc...and solid announcers.

Just a great quality broadcast.  (I think there were almost 2100 viewers late in the game.)

Calling the play-by-play was Joe Emmick, Wabash '92. A fraternity brother of mine, he called all the Wabash games way back in the day for the LGs, too. He is leaving Wabash in January to take a post at Elmhurst College. Great guy, and bleeds Scarlet more than anyone.

[cardinalpride]

complete bull**** call!!!

To add insult to injury, the ref called north central "northwestern"  on the intentional grounding call...Unbelievable!

[wally_wabash]

complete bull**** call!!!

To add insult to injury, the ref called north central "northwestern"  on the intentional grounding call...Unbelievable!

I didn't agree with the grounding call there either.  Thought he was getting hit when he threw. 

That's as good as Division III games get.  Hell, that's as good as any football gets.  Great game by both sides today. 

[wabco]

Glad you guys could see the Wabash facilities, fans and the Wabash football team.  Wabash Always Fights

Great game.  NCC ... great season.

[USee]

Wabash should erect a statue of Tyler Burke at their fieldhouse. That kid played about as "gutty" a game as I have ever seen. He got absolutely abused and continued to make play after play. I agree with Q, I thought it was about as over as you could imagine. Tassio's fumble out of the wildcat was the window the LG's needed. That win is the stuff of legends. The 4th and 17? are you kidding me? The tipped 2pt conversion. Wow. Huge game.

[USee]

Wabash's qb got hit a lot and sacked 3x. But I thought the Wabash OLine did a great job giving Burke time to throw the ball. That was a huge difference in the game in the 2nd half as NCC does not blitz and counts on their Dline to get pressure. If you give a qb time against zone, receivers will come open and that's what happened. Burke also really hurt NCC with his legs a number of times running the ball. That will be a long bus ride back from Crawfordsville.

[CardinalAlum]

Back from Wabash and had a lot of time to gather my thoughts about the game.  Definitely the most disappointing game I have ever been associated with and I wasn't even playing or coaching.  Tyler Burke, I can't begin to talk about the guts that guy showed.   He was beaten and kicked around and kept getting up and actually got stronger.  It was like something out of a Rocky movie, except it didn't have a happy ending for NCC.  I don't understand how people were running wide open all of a sudden for Wabash in that last quarter.   Wabash coaches made some great adjustments that made a difference.  NCC took some bad penalties in that last quarter.  The officiating was awful.  One of the worst crews I have seen.  Not at all making an excuse, just an observation as they were awful both ways.   Wabash has a great facility and a great team.  Good luck next week against Mt. Union.  As for my beloved Cardinals, I hope there are many lessons learned about finishing a game.  We can't get past that 2nd round game and have to find a way to do that before anyone starts talking about competing with the Top 2!  We will return a bunch of people with lots of experience but have a lot of Seniors to replace on defense.   To all of the Cardinal seniors that played your last game today....Thank you!  It has been a pleasure being able to enjoy everything you have done to make us a top program. 

[NCF]

Back from Wabash and had a lot of time to gather my thoughts about the game.  Definitely the most disappointing game I have ever been associated with and I wasn't even playing or coaching.  Tyler Burke, I can't begin to talk about the guts that guy showed.   He was beaten and kicked around and kept getting up and actually got stronger.  It was like something out of a Rocky movie, except it didn't have a happy ending for NCC.  I don't understand how people were running wide open all of a sudden for Wabash in that last quarter.   Wabash coaches made some great adjustments that made a difference.  NCC took some bad penalties in that last quarter.  The officiating was awful.  One of the worst crews I have seen.  Not at all making an excuse, just an observation as they were awful both ways.   Wabash has a great facility and a great team.  Good luck next week against Mt. Union.  As for my beloved Cardinals, I hope there are many lessons learned about finishing a game.  We can't get past that 2nd round game and have to find a way to do that before anyone starts talking about competing with the Top 2!  We will return a bunch of people with lots of experience but have a lot of Seniors to replace on defense.   To all of the Cardinal seniors that played your last game today....Thank you!  It has been a pleasure being able to enjoy everything you have done to make us a top program.

Just got back from watching a complete and utter display of ineptitude from the coaching staff right through the sputtering offense to the nonexistent defense. Until you can figure out how to play four strong quarters and put teams away consistently you can forget about competing with the purple powers let alone contend for a national championship. all returning players should watch the film of this game over and over again to remind them of how to FINISH what you started. The most disappointing game to watch since the '09 IWU game. Cards, you have some serious work to do in the off season.

[New Tradition]

I had a long trip back from Crawfordsville to jot down some ideas about the game on my iPhone.  Here they are:

Officiating:  It was pretty much as bad as I have seen; the white hat was particularly terrible.  He failed to flag blatant holding call after holding call by Wabash, missed a personal foul right in front of his face when Hayes was getting his head punched into the turf, missed an intentional grounding call by the Wabash QB, and WORST OF ALL missed a personal foul by the kicker who STOMPED ON A PLAYER (Ndamukong Suh style) after a roughing the kicker penalty.  He did, however, manage to throw a less blatant grounding and a pair of personal fouls on the Cards (at least one of which was deserved, I didn't see the other, but these things need to be called both ways).  As bad as they were, the officials were NOT why NCC lost that game, though.

IMO, here is why they lost (in no particular order):

4 Quarters: The bottom line is that Wabash played a full game for 4 quarters and NCC did not.  Wabash Always Fights?  You bet your @$$ they do.  NCC came out and played a marvelous first half.  Admittedly, that's how I expected the entire game to go coming into the thing.  The entire team, coaches and players alike, took their foot off the gas after the opening 2 drives of the second half.  I still wasn't worried when NCC answered right back to make it 28-7 after Wabash broke the shut out.  Then NCC got complacent.  At least in some areas.  The entire second half, Wabash had wide open receivers down the field.  It really seemed that the NCC defense was not playing with the same enthusiasm that they did in the first half.  Also, credit the Wabash coaching staff for finding weaknesses and exploiting them.  I don't know enough about secondary play to say whether or not the NCC coaches made adjustments (I'm sure that they had to) but they clearly did not work.  NCC had no answer for the Wabash passing attack in the second half.

Silver Lining?: The one unit that I observed not being complacent is the defensive line.  That was the best game I've ever seen a defensive line play as a unit at the Division III level.  There was no quit in those young men.  I wish it were so with the secondary.

Injuries: Something that I talked about with other former players all season was how deep this team was.  People got hurt and there seemed to be no drop in performance; whereas, a couple of injuries like that would have derailed NCC a few years ago.  I think the injury bug finally caught up to NCC with the loss of CB Stew Charles last week.  It may not have made the difference in the game, but then again it may have as the NCC secondary got shredded in the second half and the Cards only got beat by 1 point.  Stew was a phenomenal player who had a special year.  While his backup (who was a pretty young guy if memory serves) played well, it was evident that something was very wrong in the secondary.  The second half (and 4th quarter in particular) really looked a lot like Franklin in 2008.

#12: The Wabash quarterback, Tyler Burke, has already been talked about, but he deserves to get a shout in here too.  I've never ever seen a quarterback take a beating like he took.  Ever.  NCC out "Pain Trained" Wabash in this one.  The odd thing is that IT DIDN'T MATTER!  This kid shook it off, and as others have pointed out ACTUALLY GOT BETTER as the game went on and he took more punishment!  I've never seen anything like it.  What a display of guts and balls and gumption and moxy and mojo and whatever else you want to throw in there.  That is a REAL football player and, from what I saw, every bit the embodiment of Wabash's motto.  Tyler Burke most certainly Always Fights.

Chance: Another contributing factor to NCC's downfall was that there were a ton of bounces in the second half that just seemed not to go their way.  Not just turnovers and the like, but bounces at CRUCIAL moments.  Some that stick out in my mind (listed in the order of amount of hair that I pulled out as they happened) were the lollipop pass on 4th down thrown by Burke as he was getting destroyed by 3 Cardinal defensive linemen to Chamblee for a first that I can't believe wasn't picked by one of the three Cardinal defenders standing around him.  Then the roughing the kicker penalty when the Wabash kicker shanked the extra point.  Lastly, the 2 point conversion when the target of the pass got completely drilled as the ball got to him and he dropped it only to have it SAIL THROUGH HIS HANDS STRAIGHT INTO THE HANDS OF ANOTHER WABASH RECEIVER!  I don't know if it was because he was that hurt or because he thought he lost the game by missing that pass, but the initial target didn't get up for a long while after that 2 point conversion was completed.  At times it really felt like the football gods didn't want NCC to win this one. 

I'm sure I'm missing some things in here, but these are the main reasons that NCC lost the game that stick out in my mind.  Cardinalpride really hit the nail on the head when he said that NCC cannot be mentioned in the same breath with the purple powers if they take their foot off of opponent's throats and cough up 21 point leads.  Championship caliber teams never do that.

In spite of the loss, the future continues to look brighter for the Cardinals.  From what I've seen (and Mugsy and Matblake also pointed out) I don't think that there will be any decline at NCC for quite some time.  Because of the margins of victory throughout the season, the young Cards got a lot of valuable experience playing varsity games at varsity speed this season, and did it without much of a drop off in performance from the first teamers.  As Cardinals got injured, they also stepped up and filled starting roles very nicely (ALMOST to the point where you didn't even notice when a starter was gone).  Hopefully the program can learn a lesson from this and keep burying opponents like they had all year rather than get complacent and let them back into the game.  I have a feeling that they will.

Congrats to the whole team and staff on an excellent season.  You continue to improve each year and are always fun to watch.  Thank you.

Finally, I want to thank all of the seniors for a great 4 years.  You were all very fun to watch and I wish you the best of luck as you continue on with your lives.  The lessons that you learned as a North Central College Cardinal from Coach Thorne and his staff will be invaluable as you continue on into life.  I can personally vouch for that.

[wally_wabash]

Silver Lining?: The one unit that I observed not being complacent is the defensive line.  That was the best game I've ever seen a defensive line play as a unit at the Division III level.  There was no quit in those young men.  I wish it were so with the secondary.

This I thought was an interesting note.  That defensive line was nasty.  One of the best I've seen in D3.  I think, and this is just my opinion, that when you start to advance in the playoffs and get a round or two deep, it's a big ask on any defensive line to be the sole source of quarterback pressure.  When you start advancing in the playoffs, you're going to find teams that have offensive lines that can take their 5 or 6 with a TE/RB held in to protect) and block your 4 for long enough to get the ball down the field.  Wabash did that today in the second half.  Burke got beat up and NCC got their licks in on him, but that OL blocked those four guys just long enough.  Honestly, I think if y'all mix in a LB blitz through the center, the outcome is different today.  Horn and Chamblee can do work against a zone and if your front four can't crush the pocket immediately, there will be vertical opportunities. 

[NCF]

Silver Lining?: The one unit that I observed not being complacent is the defensive line.  That was the best game I’ve ever seen a defensive line play as a unit at the Division III level.  There was no quit in those young men.  I wish it were so with the secondary.

This I thought was an interesting note.  That defensive line was nasty.  One of the best I've seen in D3.  I think, and this is just my opinion, that when you start to advance in the playoffs and get a round or two deep, it's a big ask on any defensive line to be the sole source of quarterback pressure.  When you start advancing in the playoffs, you're going to find teams that have offensive lines that can take their 5 or 6 with a TE/RB held in to protect) and block your 4 for long enough to get the ball down the field.  Wabash did that today in the second half.  Burke got beat up and NCC got their licks in on him, but that OL blocked those four guys just long enough.  Honestly, I think if y'all mix in a LB blitz through the center, the outcome is different today.  Horn and Chamblee can do work against a zone and if your front four can't crush the pocket immediately, there will be vertical opportunities.

Blitz? i don't think it's in the play book. either is pass defense. very poor execution by the D in the second half...and they thought they could compete for a national championship? still on the outside with their faces pressed against the glass,looking in wondering what might have been.

[wally_wabash]

Whooo...tough crowd up in here.  It was a helluva ballgame out there today.  You guys can say North Central didn't finish, Wabash fans could say they didn't start until the third quarter.  It's a four quarter game, guys.  Y'all can say that your Cardinals choked it away today, but I don't see it that way.  That was two damn fine football teams that traded their best shots.  Both sides made some great plays today.  Both sides made some bad plays today.  Wabash happened to make the last big play and got the win.  I know there was a lot of chatter about North Central being in Mount Union's league this time around...all of that is still valid, you know.  Sometimes, even if people aren't talking all that much about them, the other guys have good players too. 

Congrats on the season...CCIW champion is a tremendous accomplishment.  We should do this again next November. 

[scottie]

Shouldn't the Wheaton fans be posting now about how they would have beaten Wabash?