FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

USee, I very much agree with your assessment of IWU's problems this year.  Often, gave up way too much on first down.  Also had troubles this year with costly penalties at key points and also giving up big plays at key points, esp. slant, quick pass patterns over the middle.  Let's hope they do much better at these aspects this weekend @WC, to have any chance of de-railing the WC victory train, march to the CCIW championship.  I doubt it.  But, we'll see.  4-6 for IWU still looks likely at this point.

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

Greg, I know you're not big on forecasting, but what is your take on the NPU/Carthage game this Saturday?

Carthage is a slight favorite. They're two similar teams in terms of their statistical profiles, with the Red Men enjoying a slight advantage in most categories. But the big discrepancy that jumps out at me is red-zone efficiency on offense. I've harped long and loud here this season about NPU's woes in the red zone; the Vikings have scored only 45% of the time in the red zone in CCIW play, last by a long margin behind #7 Millikin (58%). Carthage is fourth at 82%, but that stat's actually a little deceptive. Red-zone efficiency weights touchdowns and field goals the same, and we all know that they're not the same. When you look at red-zone efficiency strictly in terms of touchdowns, CCIW statistics actually make Carthage's offense look downright potent:

Wheaton	20-25	80.0%
Carthage	16-22	72.7%
North Central	19-27	70.3%
Illinois Wesleyan	9-14	64.2%
Elmhurst	14-22	63.6%
North Park	10-22	45.4%
Augustana	6-14	42.8%
Millikin	4-12	33.0%

And the really interesting thing about this is that Carthage is the only team in the league that has struck a pure balance in terms of red-zone touchdowns: Eight TD passes, eight TD runs. That's notable, because the Red Men have had a pretty dismal ground game all season long, statistically speaking ... but they suddenly turn into an unstoppable force rushing-wise when they get inside the 20.

Carthage, in other words, is a team that really knows how to take advantage when it gets in close. North Park, by sharp contrast, is a team that falters the closer it gets to an opponent's goal line.

[79jaybird]

Saturday IMO is a big game for Elmhurst. Not just to keep their slim hopes alive this year,  rather  if they can win @ Millikin- continue the new regime's mental attitude/building confidence about road games.  It's important for Elmhurst to have a good showing as they hope to keep building up a competitive program year in and year out.

[USee]

I think Carthage is about a 4-6pt favorite over NPU tomorrow. I think Wheaton is probably 20pt favorite and NCC is a 27 pt favorite over Augie.

[thunderdog]

Wheaton fans... LET"S DO THIS TOMORROW!

Just like 2 weeks ago.  Show up in droves.  And make some NOISE~

I want to see that student section Orange Crush bring their A game.

My voice has finally recovered from 2 weeks ago... I plan on going hoarse yet again tomorrow (yes, some of you can only hope )

_{-written while jammin to Pat Benatar's "All Fired Up"... a song of special significance when it comes to IWU week-}

[USee]

Article in the Pantagraph about the IWU @Wheaton game today:

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/football/wounded-titans-eager-to-face-cciw-leader/article_10ea628e-ed4f-5d2f-9e4f-f8efe9aa73c3.html

"A good analogy is we're like a wounded animal. You don't want to mess with us," said Eash, who will be coaching in his 200th CCIW game. "Everyone who probably plays us would say that, 'Hey, Wesleyan is a good football team. They might have had some tough luck this year, but beware and be careful.' "

on Wheaton: "Peltz came in and gave their offense a boost and ignited their defense a little bit. But we're not going up there with any other intention than to beat them."

"I want to have the best last two games I can," said freshman offensive tackle Connor Melvin. "If I'm looking back on the season I want to say the best games of the season were against Wheaton and North Park ... beating the conference champs would be a lot of inspiration."

[AndOne]

The NCC starting WRs are 6'5" 6'4" 6'3" and the TE is 6'5"
In contrast, the Augie CBs are 5'8" and 5'11" and the safeties are 5'10" and 6'2"

Can I get a jump ball and/or a back shoulder throw?

[USee]

LB Connor Klein and DB Tyrell Bolden are out for IWU.
DT Dabid Sumoniun out for Wheaton. 

[shepherd]

LB Connor Klein and DB Tyrell Bolden are out for IWU.
DT Dabid Sumoniun out for Wheaton.

Ive noticed something wrong with Suominen for weeks.  It seemed to hurt him to get in a stance and one time he couldn't get into a stance.

[iwu70]

Final WC 13 IWU 7.

Titans gave a strong effort today, but a loss is still a loss. 

WC now 9-0, IWU 3-6.   Rough season for my Titans.

IWU70

[FishHack76]

Congrats to Wheaton. The ability to thrive in close games may pay off in the postseason. Speaking of which, North Central's chances for an at-large may have taken a hit with Wittenberg beating Wabash. The Cardinals could have used a Wabash win to jump ahead of Wittenberg in the regional rankings. Might need Linfield to beat Pacific next week to help. It's going to be tight. There are some quality two-loss teams.

[iwu70]

Congrats to NPU on their win.  Surprised to see EC lose today.  As sad as I am to say it, NPU is above IWU in the CCIW standings. 

Just attended the IWU basketball G/W scrimmage.  More on that in the basketball room.

Titans played pretty well today, giving WC one of the closest games they've had all year. 

IWU70

[kiko]

Today's results:

North Central 43, Augustana 14
North Park 36, Carthage 14
Millikin 21, Elmhurst 14
Wheaton 13, Illinois Wesleyan 7

This was a bit of a formality, but the Wheaties officially clinch a Pool 'A' berth with their win.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Wheaton on the CCIW championship (at least a share) and their bid to the national dance upcoming.

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 36
Carthage 14

T.D. Conway: 26-42, 300 yds, 3 tds, 1 int
Anthony Burton: 7 catches, 82 yds; 125 kick return yards; 1 rushing td
Devin Childress: 4 catches, 79 yds, 3 tds

Nick Anzelmo: 11-20, 108 yds, 1 td, 1 int

NPU offense: 448 yds
CC offense: 182 yds

North Park absolutely owned Carthage today. A couple of minutes into the game the Red Men converted a short pass to the NPU 30 that, a fistful of blown tackles later, morphed into a 46-yard touchdown pass, and I thought to myself, "Uh-oh." But that was pretty much all she wrote for the Red Men offense for the rest of the day, until Carthage scored a meaningless touchdown in the last three minutes after starting off on a short field against the Vikings' defensive reserves. NPU absolutely shut down the Red Men, sacking Nick Anzelmo five times (and his backup Bobby Suchecki once, after Mike Yeager yanked Anzelmo in the fourth quarter, probably as much to protect him as anything else) and limiting the Red Men to 3.2 yards per play for the afternoon. The Vikings' front three of Hunter Corrigan, Matt Leibforth, and Trevor Forker was particularly sensational today.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, T.D. Conway had another fine day, registering the fourth 300-yard passing day of the season and eighth of his career. To put that into perspective, keep in mind that there had only been thirteen 300-yard passing days throughout the entire history of North Park varsity football prior to T.D.'s arrival. Today he broke the school single-season passing attempts record that was set by Mike Haehn a decade ago, came within four completions of tying his NPU single-season record in that category as well, and extended his record-setting pace of touchdown passes in a single season to 23, leaving previous recordholders Bruce Swanson (1968) and Shelby Wood (2008), who'd had 19 apiece, in his dust. He looked terrific today.

As I said on the broadcast, junior Anthony Burton did everything today except flip the burgers at the concession stand. He caught passes; he had a sensational day running back kickoffs; he lined up at RB and scored his first-ever rushing touchdown; he was the holder on kicks; and he played on the kick-coverage and punt-coverage teams. Today he got to add "QB" to his season's resume as well, as he finished up the game for T.D. Conway and even registered his first pass completion as a college quarterback.

Freshman WR Devin Childress continues to really impress people. He caught three more touchdown passes today, upping his season total to 13. That leaves him one behind the school record of 14, set back in 1968 by the late Paul Zaeske -- a player who was good enough to play on Sundays for the Houston Oilers for a couple of years.

The one downside to the game was that the Vikings' red-zone woes continue. On two different occasions they had the ball 1st-and-goal inside the Carthage 5 and turned it over, and on a third occasion they had the ball 1st-and-10 at the Carthage 13 and came away completely empty. The consolation was that they moved the ball so well all day that there were plenty of other scoring opportunities -- and the NPU defense was so stifling that Carthage didn't even reach the red zone at all until there were less than three minutes left in the game.

Just a great Senior Day at Hedstrand Field. I honestly thought that the Vikings were going to have to battle to win a close game in which I saw them as a slight underdog. Instead, they thoroughly whipped the Red Men and finished the home slate on a high note.