FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

I'm not sure what the rule is (i.e., whether there's a penalty involved or not), but at the very least the ball shouldn't have been spotted where the ineligible player fell on it. I would think that the ball should've been returned back to where Mendez lost it if there was no penalty incurred by the illegal touch; Mendez dropped the ball about ten yards upfield from the recovery. Again, though, I'm not sure what the rule is. I only know that a player who has gone out of bounds can't come back into the field of play and touch the ball first.

The fumble on the pass play that you mentioned at the end of the half, in which Zach Lindquist coughed it up at the NPU 8 after catching a long throw from Bowers, really had the NPU sideline going. David Simmons, the Vikings freshman CB who did a nice job on the day while covering a plethora of very large Wheaton receivers (including both Lindquists and Luke Thorson), was insistent that he had the ball on the ground and that (apparently) Lindquist got it back after the whistle. Again, though, take away the end-of-half field goal that the Lindquist catch set up, and add the TD for the Park that likely would've resulted had DPI been called on the Childress play at the other end of the field, and we're still talking a 28-14 Wheaton win in which the visitors were never seriously in danger of losing -- which Mike Conway rightly pointed out in our postgame interview in paying tribute to Wheaton's talent. It's just that the cumulative effect of so many bad calls is rather galling.

[Augie6]

Wow.  I have to give Augie's coaching staff and the defensive players some credit for getting things turned around, for at least one week anyway.  Let's hope they can continue to build on this effort.  Offense doesn't do a lot, but enough to get the win. I'd like to see a game where they get both the O and D on track. I must admit, I did not see this one coming after the complete lack of defense in the first 3 games.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Yeah, that game made no sense.  Augie had played a slightly harder schedule (Loras was a common opponent, with Elmhurst winning 31-17, while Augie lost 56-52), but Augie was yielding 52 PPG; Elmhurst 12.  Elmhurst was scoring 25 PPG, and Augie went from giving up 52PPG to holding them to THREE!

On the other hand, except perhaps for Wheaton/NPU, the whole conference went crazy.  NCC dominated everything except the scoreboard, but entered the 4th quarter down by seven.  IWU probably should have won by several TDs, but had to score 2 TDs in the final 85 seconds to eke out a victory.  Insanity.

[kiko]

North Central's five unanswered touchdowns came after they pulled Hunniford and inserted Warden at QB with about 20 ticks left in the third quarter and Millikin leading 21-14.  The Big Blue's scores had come on a pick-six and two long runs, and Hunniford had been a pedestrian 16-of-31 for 187 yards to that point.

Warden did not throw a pass in the Cards' 35-point fourth quarter, and rushed for over 100 yards.  The Cardinals' big finish was abetted by starting field position at their own 48, their own 41, the MU 18 following a fumble recovery on a kickoff, the Millikin 19 following a fumble recovery, and the Millikin 27 after the Big Blue turned it over on downs.

All in all, as 28-point wins go, this was not exactly reassuring.  Beyond this, focus group of one, the final NCC touchdown came at a point where I would have preferred that they instead take a knee.

[iwu70]

Quite surprised by Augie's win over Elmhurst.  Their D must have been very good.

IWU will have to play much much better on D, esp. against the run, to have a truly successful season.  CC made it look pretty easy most of the game, slicing through the Titan's D.  I was hoping for a 9-1 or 8-2 season, but after this game, I'd be surprised.  Lots of things on D to work out.  CC O line took it to them.  IWU offence needs to limit the penalties.  Some big plays got called back on Saturday.

After this game, looks more like a 7-3 year to me.  IMHO.

IWU70

[izzy stradlin]

Who is NCC's QB going forward?  They seemed to score at will with Warden.

[CardinalAlum]

Who is NCC's QB going forward?  They seemed to score at will with Warden.

I still say it's Hunniford.   Brutal conditions made it a tough night to throw the football.  Warden did a great job running the ball and settling everything down.   

[CardinalAlum]

I was shocked Millikin didn't bring more people up into the box after Warden was in.  It was wide open running the football and the offensive line did a great job there. 

[mcgraw]

Great win for Augie.  The defense was much, much better.  Better by about 50 pts.  Tough to watch the last 2 min on the web broadcast.  Seemed like Elmhurst had about 12 downs at the end to try to score.  (could not find time left in the game on the broadcast, only shows when change of possession)

Will need that defensive effort next week and a return of offense to get the win at Wheaton next week!

[CardinalAlum]

Great win for Augie.  The defense was much, much better.  Better by about 50 pts.  Tough to watch the last 2 min on the web broadcast.  Seemed like Elmhurst had about 12 downs at the end to try to score.  (could not find time left in the game on the broadcast, only shows when change of possession)

Will need that defensive effort next week and a return of offense to get the win at Wheaton next week!

Good luck with that!   

[Mr. Ypsi]

The new poll came out a few hours ago.  Wheaton holds steady at #7, NCC rises from 21 to 17, and IWU enters at #25 (Chicago also entered at 24).

Ithaca, Bethel, and Guilford all fell out, leaving space for IWU despite their very near miss against a very weak opponent.  In the national fan poll, I already had IWU in, but dropped them from 22 to 24 after that (non)performance.   (I dropped Guilford off my ballot, but wasn't quite as harsh to Ithaca and Bethel as the D3 voters.)

[79jaybird]

One key stat from the EC/AC game was Elmhurst 1 of 15 on 3rd down.  This tells me that the Jays were just missing that key "execution" at the right time,  to keep drives moving forward.  Plus,  that final rushing total was surprising.  I think if Elmhurst is going to win the close matchups (I.E Augie or IWU),  they cannot become 1 dimensional.  All facets have to be present for Elmhurst to succeed.  I thought going into this game, it would be a defensive struggle,  but certainly expected Elmhurst to score a few TD's.

[USee]

One key stat from the EC/AC game was Elmhurst 1 of 15 on 3rd down.  This tells me that the Jays were just missing that key "execution" at the right time,  to keep drives moving forward.  Plus,  that final rushing total was surprising.  I think if Elmhurst is going to win the close matchups (I.E Augie or IWU),  they cannot become 1 dimensional.  All facets have to be present for Elmhurst to succeed.  I thought going into this game, it would be a defensive struggle,  but certainly expected Elmhurst to score a few TD's.

I don't think 6 turnovers helped either.

[USee]

Sam Frasco/Josh Williams combined rush yardage  395 YDS
Elmhurst/Augie combined point total  79 PTS
Total turnovers   4 TO
Total punts in this game 10
Total penalties 14
Total rushing TD's by Frasco/Williams 6
Who has more yards? Millikin offense or Josh Williams rush yds?

I'll bite!

Sam Frasco/Josh Williams combined rush yardage  395 YDS OVER127 yds UNDER
Elmhurst/Augie combined point total  79 PTS OVER 12 pts UNDER
Total turnovers   4 TO PUSH7 TO OVER
Total punts in this game 10 UNDER 11 punts OVER
Total penalties 14 UNDER 17 Penalties OVER
Total rushing TD's by Frasco/Williams 6 OVER 0 rush TD's UNDER
Who has more yards? Millikin offense or Josh Williams rush yds? WILLIAMS 279 yds MILLIKIN

New Tradition,

Sorry man, tough week to be the lone participant in my OVER/UNDER contest. You both won and lost. The prize is you get to be the color analyst for the NCC v North Park game with Sager this weekend in Naperville. Congrats.

[Augie6]

One key stat from the EC/AC game was Elmhurst 1 of 15 on 3rd down.  This tells me that the Jays were just missing that key "execution" at the right time,  to keep drives moving forward.  Plus,  that final rushing total was surprising.  I think if Elmhurst is going to win the close matchups (I.E Augie or IWU),  they cannot become 1 dimensional.  All facets have to be present for Elmhurst to succeed.  I thought going into this game, it would be a defensive struggle,  but certainly expected Elmhurst to score a few TD's.

JB,

I'm curious as to why you thought it would be a defensive struggle going into the AC/EC game.  There was certainly nothing in Augie's play the first 3 weeks that would give any indication of that.  Augie came into this game averaging just over 48 points a game, while giving up over 51.  EC was giving up 12 and averaging about 25 a game.  From my standpoint, there was nothing in the first 3 games that these teams played that would have led me to believe the final would be 9-3.  After watching Augie's game against Albion and most of it's game against Loras, I would have been happy if they held EC to 30 in this game.  That's how astonishingly bad Augie's defense was in the games leading up to this one.  The fact that they held EC to 221 yards of total offense with 6 turnovers and 3 points was absolutely shocking.  As I said before,  have to give credit to the Augie coaches and D players to improve the way they did from the first 3 games.