FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Kovo]

Loss to St. Thomas September 23rd 20-17 at Target Field in front of 33.5K fans. NCAA D3 attendance record. Home games routinely draw 10K fans. The bright lights don't bother the guys.

You forgot to mention it was a "road" game.  Johnnies are proven road warriors, SJU 49 NCC 17

Got the 17 right

[USee]

For NCC to win I like a 14-10 game
For St Johns to win I think 34-31 is the ticket.

As I suspected the battle of St Johns Offense and NCC defense was the key as the Cardinals D was stifling. I was also impressed with the Cardinal O line who came up with 233 yds rushing against the #2 Defense in the country. Impressive win by the Cardinals today.

[robertgoulet]

For NCC to win I like a 14-10 game
For St Johns to win I think 34-31 is the ticket.

As I suspected the battle of St Johns Offense and NCC defense was the key as the Cardinals D was stifling. I was also impressed with the Cardinal O line who came up with 233 yds rushing against the #2 Defense in the country. Impressive win by the Cardinals today.

And without conference OPOY RB Breunig. Who'd have thunk?

[USee]

IWU continues their baffling 1st round performance woes in the playoffs, losing 28-0 to Case Western. Credit Case as they really handled the line of scrimmage today on both sides and IWU could not get anything going on offense in a near blizzard.

Not sure what to make of 28-0 and 17-7. Likely everyone underestimating Case Western.

[Titan Q]

Pretty shocking result from Tucci Stadium today.  I'm not quite sure what I just watched.  I'm most surprised at IWU's inability to stop CWRU from moving the ball in such tough weather conditions.  The Titans certainly couldn't sustain anything on offense.

Very disappointing showing by the Titans today. 

Oh well, on to basketball season.  Good luck to NCC the rest of the way.

[USee]

For NCC to win I like a 14-10 game
For St Johns to win I think 34-31 is the ticket.

As I suspected the battle of St Johns Offense and NCC defense was the key as the Cardinals D was stifling. I was also impressed with the Cardinal O line who came up with 233 yds rushing against the #2 Defense in the country. Impressive win by the Cardinals today.

And without conference OPOY RB Breunig. Who'd have thunk?

I would have thunk....Breunig is awesome but the NCC OLine is the main reason they run the ball so well. They are really physical and well coached. I still think Sharmore Clarke, freshman LG, is the best lineman on a top 10 OLine in the country.

[augie77]

No 98 points for SJU today as NCC rides a great defensive effort to a 17-7 first round victory.

I still don't know how St Johns can look themselves in the mirror after shamelessly running up the score against a weaker opponent.  Today they played a strong opponent in North Central (even without their OPOY). Real winner here is karma.

[kiko]

Congrats also to the North Central men's cross country team, which won the program's 18th national championship this morning by a 57-196 margin over runner-up UW-Lacrosse.

Let's hope that a different U-W campus is runner-up to the Cardinals in a different sport next weekend...

[CardinalAlum]

No 98 points for SJU today as NCC rides a great defensive effort to a 17-7 first round victory.

I still don't know how St Johns can look themselves in the mirror after shamelessly running up the score against a weaker opponent.  Today they played a strong opponent in North Central (even without their OPOY). Real winner here is karma.

I don’t think that was St. John’s, guys.   It was St. Thomas.

[kiko]

No 98 points for SJU today as NCC rides a great defensive effort to a 17-7 first round victory.

I still don't know how St Johns can look themselves in the mirror after shamelessly running up the score against a weaker opponent.  Today they played a strong opponent in North Central (even without their OPOY). Real winner here is karma.

I don't think that was St. John's, guys.   It was St. Thomas.

St. John's had a 98-0 game versus St. Scholastica to open the season, and St. Thomas had a 97-0 game against a mid-tier MIAC team.

I'll push back on Augie77's framing, though.  If you double-click on the details of that game, the Johnnies did everything they could to keep the score down.  It doesn't look that way on the scoreboard, but short of embarrassing the opponent with things like taking a knee for the entire second half, there wasn't much else the Johnnies could do.  They substituted very liberally and pulled back the reigns six ways to Sunday in the second half.  St. Scholastica's coach, who is a former Johnnie QB, chose to play his freshman and sophomores extensively in the second half to get them game experience, and declined an offer to have a running clock or otherwise shorten the fourth quarter.  The final margin was ugly, but the Johnnies were not twisting the knife IMO.

[AndOne]

My post was not to imply SJU ran up the score in that 98-0 game, but rather to merely point out that today they faced a superior team in NCC that put forth a superior effort. And considering the Cardinals played without the CCIW OPOY, labeling the Cards effort as anything less than superior would be doing them a disservice.

[iwu70]

Congrats to NCC on a nice playoff win.  Hope you can go further.

IWU'70

[E.115]

Well, guys, it was 4 TDs alright, but the wrong way.  Titans go down 28-0.  CWRU was pretty tough, as I thought, and played better than our guys today in these very bad conditions. 

Great season for the Green, finishing up at 9-2, co-CCIW champs. 

Congrats to Coach Eash and all the team on a exciting, championship season.

IWU'70

Good luck to IWU football next season.   It looked like Case Western Reserve brought a little east side of Cleveland weather with them -- a fun game to watch today in the snowy conditions. 

[DuffMan]

Congrats to NCC on your win today.  You've got a nice team with a lot of talent.  It looked like there was a lot of on-field respect between the teams, which is good to see.  It's a shame that the weather factored in because I was looking forward to seeing Rutter and Erdmann slinging the ball.

In the end, the Johnnies inability to sustain drives doomed them.  It's been a problem all season, and NCC was too tough.

Good luck with the rest of your season!

[Titan Q]

Well, guys, it was 4 TDs alright, but the wrong way.  Titans go down 28-0.  CWRU was pretty tough, as I thought, and played better than our guys today in these very bad conditions. 

Great season for the Green, finishing up at 9-2, co-CCIW champs. 

Congrats to Coach Eash and all the team on a exciting, championship season.

IWU'70

Good luck to IWU football next season.   It looked like Case Western Reserve brought a little east side of Cleveland weather with them -- a fun game to watch today in the snowy conditions.

In all the years I've been watching IWU football, I've never seen weather like that.  Pouring rain in the 1st half, then what looked like a legit blizzard through halftime and into the 3rd Q.

For the most part, passing games were shut down.

The Spartans played very tough and smart.  The Titans were neither of those things today.