FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

I was hoping for a 1-point Wheaton win...but I'll take it.

That was an impressive performance by the Thunder.

[USee]

Broc Rutter came into last nights game 4th in the country in completion percentage (73% tied with Jake Kennedy from Witt) and having his best year. He ended up completing 77% of his passes and was 33-43 for 426 yards and a touchdown. Unfortunately for North Central, #9 for Wheaton, Curtis McWilliams completed 81% of his passes and was 22-27 for 347 yds and 2 TD's. Rutter was left to try and carry NCC himself as the Cardinals had no running game and defensively couldn't stop the Thunder. Wheaton controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides the whole game and got 2 NCC turnovers.

I was surprised by NCC as they made a change at left tackle, moved their starting center, Rickey Strba to RG and started a new center. All those changes were for last night. Playing 3 new OL in a big game is not a good sign. Huge win for the Thunder on the road agains their rival.

[USee]

Apart from the obvious win, a big development in the race for the CCIW title last night was the final TD by the Thunder and the subsequent forced fumble on Ethan Greenberg recovered by Wheaton. The Thunder scored to make it a 22 pt margin and if North Central somehow wins out and figures out a way to beat IWU in Bloomington, a 3 way tie in the CCIW could well come down to tie breaker. If all teams finish with 1 loss to each other the deciding tie breaker is the point spread between the 3. After last nights 22 pt win the spread is this way:

Wheaton -10, +22, =+12
IWU +10
NCC -22

That last TD was huge for Wheaton, without it their differential would have been less than 10 and a close win by NCC would give the Titans the AQ. Now, if NCC wins in Bloomington by less than 34 pts, Wheaton would win the AQ. IWU has no chance to win the AQ in a tie break scenario. The game in Bloomington becomes a defector playoff game for both since they both have 1 loss.

[New Tradition]

Apart from the obvious win, a big development in the race for the CCIW title last night was the final TD by the Thunder and the subsequent forced fumble on Ethan Greenberg recovered by Wheaton. The Thunder scored to make it a 22 pt margin and if North Central somehow wins out and figures out a way to beat IWU in Bloomington, a 3 way tie in the CCIW could well come down to tie breaker. If all teams finish with 1 loss to each other the deciding tie breaker is the point spread between the 3. After last nights 22 pt win the spread is this way:

Wheaton -10, +22, =+12
IWU +10
NCC -22

That last TD was huge for Wheaton, without it their differential would have been less than 10 and a close win by NCC would give the Titans the AQ. Now, if NCC wins in Bloomington by less than 34 pts, Wheaton would win the AQ. IWU has no chance to win the AQ in a tie break scenario. The game in Bloomington becomes a defector playoff game for both since they both have 1 loss.

Yeah this is massive. I had the gist right on the broadcast last night, but my math was off. Thanks for posting this!

[matblake]

Yeah this is massive. I had the gist right on the broadcast last night, but my math was off. Thanks for posting this!

Good job last night btw. You guys did a good job with pace, keeping the score updated and color.

[matblake]

Aside from both roughness penalties, that was the most complete game by the Thunder that I've seen since the playoff win against North Central a few years ago. The difference in this game was Wheaton's defensive line. Preventing the Cardinals from running seemed to really limit The passing attack.

I give credit to Jesse Scott. After the IWU loss,he could have remained stubborn and continued to run the sweeps and outside pitches. However, the adjustment to inside counters and dives have been striking. Consequently, the running game opens up the passing game and McWilliams has been able to elevate his play.

[AndOne]

WC 52
NC 30

Wheaton wiped out NC last night in Naperville. The crusading Thunder were scheduled to be hosted by North Central. However, many questioned whether the boys from Naperville's other NC, Naperville Central HS, might have made the short trip down the street and taken the field instead.
Giving up touchdown plays of 75, 77, and 80 yards, portends what kind of game it was for the Cardinals defense. Combine that with a virtually invisible running game, and even a NC passing attack that piled up an impressive 426 yards wasn't able to come close to staying with the visitors who dominated both sides of the line of scrimmage, and didn't even need their two players who were ejected for targeting to post an impressive win. Actually, a very impressive win.

[duckfan41]

Last night's win for the Thunder was probably the most impressive I've seen from them in my time following the team. From the get go, this game felt like what the continuation of last year's game felt like. Complete and thorough domination on both sides of the football. I'll admit I was worried for a short time following Fox's ejection and the ensuing drive down the field for a score, but after that, the dominance of the line of scrimmage helped with the weened secondary from two targeting ejections. North Central simply could not run the ball last night. In contrast, Jacob Cretin had another impressive showing going for 144 yards on the ground on 16 carries and one touchdown. This is the second week in a row he has been the leading rusher for both squads, and he has brought a power aspect to the Thunder running game that was seemingly lost with the graduation of Olateju.

As others have already mentioned, the big play is what eventually spelled disaster for the Cardinals all night. An 80 yard score from Goldsmith, 78 from Cretin, and then the 80 yard touchdown pass to Carter Roberts were all key scores. Another point from last night was while North Central was settling for field goals in the red-zone, Wheaton was scoring touchdowns which proved pivotal in the spread for the whole game. This Wheaton team is completely different from the team that laid an egg in Bloomington and is showing signs of comparing to playoff teams of recent past. Here's to hoping they can keep this up and run the table the rest of the way, with the only real question mark being the game @WashU seeing as how the Bears have proven themselves to be able to keep up with and beat CCIW competition with their dynamic offense.

NPU comes to McCully Stadium for an afternoon contest on Homecoming Weekend for Wheaton College. Should be a great atmosphere and time will tell if the Thunder will light up the scoreboard for the third week in a row. 

[duckfan41]

Goldsmith's wasn't an 80 yarder, my bad! The point still remains that big plays keyed in for the Thunder onslaught last night in Naperville.

[USee]

To clarify, of Wheaton's two ejections last night, Kyle Fox was ejected for a flagrant foul, not for targeting. He will not miss any additional time. I thought it was a horrendous call by the officials because all he did was knock down an NCC WR running a pick play. The ball was not in the air and the hit was completely legal. It was a bad call.

The targeting call on Herber, wheaton's LB, was when he tried to keep Rutter from getting a key first down. He did lower his head and the call was right. I believe Herber will miss the first half vs NPU as well as sitting out the remainder of the 2nd half last night.

[USee]

While the Thunder have now played the presumed contenders in the conference, they have 3 games that I don't consider gimmes and 3 others that they will be heavy favorites. They play NPU, Carrol and ELmhurst at home and have road games @Augie, @WashU and @Carthage that won't be easy.

[AndOne]

CCIW camaraderie?

Sight seen.....

Aston Francis and some of his Wheaton basketball teammates sitting among the NCC basketball guys
during last night's football game.   

[bleedpurple]

So maybe CCIWers can help me sort this out, given your familiarity with the teams involved.  I'm a bit mystified at both North Central and Wheaton being ahead of IWU in the Top 25 poll.  IWU has the head to head over Wheaton and the favorable common opponent result over NC.  Why in the world is IWU behind both of them in the poll?

I expected Wheaton's win over NCC to push up IWU in the polls and deservedly so. I didn't expect the leapfrog.

[Mr. Ypsi]

So maybe CCIWers can help me sort this out, given your familiarity with the teams involved.  I'm a bit mystified at both North Central and Wheaton being ahead of IWU in the Top 25 poll.  IWU has the head to head over Wheaton and the favorable common opponent result over NC.  Why in the world is IWU behind both of them in the poll?

I expected Wheaton's win over NCC to push up IWU in the polls and deservedly so. I didn't expect the leapfrog.

I agree (but then I'm a Titan alum ).  IWU beat Wheaton; Wheaton beat NCC; IWU and NCC have yet to play.  Until they do, the ranking order seems pretty clear-cut to me!  I suspect your second-half dismantling of UW-LaX was a contributing factor, since UWL won over IWU.  But I did find the d3.football.com Top 25 a bit odd.

[Though I admit, I suspect that MOST days NCC is still the best of the three.  But the clear evidence, on the field so far, is the order should be IWU>Wheaton>NCC.  And that's the way they are on both my NRFP and national fan poll ballots.]

[USee]

So maybe CCIWers can help me sort this out, given your familiarity with the teams involved.  I'm a bit mystified at both North Central and Wheaton being ahead of IWU in the Top 25 poll.  IWU has the head to head over Wheaton and the favorable common opponent result over NC.  Why in the world is IWU behind both of them in the poll?

I expected Wheaton's win over NCC to push up IWU in the polls and deservedly so. I didn't expect the leapfrog.

I don't vote on the D3 poll. One possible reason may be that voters have seen Wheaton score 108 pts against 2 top CCIW points after strugggling against IWU 3 weeks ago. They may think Wheaton has "figured it out". Also, Linfield losing means there was a spot up around 11-13 and putting a team up there vs letting 'poll creep' take over may have been preferable. IWU also struggled a bit more than expected with a bottom feeder in Carroll.