FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[usee]

I also have a fundamental problem understanding how a carthage offense, with 10 starters returning, can turn it over 4x in a critical game. this is not the mark of a program that is ready to compete for a conference championship.

they showed they were good enough to get into the red zone at the end of the game, which is good. that they couldn't finish is a bad sign.

Kudos to elmhurst for wrestling the ball away for a pick.

[Mugsy]

totally unrelated to football.

I PASSED THE BAR EXAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ut oh... guess that means I better watch what I say when I deride CardinalAlum. 

Seriously though, congrats!

[79jaybird]

WashdupCard-- Congratulations on passing one of the most difficult tests in the world.  I think the Bar and the CPA Exam are the 2 most challenging tests.
Usee I agree with you that if Elmhurst can knock off Augie at home next week, then the Bluejays are in great position to challenge for the CCIW title.
Question:  Do you think Augie's defense is better than Carthage's?  Carthage's interior D-Linemen and Linebackers were very strong last night.  EC did not get most of their yardage running A or B gaps.  Most of their rushing yards came on QB options stretching it to the sidelines with Freund, Smith, and Wilharm.  This reason I pose this question is because Elmhurst showed that they can find running room against a quality defense like Carthage's, so if Augie's D isn't as strong as the Redmen's,  then I think EC has a good shot next week.  Still a week away, anything can happen,  but right now I think Elmhurst has to be happy that they beat a very good Carthage team.

[matblake]

I listened to the whole game online and it seemed like Elmhurst put a lot of pressure on O'Boyle. He ran the 19 times but they did run some option plays. I think with the pressure that the Elmhurst D got on O'Boyle made him make some rushed throws and therefore some costly interceptions. Elmhurst brought there "A" game and played a great game, I will give them credit.

Thanks for the analysis.  If they were able to pressure him all game the Elmhurst D must be better than I first suspected.

[matblake]

I will say that I was worried, as Carthage had 4th and Goal from our 6th yard line.
MatBlake,  O'Boyle had a great game for Carthage.  He was their leading rusher early in the game and his poised help Carthage have a chance late in the game.  I think the Elmhurst defensive line started to get penetration in the Carthage backfield late (especially the 4th qrtr) which forced O'Boyle to make quicker decisions.  It was more of EC rising to the occasion than Carthage's forced mistakes.

Good job by the Elmhurst D to rise to the occaision.  Penetration and pressure are 2 things that will just throw an offense into confusion, everything has to happen even faster than normal. 

[formerd3db]

WasheupCard:
Congratulations on passing the BAR exam!  Wonderful.  Wishing you all the best for the future.  Thanks for sharing - another example of what this DIII fb stuff is all about "in the overall 'big picture'"!!

[matblake]

Looks like the talk this week will be Little Brass Bell, whether Elmhurst can continue to take it to the next level by beating Augie, and how Carthage/IWU stack up.

I am still not on the elmhurst wagon yet, but they took care of business with an impressive road win. thats what you have to do to win this conference. we will know just how good elmhurst is next week as they play augie.

Unfortunately for jaybird and comet14, as the NCC fans found out over the last several years it takes winning most/all of the big games before anyone around here will count Elmhurst in as a real contender, if nothing because of the bias of history in the CCIW.  I imagine that could be pretty frustrating.  Since d3football.com wasn't around when Wheaton was making the jump I didn't have to live that frustration of wanting respect for my team out on a message board. I just have the feeling that if the Jays beat Augie, people will point to Augie as having a down year and the real test for Elmhurst will be North Central and if they beat NC then the real test will be IWU and if they beat IWU etc.  

[matblake]

totally unrelated to football.

I PASSED THE BAR EXAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great, now all the Wheaton alumni and students are going to get summons when we take back the Bell. 

[dansand]

Hopefully Augie got back on track a little bit yesterday. Defense and special teams came up big. I'm not going to get too excited considering Wesleyan is down a bit and were playing without their best running back. While it looks like they moved the ball pretty well on the ground, I get the impression they're going to have to continue to scrape to put points on the board this year. It still concerns me a little that McGinnis is leading the team in carries despite averaging just two yards a carry (not including sacks). I think part of the reason for that is the number of injuries they've had in the backfield. Mike Guzman is banged up and Jeff McDowell, Augie Anderson, Joel Campbell and Chris Studer have all missed various amounts of PT already this year. I'm hoping the defense keeps playing as well as they did yesterday.

Next week should be a good test. I'm interested to Jaybird's take. Elmhurst's defense has played very well this year, but it looks like Carthage had some success against them on the ground last night. One thing's for sure. I don't expect a replay of last year's 64-42 shootout.

totally unrelated to football.

I PASSED THE BAR EXAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh great, another lawyer. 

[NCC_alum62]

I thought NCC came out way too sloppy...doubtful that they'll do it again against anyone else in the CCIW.  I think they were looking ahead to next weeks game against Wheaton.  But they really passed effectivily.  Eric Studeman #9  played exceptional catching four of Kniss's 5 TD passes and putting some great moves on the NP secondary.  Aside from a slow first quarter the game was all NCC.  Decatur looked good for NPU recording at least one sack.  NPU coaches failed to make adjustments and the NCC coaches made all the right ones.  Kam sat after his last TD pass in the beginning of the third (42-24) and the cards backups still managed to put up a further 16 lead by some crisp running by TB Isreal Brown.

NPU had way too many mistakes and that was all she wrote...looking forward to a great game next week as NCC takes on Wheaton @ Wheaton...I think if Thorn can get them to focus early and play extremly well they can win.  D-line needs to be way more stout against the run and at getting into the backfield.  O-line needs to look for work on pass-pro as well.  Sometimes though Kam gets sacked because he holds onto the ball for a long time trying to make thigns happen...against NPU I saw him make some really good decisions just throwing the ball away instead of forcing it or getting sacked.

NPU could be getting better but they need to play the whole game...they played a decent first quarter...still too many mistakes with thier snapper and center (not sure if it was the same guy on field goal) but they were really pumped they just couldn't keep it going and like I said and was said a few posts ago didn't make the necessary adjustments after 1st qaurter and at halftime

[79jaybird]

DANSSAND/ Matblake-- Going into the game yesterday I was high on Elmhurst's Defense and high on Carthage's defense.  I (still) think both team's have probably one of the best defenses in the CCIW.  Both teams were moving the ball well against the other.
2 things led to Elmhurst pulling out the W.  1) The turnovers as I already mentioned, but 2) Elmhurst's Defensive Line came up with the big plays when they had to.  When the clock struck midnight,  it was the defensive penetration that put the clamps on the the Carthage offense, sealing the win.
I asked Usee this and I will ask you too as an Augie fan,  do you think Augie's defense is better than Carthage's?  All the talk this past week was how strong Carthage/Elmhurst defenses are,  but in the end, the real story was how effective both team's running games were.  Any thoughts?

"not jumping on the wagon"  And why should you?  To be honest, Elmhurst hasn't won the "big game" yet.  I say YET because I think the Bluejays are on track to knock off some quality opponents this year.  It started with Carthage on the road (hey road warriors, 2 wins on the road consecutively)  and now they have to take it 1 game at a time.

All in all, this is a fun time of the year, when the CCIW grudge matches take place. 
DANSSAND,  How banged up is Augie?  That would be devastating if Mike Guzman is out for an extended period of time.  I know Elmhurst's Matt Kelly was sick and missed the Olivet game,  but he was back and played very well last night in Kenosha.

[dansand]

Guzman's not out, just banged up. The local paper listed him as questionable yesterday with an arm injury, but he did play, although he only had six carries. Their backup only carried once, meaning seven carries the entire game from the fullback spot. I'm afraid that's going to be a problem, because in Augie's offense everything starts with making the defense respect the fullback. That's the key to opening everything else up. It apparently didn't hurt them yesterday, but I think they have to start establishing the fullback as a threat, which they really haven't done yet. As I said before that could be one of the reasons McGinnis is getting a disproportionate amount of carries.

The rest of the backfield is banged up too. Augie Anderson and Joel Campbell didn't play and J.J. McDowell was playing on a bad hamstring. It's been a while since I can remember Augie's seemingly endless stable of backs being so thinned down. They were also without three defensive starters yesterday LB's Preston Jones and Mark Cunningham and S Brad Monier. This could just be one of those years where everything's a bit of a struggle.

[diehardfan]

totally unrelated to football.

I PASSED THE BAR EXAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great, now all the Wheaton alumni and students are going to get summons when we take back the Bell. 

On the other hand I'm sure we could hire one of the many successful Wheaton alums who are now lawyers.

Congrats Washdupcard! We are looking forward to you rejoining the fray of NCC-Wheaton insults. It will be more fun to tease you guys in a fair fight.

[FatalImpact]

This victory solidifies freund at QB for elmhurst.....I would think

[diehardfan]

I posted this in the blog on the front page, but I thought those of you who don't ever read that () would be interested to know this little fact too...

Cumulative Wheaton score, vs Opponents scores for the first 4 games-
First Half - 82-0 (which many people have been tracking) But how about this one? First Three Q - 119-7

I’m feeling pretty darn good about our defense!



I thought this fact in the Millikin game notes was an interesting little tidbit too: "Thunder head coach Mike Swider has compiled a record of 81-25 in 11 seasons at the helm of the Thunder. Swider’s 76.4% winning percentage is the eighth-highest winning percentage of any active head coach in Division III. The 1977 Wheaton alum is three victories shy of tying J.R. Bishop for the second-highest win total in school history. Bishop compiled a record of 84-43-1 in 14 seasons at Wheaton."

Obviously that's all true and makes sense... but 76.4??? Tying Bishop's win record in three less seasons??? Wow. Wheaton fans, players and alumni are so ridiculously lucky to have this guy as our head coach, for what he gives to this program on and off the field.