FB: Northwest Conference

[hazzben]

The game was won upfront.

I disagree.  Both defenses, especially, up front, played extremely tough football.  If you look at the box score, the statistics were very even.  The game was won:

1) On special teams
2) With superior QB play

Agree with Duff 100% here. Both teams were very, very good up front. The difference was Wyatt Smith under center. Backes is tough player, but he's just more limited as passer, which is why he was the backup until Syverson got hurt.

Also Olddog, Duff is a Johnnie. To your comment about putting Wyatt Smith behind a bad Oline and watching him struggle, well sure to an extent. But the opposite isn't true either. You can't just take any old QB and put them behind a great Oline and suddenly they're Tom Brady. The difference on Saturday was both teams had great players on the line, and great players all over the field. Only one had a great QB.

[DuffMan]

Only one had a great QB.

And only one committed two pivotal special teams blunders.

[wildcat11]

Only one had a great QB.

And only one committed two pivotal special teams blunders.

And one team took advantage of the blunders to convert them. 

[02 Warhawk]

Only one had a great QB.

And only one committed two pivotal special teams blunders.

From someone with no horse in that race. I think there's a good chance johnnies win if it wasn't for those 14 points off special teams turnovers.

The whole dynamic of the game would have changed.

[DuffMan]

And one team took advantage of the blunders to convert them. 

Yes, yes they did.  I'd expect that from elite teams.

[olddog]

 LF fronts are the best I have seen this year. The second best is NCC...the game is won up front. It humors me to hear anything else, so thanks in advance

[MacQuiz]

Now that's some squared away discussion!
Duff, Hazz, WC11, 02 Warhawk...really a pleasure to read perspective
rooted in performance, and humanity(momentum).
Go Cats!

[02 Warhawk]

LF fronts are the best I have seen this year. The second best is NCC...the game is won up front. It humors me to hear anything else, so thanks in advance

Yeah, turnovers mean nothing in an outcome  The line play is very important, but not always the outcome of a game.

SJU was -3 in turnovers (not counting the botched punt that resulted in Linfield getting the ball at SJU's 38 yard line). Linfield had three scoring drives that started on SJU's 6, 20 and 38 yard line
- thanks to turnovers and blunders. Two of those occurred on special teams, which had nothing to do with the line.

[wildcat11]

02,

The pressure from the d-line forced a bad throw on that last pick. 

[retagent]

Only one had a great QB.

And only one committed two pivotal special teams blunders.

From someone with no horse in that race. I think there's a good chance johnnies win if it wasn't for those 14 points off special teams turnovers.

The one at the end of the first half could have been the difference. Just let it go and it's 7 - 7 at the half. Hard to really get on Ravi though. Without him, the Johnnies may not have made the playoffs.

The whole dynamic of the game would have changed.

[Ice Bear]

LF fronts are the best I have seen this year. The second best is NCC...the game is won up front. It humors me to hear anything else, so thanks in advance

Ice Bear says olddog is licking his own ass here and desperately needs to learn some new ****ing tricks.

Ice Bear says great ****ing points made by many previous posters in regards to this discussion. Ice says that was a great football game by two excellent football teams.

[GoldandBlueBU]

LF fronts are the best I have seen this year. The second best is NCC...the game is won up front. It humors me to hear anything else, so thanks in advance

[DuffMan]

And all this time, SJU has been wasting time recruiting skill position players...

[CalCat]

I saw those heaters... was impressive. I thought DuffMan forked the bill for that. 

I'd have footed the bill for heaters for PLU, but you Linfield bastards can freeze your heinies off. 

It was obvious the  heaters were the only reason why Linfield won...without them our heinies would have been handed to us. Unfortunately for Cats we didn't fire them up until after our first offensive series.

[DuffMan]

Benedictine hospitality at its finest!