FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Redtooth]

Ran out to a "Fall Family Fest" and began getting phone updates of the near train wreck in Collegeville.  Sounds like UST could have run backside stops all day......need to get better pressure on the QB as well.  I am surprised that Sauer was able to block out his miserable career to date against SJU and have such a great day.  Kudos to him.  Sounds like they blew apart my comments about running the ball.

Alex came to play today and it showed.  Another win and 300+ yards for him to go along with 4TDs.  

Now let's get ready for the Bible Thumpers

[retagent]

Here's my report on the UWW/UMHB matchup today. UWW played like they have for the past two years - solid. Except for one drive where the "D" gave UMHB a first down with a Personal Foul penalty, and another 15 yards for Roughing the Passer. that resulted in the Cru's first TD. Then the punter fumbled a low snap to give UMHB a very short field and they converted.

UWW shut down the (4.3 speed, according to one UMHB poster) running back duo of UWW, and when forced to pass, the UMHB QB was not up to the task. Against the wind, his passes looked like ducks coming in for a landing. One INT led to a 9 yard TD drive, another led to a 60 something yard return for a TD. UMHB pretty much shut down the Beav. At one point UWW had over 100 yards rushing as a team, but a couple sacks brought it back under that figure at the time of my departure with about 6 minutes left in the game. Even when they had 101, or whatever, that mark was shaded by sacks of Jones.

Jones was the difference, IMHO. He made crisp passes, even into the wind, and when flushed out, was very effective running the ball. He made good decisions, and will be tough to stop. He's a bit like Kofoed, only maybe a bit faster, and more willing to run. He throws well on the run, which makes him doubly dangerous when scrambling.

UMHB looked like they could run the sweep option in the first half, but didn't try it enough. In the second, UWW had made the necessary adjustments on that too.  I would say that the score doesn't indicate how close these teams are in ability, but I thought that UWW has fewer weaknesses, and would win most matchups between the two.

UMHB pretty much shut down Beaver. He had the one TD run for 24, but most other runs were for 5 yards or less. They had some athletes on defense, and made UWW work for their yards.

[repete]

Hopefully SJU will fix its boxscore ....

Univ. of St. Thomas (9-0,7-0) vs. Saint John's Univ. (2-6,2-4)

[retagent]

In addition.

I forgot to mention that it looked like the Cru ( I got that from visiting the WIAC board this week. Sounds like I know what I'm talking about eh?) were doing the Gustie (or is it the Augie) thing. When they got up to the line, the QB, and most others (sometimes it looked like the linemen didn't) would look at a coach wearing a bright yellow shirt who would gesticulate wildly - then they would run the play. In the second half, they tried to get quick snaps to catch UWW napping, which worked to some effect, but obviously not well enough. Their 6' 7" BB player turned WR, who can "jump out of the building" caught one, maybe two passes. Again, that can be attributed as much, if not more, to the QB's less than cannon of an arm,  than to the defensive backs of UWW.

[OzJohnnie]

Thanks, retagent.

When those that attended the game get back, we would love to read about what happened on D.  How did we seem to get cut up so bad and so consistently?

[bluenote]

Unfortunately one of your favorite teams....Crown.... lost to Black(side)burn.  (They must be out of Graceland.)

[royalachilles]

One of the few posts of the year from me..  I dont want to get TDTs blood pressure up to soon,  my last season, and it has been an honor to represent the MIAC in my hometown of Des Moines.  Some people know this conference because of the Iowa connection to Central, Simpson, Wartburg, etc... but I have to tell you, I am always impressed by the PP members from St. Johns here.  You guys are truly life fans...  with an Augsberg win, it will be a great day in Arden Hills.. We hope for a huge turnout of fans from SJU. Kilted, I believe you still owe me a case of beer for something, maybe I will look you up in Arden Hills,  (dont bring the beer with You),  but I look forward to it... 

[57Johnnie]

Unfortunately one of your favorite teams....Crown.... lost to Black(side)burn.  (They must be out of Graceland.)

You got it. The Beavers beat the Storm to avenge an earlier loss this season. No home field advantage to either team.

[Rugman]

Thanks, retagent.

When those that attended the game get back, we would love to read about what happened on D.  How did we seem to get cut up so bad and so consistently?

I'll be first but I'm sure others will have more astute analyses.  Been watching Johnnie football for many years and we just don't have a dominant defense this year.  As the season has progressed I think the opponents coaches have figured out how to take advantage of our weakesses at the corners and linebackers.  Also not quite enough on the D-line to make up for double teams on Gunderson.  

So anyone with a good offensive plan who executes well should have success against us.

That being said, we still have some big play abilites as evidenced by some nice interceptions and we have great coaching that should be able to maximize the skills we have and offset the weaknesses.

To go very far in the playoffs we will need to rely on the offense and big plays on defense.  First though we have to get past Bethel and I'm sure their coaches can see what Hamline and St Thomas saw in designing their game plans.  Wait, what am I saying, it's Bethel, they'll manage to screw it up somehow.

[OleFan]

I don't think MHB has much in terms of talent.  I was looking at their roster, and none of the players really jumped out at me.  A few years ago when they went to the Stagg Bowl they had some good players that were a little undersized to play D1.  A few of the guys had offers to play D2, but did not want to leave Texas.  MHB still has a young program, and as a result they need find an identity.

The Gusties run the "no huddle/check with me" offense.  It forces a team to hurry up and call a defense.  If you play good base D then it is easy to defend.  You can move from there to a few basic stunts.  Coaches think it prevents teams from getting a good rush or blitzing a ton, but most teams don't run it fast enough.  It is high schoolish.  If you have to run that offense then you must not think your QB can make the proper checks.

[Rugman]

With today's attendance over 12,000 again we have pretty much assured a new season attendance record in terms of average per game.  If we somehow don't manage to get a home playoff game, we've averaged almost 10,000 fans per game this year.  The only way we could fall below the previous high average would be to have two playoff games at home and only have about 3,800 at each of them.  With two playoff games we also have a shot at the all time total attendance mark 58,465 which was done in 9 games

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

hey, so is kofoed going to (or has he already) set the miac passing record this season?

He got that in 3rd qtr vs Hamline and went over 10,000 yrds in his career vs UST (immediately before throwing an INT)

[Rugman]

Pretty dead here tonight.  Everyone must still be out drinking or passed out over their computers.

[sfury]

For those who haven't watched it, go to the front page and watch that last play of the Trinity victory today. I don't think the announcer was exagerrating when he called it maybe the most incredible finish in football history. A commenter on the youtube page counted 16 laterals.

[Rugman]

For those who haven't watched it, go to the front page and watch that last play of the Trinity victory today. I don't think the announcer was exagerrating when he called it maybe the most incredible finish in football history. A commenter on the youtube page counted 16 laterals.

That is un f'ing unbelievable.  It looked like they were only rushing three and the other 8 were playing prevent. Most amazing is how many times they worked from one sideline to the other and then scored down the middle of the field. 

http://www.trinity.edu/departments/athletics/football/