FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[sjusection105]

Great win for the Cobbers. The Johnnies did not deserve to win today. That was pretty clear cut.

A couple of thoughts:
1. I spoke to both a defensive starter & an offensive starter tonight in St. Joe at local establishments with their respective families.Both, in separate conversations, said basically the same thing. We had a wake up call and putting it in perspective it's better now than in the playoffs. The sun will rise in the east tomorrow. We will fix our mistakes and play better moving forward.

2.I have said for weeks, that the kicking game was going to kick us in the a$$ in the playoffs, well it kicked us today in the regular season. This lands on the coaching staff- 190+ kids and nobody can kick a PAT? Forget about FGs that most HS teams can make, this is a PAT. You recruit QBs & RBs, now reality has hit, kickers need to be recruited too. The last 4-5 decent kickers landed in your lap.

3. Get ready for rounds 2+ on the road. We either leave at 5:00am or get home at 5:00am- it's play off football in D3!

[TheChucker]

I see on social media (twitter) SJU fans are making a big deal of the non facemask call.
I saw a good pic of it...wow, that was a bad missed call.

Judging by the pic it looked close to the goal line. Was that on a fourth down play or something?

I speculated on this in a previous post. Johnnies had a holding call on the same play prior to the facemask. If the face mask would have been called, it would have been offsetting penalties. Johnnies would have had a 2nd and 10 at the 16 (offsetting) versus 2nd and 12 at the 18 without the facemask. Spot of the holding call must have been the 8 yard line. So in other words, the impact of the non-call was 2 yards. Not 100% sure I'm right on how that gets officiated but I think it's right.

[TheChucker]

So, are an undefeated Wheaton (North) or Muhlenburg (South) good enough to jump St. Johns for a top 4 playoff ranking? I'm wondering if SJU could hold on to that spot even with 1 loss.

[sjusection105]

So, are an undefeated Wheaton (North) or Muhlenburg (South) good enough to jump St. Johns for a top 4 playoff ranking? I'm wondering if SJU could hold on to that spot even with 1 loss.

Highly unlikely

[Texas Ole]

There really isn't anything wrong with going for two.  Some of the metrics suggest only going for is actually a better strategy than kicking.  I think the success rate is around 60% overall or around 3 points for every 2 touchdowns.  UST ran a swinging gate 2 point try today early in the game.  The problem is most teams don't value the role of kicking in the game.  Kickers are often the leading scorers on a football team.  A good kicker expands the scoring zone beyond the red zone.

Does anyone else remember penetrations being used to settle tie games?

[TheChucker]

There really isn't anything wrong with going for two.  Some of the metrics suggest only going for is actually a better strategy than kicking.  I think the success rate is around 60% overall or around 3 points for every 2 touchdowns.  UST ran a swinging gate 2 point try today early in the game.  The problem is most teams don't value the role of kicking in the game.  Kickers are often the leading scorers on a football team.  A good kicker expands the scoring zone beyond the red zone.

Does anyone else remember penetrations being used to settle tie games?

UMHB would agree that the kicker is important. They would have 1 loss now without that guy.

[Mr. Ypsi]

So, are an undefeated Wheaton (North) or Muhlenburg (South) good enough to jump St. Johns for a top 4 playoff ranking? I'm wondering if SJU could hold on to that spot even with 1 loss.

No chance.  Wheaton, Salisbury, and (perhaps) Muhlenberg will fight it out for the 4th #1 seed, with Wheaton in the best shape.  With their remaining schedules, it would be beyond shocking for any not to finish undefeated, and Wheaton would have a distinct SoS advantage.

[sju56321]

No way to have mount, uww, Wheaton and umbh as the brackets-way too much travel. Now an East teams get a #1 if all win out.

[MiacMan]

So, are an undefeated Wheaton (North) or Muhlenburg (South) good enough to jump St. Johns for a top 4 playoff ranking? I'm wondering if SJU could hold on to that spot even with 1 loss.

No chance.  Wheaton, Salisbury, and (perhaps) Muhlenberg will fight it out for the 4th #1 seed, with Wheaton in the best shape.  With their remaining schedules, it would be beyond shocking for any not to finish undefeated, and Wheaton would have a distinct SoS advantage.

Jays best case is they get put in that bracket with Wheaton. They will have to win on the road in the quarters  regardless of what bracket they're in though.

[sju56321]

If you looked at pats mock regional rankings-after the loss, sju will be 3, behind uww and wartburg and maybe 4 behind chapman.

[OzJohnnie]

I see on social media (twitter) SJU fans are making a big deal of the non facemask call.
I saw a good pic of it...wow, that was a bad missed call.

Judging by the pic it looked close to the goal line. Was that on a fourth down play or something?

Was a horrible call.  Didn't change the game.

[Pat Coleman]

If you looked at pats mock regional rankings-after the loss, sju will be 3, behind uww and wartburg and maybe 4 behind chapman.

Those are really Greg Thomas' regional rankings -- I have to give him credit for doing the work!

[hazzben]

Hazz,
Hazzn't (sorry) Bethel had years where they just went for two or am I just imagining that? Or several games like that? Again, maybe I'm just making that up. But if they did, how'd it work?

Yep. I think it was 2007. We didn't have a kicker who could make it consistently (I sympathize with the Johnnie plight right now). But it had a galvanizing effect. As a staff, we realized that going for 2 over the course of a game was a much better plan. The offensive staff designed some really nice 2 pt conversion plays. The bonus was it meant that we literally had a ton of really good/creative short yardage plays as well. It became a mindset. Instead of bemoaning the missed PAT's we went for two ... and statistically, it's actually to your benefit. The conversion rate should be north of 50%. So on the whole you come out on top. It also works to your advantage in the sense you get really good and confident going for 2, where your opponent isn't defending it that much.

You also don't have the ability to kick FG's in the redzone. But again, knowing this, it became a mentality. Once we got within 35 yds, we knew we had 4 downs to get a first because we weren't kicking. And the other team knew they had to stop a really physical rushing attack and hold us to under 2.5 yds a play in the redzone.

It's not ideal, but it can be done. The thing is, you have to embrace it. The notion that "at least the kicking game only cost us in the regular season" is dangerous. Because unless you a) get a kicker who's been hiding on the roster/campus or b) really lean into a different redzone/2pt conversion strategy, it's also going to haunt you in the playoffs.

[edward de vere]

Does anyone else remember penetrations being used to settle tie games?

Well, that's a new one on me.  Had to look it up. 

https://oklahoman.com/article/2207225/high-school-football

[hazzben]

Does anyone else remember penetrations being used to settle tie games?

Well, that's a new one on me.  Had to look it up. 

https://oklahoman.com/article/2207225/high-school-football

I hadn't heard of that before. College OT isn't perfect, but in the end, the goal is to get in the endzone, not the redzone or first downs. I'm glad that rule isn't deciding tie breakers today.