AT 
Game Time: 4:00PM Central, 10/7/2017
Location: The UNI-Dome, Cedar Falls, IA
Weather: (doesn't really matter too much, in a dome, but in case you're going and maybe tailgating or something)
TV: ESPN3/WatchESPN.com
Radio: Announcers (Scott Kornberg, Dr. Tom Cody) - Beardstown - WRMS (94.3 FM); Macomb - WJEQ (102.7 FM); Galesburg - WAIK (1590 AM); Quincy - WPWQ (106.7 FM); Clinton, Iowa - (KCLN 1390 AM)
Internet: wrmsfm.com or Tune-In Radio App (Google store and iTunes)
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=184731
Game Notes: Western Illinois | Northern Iowa
A bit about Northern Iowa
The Panthers have been somewhat up-and-down this season. They are 2-2 so far, starting with a loss at FBS Iowa State, a home OT win against Big Sky Cal Poly, a 3-pt loss at Big Sky Southern Utah, then a 7-pt win at Southern Illinois last weekend.
They've been averaging 28.5 ppg and 366.3 ypg (78% of that through the air) and are giving up 30.25 ppg and 445.5 ypg (58% through the air). They haven't been great at getting pressure on QBs, ranking 112th in the FCS in tackles for loss and 104th in sacks. They also struggle on special teams, averaging 25.46 yards allowed on kickoff returns (114th in the FCS) while only averaging 15.13 on their own kickoff returns (120th in FCS).
Full UNI Stats for 2017.
UNI Players to Watch:
- QB Eli Dunne - averages 284.25 ypg, with 11 TDs & 6 INTs
- WR Daurice Fountain - averages 87.25 ypg (15.17 ypc) with 4 TDs
- LB Jared Farley - 46 total tackles, 3 for loss, 1 INT, 1 pass breakup, 1 QB hurry, 1 fumble recovery taken back for 48 yards.
- DB Malcolm Washington - 2 INTs, 18 tackles
Western has played Northern Iowa 45 times. The Panthers have a 31-14 advantage in the series with the last Leatherneck win being an exciting 24-19 victory at the UNI-Dome in 2015. Last year's meeting was a 30-23 UNI win in Macomb on 11/12.
Predictions
Massey - 31-28, WIU Victory
Compughterratings.com - 34-23, WIU win
Sagarin (calculation, doesn't round) - 40.61 to 18.21, WIU win
They're saying a pretty decent WIU advantage, but I think it's still going to be a tough battle, at least for the first half.
Rankings
Sagarin (out of all 254 DI teams) - WIU 90, UNI 118
STATS Top 25 - WIU 15, UNI 27 (ORV)
Massey Composite - WIU 8, UNI 32
AGS Poll - WIU 12, UNI 26 (ORV)
My Take
Ok, so now we've learned that dual-threat QBs are hard to stop. Thankfully, UNI's Eli Dunne is not a dual-threat QB. He's a decent passer, but has negative net rushing yards (and no rushing TDs) in their four games this season. If there's a QB we've faced so far this season that most closely resembles Dunne, I'd have to say that it's probably Case Cookus at Northern Arizona. I think that offensively, UNI and NAU are actually very similar...decent passing game, not much in the ground game. We'll need to watch out for Daurice Fountain as the primary receivier, but I'm fairly confident our D-Line and LBs can shut down their run game pretty well. On the other side of the ball though, UNI is a bit better against the run than NAU, but not quite as good against the pass. I think a big part of that is the play of LBs Jared Farley and Duncan Ferch. Farley is one of the better LBs in the conference...not quite on the level of Brett Taylor or Nick DeLuca at NDSU, but pretty decent. DBs Malcolm Washington and Elijah Campbell do fairly well at defending passes and snagging interceptions. Passes will need to be on-target to have a solid day.
Transitivity
Now that we're 5 weeks into the season and there's some commonality in teams that have been played, I thought it'd be fun to do transtive comparisons between the teams. It obviously doesn't have any actual bearing on how the teams will play, but it's interesting to look at sometimes.
WIU won at NAU by 18, NAU won at Cal Poly by 18, Cal Poly lost at UNI in OT by 7.
Prediction:
I think that the guys will come out ready to play right away in this game. Now, for us..."right away" might still end up being the second quarter or so, but I could see something similar to our NAU game being the final result, or maybe a slightly smaller margin. It's time to really get the run game going again, with some heavy doses of Max Norris and occasionally Steve McShane. Everyone will be keying in on Acklin after last weekends performance, so if they end up over-covering him, I could see a few more passes going towards Brandon Gaston, Steve McShane, and a couple of the TE's.
My prediction: WIU 35, UNI 24
Scott Lawson - Board Admin