WIU vs Eastern Illinois (9/3/15)

[wiu712]

Did they just open west stands to general admin/students? East stands look empty except for band.

The east stands were in the sun at the start of the game. That was NOT the place to be sitting.

The bulk of the crowd was sitting on the west side. Sections F and G on the west side had a lot of students.

The hills on the west side and also on the south side had a lot of people sitting there.

[Western_101]

Cameras were focused on the East side for the broadcast.....fans in the West stands seemed sparse.


Forgive me.......I re-read what I typed today and that's not what I meant to type. Yes the West side was packed. I meant to say that the East looked sparsely populated.

Yeah, that's the most folks I think I have ever seen packed into the West stands.

[ST_Lawson]

Remind me again why Eastern left the Gateway and the MidCon?

Apparently #8 in MVFC is far better than #2 out of OVC.

Don't know...they were doing pretty well more often than not in the Gateway...must have just gotten a better offer or thought they could do better in the OVC (which I think they mostly have).

I think that argument was pretty much laid to rest last season when the MVFC only lost 1 non-conference FCS game throughout the entire season.

Lots of running and putting in freshmen in the last half of the 4th quarter (I started checking numbers and after looking up 6 of them...all were Freshmen, R-Freshmen, or Sophomores).

Very pleasantly surprised by our defense - only allowed 3 points (other 2 was an XP that was blocked and returned to the other end zone...only the 2nd time I've seen that, I think) and a 42 yard pick-6 by sophomore Brett Taylor.
Running game was decent - especially freshman Steve McShane (52 yards, 3.7 yards per attempt) and Jr. Devon Moore (33 yards and 2 TDs)
Punting and kickoffs were really good - 44.2 yard average on punts, 2/4 within the 20, couple of kickoff touchbacks
Kick returns were also good - Lenoir worked as kick returner for much of the game and had 5 returns, pretty good mostly, with a long one of 71 yards

Disappointed in the passing offense (what I thought would be our strength...maybe just opening game jitters) - Norvell looks ok stats-wise, qb rating of 100.50, but got away with a lot of off-target passes. Looked like he was just tossing them around, hoping Lenoir would just come up with them. Some under and over throwing. If Eastern's DBs were a little better, they likely would have had a couple more INTs. Any of the top half of the MVFC, CCU, and Illinois will tear us up if we give them opportunities like that.

FGs were iffy - hit a couple under 30 yards, missed a 41-yarder, had a blocked XP

Pretty sloppy on both sides of the ball, lots of penalties on both sides, could have been more if the refs had been feeling antsy tonight.

Lots to work on, but a win is a win. I'll take it.

[ST_Lawson]

Cameras were focused on the East side for the broadcast.....fans in the West stands seemed sparse.

Here's how it looked from my perspective:



Honestly, that's about as packed as I've seen the West side stands in a long time...especially sections F and G. Attendance reported as 5,985, which surprised me...felt like more, but apparently the East side stands were fairly empty. Lots of people who normally would be on the East probably ended up on the edges of the West side.

[wiu712]

Fans in the West stands seemed sparse.

The West stands were packed as noted below:
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... e=5678C923

https://fbcdn-photos-a-a.akamaihd.net/h ... f98c46e648

Tonight's attendance was 5,985.

The attendance for last year's first game (also the Thursday before Labor Day weekend) was 3,584.

The "WESTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY" lettering that is above the press box needs to be painted Purple. It does not show up well against the pale yellow color of the press box. Notice it in the first photo posted above.

[W1U]

I was really impressed by the defense tonight. EIU moved the ball pretty well in the first quarter but had nothing to offer the rest of the way. I think this could be one of the better defensive lines in several years as well.

I was a little confused by the offensive play calling, though. As others have noted, there were so many fade routes from Norvell tonight which didn't make much sense given the situations. I'm still certain the passing game will get locked in as the season goes on.

[basfan445]

I was at work when the game was going on but was able to follow the gamecast. First off congrats on the victory for Western for playing the number 25 fcs team we did really well I thought. The defense looked incredible especially against a usually high scoring opponent. The offense did ok like many others picked out but it could have done better. Honestly I thought Norvell had fairly good numbers. Yes the interception didn't help and he could have completed a few more passes but I thought he did well. To tell you the truth I thought the run game was the weaker part of the offense. I was hoping we would get the run game going better. The freshmen RB did good as well as Moore but I was hoping for a few more yards. I know Watson isn't playing for obvious reasons but what happened to Kyle Hammond? He is still on roster isn't he and he got a good chunk of the running yards last year I thought. Next week will be much tougher and I honestly don't expect us to win but if we play well I'll be happy. CCU will be another tough game and I don't think we will win it either, doesn't mean I won't stop rooting. I think with these games it will build us up for tough conference play. Congrats again to all the players and coaches. 1-0!

[ST_Lawson]

One more comment....conditioning. With the heat and humidity at the game, good conditioning was a necessity.

It looked to me like that was a particular focus for the coaches in the preseason, what with all the games that we gave away or nearly gave away in the 4th quarter last year. Last year, we seemed like we never had enough in the tank to finish out the game.

This year, I didn't see any problems with anyone slowing down...losing a step...or having any heat-related injuries (cramping). Eastern, however....well...I lost track of counting at 5 problems with leg cramps.

So, at this point, it looks like we're much better off than last year on that front.

[bodoyle]

Congrats on the win last night guys. I watched about 2 1/2 quarters. Keep on winning and maybe our game will feature two ranked teams. Are any of you making the trip to Conway, SC?

[WIU0812]

Congrats on the win last night guys. I watched about 2 1/2 quarters. Keep on winning and maybe our game will feature two ranked teams. Are any of you making the trip to Conway, SC?

Wishful thinking but I think they have issues ranking WIU. They put us low on the MVFC so I am sure they find it hard to put us in the top 25 until we beat teams in our league.