WIU vs South Dakota (10/10/2015)

[W1U]

I was pretty impressed with the production value of the ESPN3 broadcast for today's game.

Anyways, it's nice to get this win because the next month will be very tough.

[ST_Lawson]

Good win, second half wasn't even as close as the score suggests because we'd taken out a lot of our starters by the time they made their last score. I'm pretty sure Nikko Watson didn't play at all in the 4th. We were just about moving the ball "at-will" with our starters in, and we probably could have run up the score a bit more if we'd wanted to.

Happy with how Norvell did...a couple of passes kinda got away from him, but you can't argue with 3 passing TDs, 1 rushing TD, no INTs, 288 yards and a 200.368 QB rating.
Watson with another big game - 141 yards (107 in the first half alone) and 1 rushing TD.
Norvell spread the love out a bit more amongst the receivers, which I like...
Borsellino led with 112 yards and a TD...more than half of those yards coming on one play...61 yard TD pass in the 3rd quarter
Lenoir didn't quite make it to 100 yards this time, pulling in 83 yards and a TD
Jaelon Acklin with 53 yards and a TD

Defense did pretty well, as I said, I'd hardly count the last TD since they'd let up off the gas by then.
Adam Brott had 9 solo tackles and 1 assist, with 2 tackles for loss
Brett Taylor had 8 solo and 2 assist, with 1 tackle for loss
1 forced fumble, by Colin Olson (who also had a 13 yard sack) and recovered by Mick Nelson
There was also one that should have been a forced fumble, but didn't get called that way (even the USD fans were saying they got away with that one), and an INT that was called back due to penalty (that I don't think had anything to do with the INT...other part of the field).

Special teams was better (as in...no blocked kicks), but we did only have to punt once. Knuffman had FGs from 23 and 38 yards. None of the kicks were blocked, but on the punt and a couple of the placed kicks, there were still guys getting REALLY close to blocking. I think the XP that Knuffman missed was actually because he had to pull it to the side so it wouldn't be blocked and ended up going a bit too far right. Better performance on special teams, but against a team with faster defenders on the side, I think we'd have a bit more trouble.

Still, found a way to minimize mistakes. One fumble by Devon Moore, a few dumb penalties, but not horrible for the most part. Came away with a solid win over another conference team and we're now 3-2 overall, 2-0 in the conference, so you gotta like that.

A few other comments:

The injury to the USD player in the second half (O-lineman Sam McLeran) didn't look that bad initially...I even went back and checked out the replay on ESPN3 a few times this evening after the game and it just looks like he kinda bumped into one of his own and our guys and then went down. But then he stayed down. It was pretty scary...I think maybe only about the 3rd time I can remember seeing them bring out the ambulance. I'll be monitoring the USD forum to try to find out how he's doing. I'm hoping it was mostly just precautionary measures...looked like it was a neck or head injury...so maybe they were just being extra careful and he'll be ok.

I'm pretty sure that was Kipp Jones ([user]KippJones[/user]) on the announcer's mic at the game today. I thought he did a great job too.

[lovethenecks]

Congrats to the team on an expected victory, always nice to win. Did not see much improvement especially on special teams, missed PAT and a 34 yard punt against a really bad team. Unfortunately my crystal ball does not see another victory this season. The Crystal ball does see a tie with Indiana State. The missed extra point validates how fortunate we were to make the fg last week, no guarantee with this team. many teams go a full season without missing a PAT.

[wiu712]

Getting fans to show up at games seems to be an increasing problem at many schools.

We had 6,298 for our Family Weekend game on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

Northern Illinois had a home game on Saturday afternoon vs Ball State. It was 67 and sunny in DeKalb. The attendance was 13,535.

Just a few years ago, NIU was a "BCS Buster" when they played in the January 2, 2013 Orange Bowl.

Update on the injured South Dakota player:
USD guard Sam McLeran left the field in an ambulance after taking a hit and suffering from numbness in his right side. He left in a helicopter to be checked out in Iowa City. Initial reports from USD officials were positive. He was regaining feeling in his extremities on Saturday night.

Initially he had no feeling or movement on the right side of his body. But by the time they were loading him on the helicopter, he was getting feeling back.

[Tootall]

Man I'm glad you and the crystal ball aren't hate the necks. The boys did good

[ST_Lawson]

A post over on UDS's forum says that Sam McLeran (the O-line guy who was hurt) is going to be staying in Iowa City for a few weeks to rehab. Didn't say anything about what the actual injury was. Keep him in your thoughts/prayers and hope that the medical staff at Iowa City can get him back on his feet quickly.

Here's a couple of threads over at USD to keep an eye on for any more information:
http://usdcoyotesports.proboards.com/th ... 09/prayers
http://usdcoyotesports.proboards.com/post/24371/thread

[ST_Lawson]

Update on Sam McLeran: http://www.goyotes.com/news/2015/10/12/ ... 52518.aspx

Essentially the "new" part:

McLeran has since regained limited mobility and was able to walk with assistance. He will be moved to a rehabilitation center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, later this week.

EDIT - also something I saw pointed out is that Sam is from North Liberty, IA. North Liberty is a suburb of Iowa City, so him being at the medical center at Iowa City is essentially "home" for him...near family I'd imagine, familiar surroundings.

[ST_Lawson]

Here's another update on the USD player who was injured earlier in the season at their game here: https://johncthayer.wordpress.com/2015/ ... -recovery/

From the article:

In the days that followed videos on social media showed Sam walking for the first time, running in a pool with a neck brace and eventually doing a side shuffle on the hard floor. All encouraging signs for anyone who knows Sam, Coyote fans everywhere, Western Illinois folks and an officiating crew who stayed in touch with USD’s administration concerned about the injury.

Then Sam showed up at Northern Iowa to watch the Coyotes for the first time since his injury and was on the sideline the entire game. Eventually Sam made his way back to the USD campus where he continues classes and has started light workouts.

[ST_Lawson]

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