WIU at Northern Iowa (10/17/2015)

[ST_Lawson]

And just a bit of a wrap-up:

• Norvell ended up going 25 out of 36 for 263 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT for a 134.4 QB rating. He now has 1,471 yards so far this season (245.2 per game) and 6,502 yards for his career. That puts Trenton at the #4 spot on the career passing yards list (passing Russ Michna) and is only 10 yards behind #3, Steve LaFalce. He also now has 49 career passing TDs, #2 on the list and is 13 TDs behind #1 Paul Singer.
• Watson put up another 100+ yard game, racking up 115 yards and a TD on 35 attempts (3.3 per run). He has 584 rushing yards through 4 games played, an average of 146 per game. His 2,232 career yards puts him at #9 on the career rushing list, 18 yards behind #8, Caulton Ray.
• Lenoir caught 6 passes for 76 yards which puts him at 519 so far this season and takes him over 2k for his career (2,038 specifically). He's currently sitting at #5 on the list of career receiving yards and about 29 yards behind #4, Terrian Crump and is 388 yards away from taking over the #1 position (from Reggie Gray).
• Borsellino caught 7 for 64 yards and a TD, which puts him at 375 for the season and 1,389 for his career so far, good for the #12 position on the career yards list.
• Defensively, we were led by Brett Taylor with 11 solo tackles (12 total)
• Dallas Nichols had 5 solo tackles and John LaChapelle, Xavier Rowe, and Adam Brott each had 4
• Aaron Diggs had 2 solo tackles and a HUGE interception returned 95 yards for a TD
• David Griffin also had an interception near the end of the game that just about shut the door on UNI
• Our defense held UNI to 91 rushing yards and 170 passing yards
• And on special teams, 3 for 3 on XP attempts, 1 for 2 on FGs (missing a 43-yarder) and we punted 3 times for a 35.7 yards per punt average, with no blocks
• Mistakes - kickoff going out of bounds to start the game, Norvell throwing a pick-6 in the 3rd, more than a few instances of possible interceptions on our part that were dropped...not too much else that I can remember off the top of my head.

Western is now 4-2 overall, 3-0 in the conference, but it doesn't get any easier from here on out...heading to top 4-ranked Illinois State for their Homecoming game next weekend. Still, you couldn't have asked for a better start to the conference season...we're playing well, and I think we've shown that we are a threat to pretty much anyone in the conference.

[huskie]

Great Leatherneck Team win today! Go NECKS!

[ST_Lawson]

Great Leatherneck Team win today! Go NECKS!

Absolutely a great team effort. It's easy for me to look at the numbers put up by the guys moving the ball, but without great play by the O-line, that doesn't happen. There was...what...1 sack I think, but otherwise it seemed like Norvell had quite a bit of time to let the pass plays develop. Watson is a beast in his own right, but that also doesn't happen in a vacuum...he's gotta have holes to run through and for the most part, they were there. You don't get 4 straight 100+ yard rushing games without holes to run through.

Defense, for the most part, was all over the place (in a good way)...wherever the ball was, they were there. Even if they gave up a pass play, quite often the receiver didn't get much/any yards after the catch. Lots of knocked down passes and near interceptions, which tells me that they're really seeing where the ball was going and putting themselves in the right place to be there to stop or catch it.

Great job by the whole team.

[wiu712]

Write-up about the game from the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier:
http://wcfcourier.com/sports/college/un ... 77026.html

[letsgonecks]

Line play has been great on both sides. Health on the O and depth on the D has been key. Baldus got rolled up on, but came back in so that was good to see. Don't know if they got credited with a sack as it looked to possibly be a QB keeper on the one he went down on.

The D line doesn't get to many sacks but plenty of pressure and contain their gaps. Really impressed with the D overall.

The pick 6 by Novell looked to be a miscommunication between he and Smith, but he got away with a few others. Good game overall and was most impressed on three separate 3rd down conversion were he made three great passes and had 3 great catches by Larry, Acklin and believe Joey.

[Western_101]

Great Leatherneck effort and outcome.

Great recap Scott.

[Western_101]

I don't understand the Jeff Sagarin's rating criteria.

I also don't understand how teams with losing records are considered top 10 or 15 teams.

WIU two losses: #1 Coastal Carolina (which WIU led most of game) and a top 50 FBS BIG TEN team.

WIU remains unranked.

[ST_Lawson]

You might be looking at last week's rankings. I'm seeing Western listed at 17th in the FCS for Sagarin.

EDIT - yea, here's the link for the updated Sagarin rankings: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaaf/sagarin/
We're 111 in Div. I, 17th out of the FCS teams. Sagarin also tends to rank MVFC teams a little higher than you usually see in the STATS poll, so I'd expect we'll end up somewhere around 20 in most of the "people" polls when they come out tomorrow. Usually they're released late morning/early afternoon and I'll post the rankings in a separate post once they're all posted online.

[Neckfansince71]

A ton of frustration over at the UNI Panther Board after yesterday's loss to the Leathernecks. Many are what you would say, "considerably shocked" that the Necks even had a chance. There is a lot of blame to throw around and Farley is sure getting his fair share. Some people have even stated that "now UNI is truly a basketball school." There was a statement regarding the fact that they did not hire a new O line coach after their's left due to budget constraints. They are also talking about the fact that athletes are being stolen right from under their noses to other FCS schools, something that never use to happen. What they don't realize is that Coach N and his staff have been slowly building the program back to the glory years from the defensive line and offensive line up. 5 very tough games to go but people are beginning to figure out that the Necks are for real! Tell me this, how in the world does a team that WIU beat 42-21 just last week, beat the reining MVFC and FCS champions on their home turf the week after? Guess you gotta play them no matter what the preseason rankings say! jc

[yokedneck]

8 Iowa kids on the WIU roster of which 3 are OL who played yesterday. Coach Blazek getting it done.

Tom