MVFC Week 2 Review
Chad Lenz & JT Nutt, MVFC Contributors | September 15, 2015
JT Says-
Northern Iowa – 38
Eastern Washington – 35
Eastern Washington has 1100 yards in 2 games, has scored at LEAST a td in every quarter and is 0-2. Cooper Kupp had 179 yards, 9 receptions, 2 TDs and an awesome one handed Gronk-like grab that got oooh’s from the UNI crowd. UNI’s offense sputtered in the first and third quarters but caught fire in the 2nd and did enough in the 4th. Special teams much improved with Kuhter as the punter. Farley has still only lost one home opener as the head coach of UNI. That’s still true after the 38-35 win.
Missouri State – 21
Chadron State (D2) – 13
Missouri State let Chadron State hang around. It was a 1 point game in the final 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter. But the Bears had a 6 play 75 yard 1:29 minute drive ending with a 55 yard rushing TD by Breck Ruddick to put the Bears up for good. Ruddick also passed for oneTD and 28 yards on 19-34 passing in addition running 12 times for 69 yards. Mo State survives 21-13.
Youngstown State – 21 OT
Robert Morris – 14
Bo Pelini must still have some Nebraska left in him when his Youngstown State team needed overtime to beat Robert Morris. They trailed twice but tied it up with 7 minutes left in regulation. Uglier than the win was Robert Morris only having 9 first downs only 168 yards of offense including 16 yards passing but 336 yards of punting. 21 – 14 the Penguins march on.
Southern Illinois – 24
Southeast Missouri State – 27
5 turnovers doomed Sourthern Illinois against Southeast Missouri State. After trailing for most of the first half, SIU’s Daquan Isom caught a Mark Iannotti pass to go up 21-17 with less than a minute left before half time. SEMO forced 2 fumbles, one or a score to go with 3 interceptions, 1 for a touchdwon in their upset effort. Too many mistakes cost SIU what should have been an easy victory, they fall 27-24 on a 42 yard field goal with 5 seconds left.
South Dakota – 27
UC Davis – 17
South Dakota used 243 rushing yards to beat UC Davis 27-17. Trevor Bouma led all 5 rushers with 18 attempts for 187 yards and 2 TD’s. UC Davis QB Ben Scott had 234 yards passing but only 1 TD to go with 3 interceptions while getting sacked 4 times. A nice road win for South Dakota who move on to face Drake this weekend.
Chad says-
Western Illinois – 0
Illinois (FBS) – 44
I thought Western Illinois had a chance, I really did, I also said that Illinois wasn’t the dumpster fire they appeared to be from the outside. I’m not sure if Illinois is considerably better than I thought they were, if Western Illinois isn’t even close to living up to the preseason potential, or it was just one of those days. The Leathernecks managed just 141 total yards of offense and 4 first downs when penalty first downs are taken out. Trenton Norvell, widely considered to be a top 3 QB in the MVFC, managed to complete just 8 of his 18 passes for a meager 22 yards. He also threw two interceptions. I thought the key would be Lance Lenoir Jr. getting his yards with support coming from elsewhere. Lenoir had just 2 catches for zero total yards, while only managing to gain 31 total yards on 4 returns. Due to the fact the offense was so anemic I have a tough time being too hard on the yards WIU’s defense gave up – 353 passing and 147 rushing. I’m not ready to push the panic button on Western Illinois just yet, but I am lifting the protective cover off of it.
Indiana State – 14
Purdue (FBS) – 38
This is the second of the MVFC/Big Ten games I thought was ripe for the picking (along with WIU/Illinois). Sycamore quaterback, Matt Adams, did what he could to get the Sycamore’s going, but couldn’t get help from anywhere else on the field. Adams was 18-37 passing for 194 yards with 2 touchdowns, but he also threw two costly interceptions. He also lead the team in rushing with 19 carries for 80 yards. After the Sycamore run game looking completely dominate the opening week of the season, Adams got no help from the trio of running backs behind him as they managed just 80 yards on 22 carries. The real surprise for me from this game was the lack of fight from the defense, which is normally solid. Purdue managed to pick up 540 yards of total offense, at nearly 7 yards per play. We knew there were going to be growing pains for the Sycamore offense this year after the loss of Mike Perrish. Those growing pains are there, but managing 354 yards of offense shows the potential the offense has, though Matt Adams is going to need the running back production to come back up. I have no reason to believe the Sycamore defense will continue to give up 500+ yards per game. I’m willing to give this game a pass for Indiana State.
North Dakota State – 41
Weber State – 14
Carson Wentz shocked pretty much everyone in the FCS, outside of those in Fargo (maybe), when he trotted onto the field for the opening series for the Bison offense. He showed zero side effects of the high ankle sprain he suffered 2 weeks ago in the loss at Montana. Wentz threw for 281 yards and three touchdowns, and added 45 yards on 7 carries and two touchdowns on the ground. I thought this game might have been closer than it was, but Mr. Wentz wasn’t going to let Weber State do anything to ruin the celebration from raising another championship banner. The Bison came out and looked like the Bison of the last 4 years as nine different Bison combined for 305 yards and two touchdowns on 52 carries. It might be the most cliché thing to say but this was the most Bison ground and pound win you could imagine. The defense dominated the line of scrimmage every bit the same the offense did. Weber State averaged just 2.4 yards per carry on the ground, and outside of one 68 yard completion to Cam Livingston, managed just 85 yards through the air. Whatever bit of concern existed after the Montana game has to be gone after this performance, does it not? Even if it was against a Weber State team that is 6-29 the last three seasons.
South Dakota State – 55
Southern Utah – 10
The Jackrabbits have been known as the team that manages to find a running back to put up massive yards every single year, no matter who it is. Look at the linneage of running backs in Brookings and it’s something almost every school would be jealous of – Zenner (6,548 yards ‘11-’14), Kyle Minett (4,261 yards ‘07-10’), Cory Koening (2,990 yards ‘04-’07). Brady Mengarelli may be next in line as he has 27 carries for 212 yards (7.9 yards per carry…..I’ll say it again, 7.9 yards per carry) and 4 touchdowns through the first two weeks. What makes those number truly scary is Zach Lujan looks immensely more comfortable in the pocket this season. Lujan is 36-60 (60%) for 607 yards (303.5 yards per game) and 6 touchdowns. Southern Utah saw the entirety of that offensive attack first hand last week, and the part to really make me want to shake my head at how good the offense was last week is they did it in 2.5 quarters as the Jackrabbits didn’t score their first touchdown until halfway through the second quarter. This is a type of offense that the MVFC hasn’t seen in years. If SDSU keeps this type of production up they have to become the favorites going forward.
Illinois State 67
Morgan State 14
This game went exactly as I thought it would for Illinois State’s offense. Marshaun Coprich ran for 130 yards and 3 touchdowns on just 20 carries. Roberson threw for 259 yards and 4 touchdowns and needed just 13 passes to do it. I never lost faith in the Redbird offense, even after the disaster at the line of scrimmage against Iowa. What does give me some pause is the fact that Morgan State managed to gain 185 yards rushing on 41 carries (4.5 yards per carry) when Illinois State’s one sack and a 27 yard “team rush”, for a snap over the punter’s head, are taken out of the rushing numbers. Maybe Morgan State has a much better ground game than I realize. Maybe I’m starting to see the beginning of a trend for the Redbird defense. I would expect more than one sack and more tackles for loss for Illinois State against a MEAC program like Morgan State.
CONFERENCE POW
POW dominated by USD and UNI this week
OFFENSE
RB Trevor Bouma (BOW-muh) – South Dakota
Bouma (BOW-muh) averaged better than 10 yards per carry while piling up a career best 186 yards and 2 touchdowns.
DEFENSE
CB Deiondre’ (Dee-andre) Hall – Northern Iowa
Hall broke his right hand in the first half, got it casted, and still finished the game with 6 tackles, a pass break-up and a game securing pick six late in the 4th quarter.
NEWCOMER
QB – Aaron Bailey – Northern Iowa
Bailey totaled 225 total yards – 91 yards passing on 7-13 passing and 134 yards rushing on just 19 carries. He also had two passing touchdowns.
Special Teams
P/PK Miles Bergner (Burg-ner) – South Dakota
Miles nailed field goals of 30 and 45 yards and netted 41.1 yards per punt, including pinning 3 inside the 20.