Friday, August 31, 2012

Rough Opening for the MVFC

Last night the Missouri Valley Football conference opened up the 2012 season. Two games were schedule last night, Western Illinois vs. Butler and Southern Illinois at Eastern Illinois. As the title of this post suggests, the results from last night were disappointing.

Nikko Watson, RB Western Illinois (Photo: WIUAthletics)
Western Illinois did end the night 1-0. They beat the Bulldogs 23-15 and should end up 2-0 next week after they play Indianapolis. The problem with this victory was the product of football Western Illinois showed us. The Leathernecks showed us that they can't pass. Josh Hudson threw for 109 yards and 1 INT. It could have been worse, however, when you're playing a non-scholarship football team you still want to polish up on the weaknesses of the football team.

A win is a win, right?. Also, I still need to remember that Western was up 23-0 in the third quarter. Now, I wasn't there; maybe they brought in the second string defense and that resulted in quick scores from Butler. Who knows. In the end Western had two running backs over 100 yards and won the game. We'll see what they're made of in the next few weeks.

LaSteven McKinney, WR SIU (Photo: SIUAthletics)
The Southern Illinois game was a nightmare for the Salukis; they lost 49-28 to Eastern Illinois. They seemed to start off right where they left off last season; inconsistent, sluggish, and oddly talented. The Salukis gave up 522 yard total offense! Youngstown State, Illinois State, South Dakota State, and Northern Iowa are going to torch Southern Illinois through the air if the Salukis don't figure it out.

You have to question the coaching by Southern Illinois. Mi'kial McCall averaged 5.1 yards per carry yet he only received 11 rushing attempts; he shared carries with Steve Strother who had 12. The Salukis need to get it started on the ground, and keep it on the ground. Faulkner and his receivers are not efficient enough to keep drives alive. If they could have called half as many pass plays and twice as many run plays, Southern Illinois would have won the game. No doubt in my mind.

Next up for the MVFC:

Illinois State vs. Dayton, Saturday 2:00 (ET)
South Dakota @ Montana, Saturday 3:30
Northern Iowa @ Wisconsin, Saturday 3:30
Youngstown State @ Pittsburgh, Saturday 6:00
North Dakota State vs. Robert Morris, Saturday 7:00
South Dakota State at Kansas, Saturday 7:00
Missouri State at Kansas State, Saturday 7:10
Indiana State at Indiana, Saturday 8:00




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2 comments:

  1. Scott LawsonAugust 31, 2012 at 11:20 AM

    Context: Western alum/fan/employee (my views in no way represent the views of Western Illinois University, the WIU athletics dept., etc.) who was at the game vs Butler.

    The 2 biggest things with the Western game were:

    1. The passing game never got going. I'm hoping it was just first-game jitters, everyone a little too excited, overrunning routes, stuff like that. Things will not go well in the conference if we have to rely entirely on our running game (they're talented, but they can't carry the offense by themselves).

    2. Halftime adjustments - Butler did it well, we did not. Their O figured out how to move the ball on our D and their D figured out how to mostly slow down our RBs and they mostly accomplished that. Starters were not pulled, they played the entire game. Second half, they outscored us 15-7.

    Bright spot - Special Teams, P/K Pat Smith and his kick coverage dropped all 3 punts within the 20 (one on the 1 yard line), 3 for 3 on field goals and looked very solid/confident, 2 for 2 on PATs.

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 3, 2012 at 7:17 AM

    First of all, why is Western opening the season with Butler and Indianapolis? If they are interested in recruiting Greater Indianapolis and want to bump up the level of competition they should just go ahead and schedule Warren Central HS. I mean come on!!

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