Saturday Thoughts

North Dakota State CB, Aireal Boyd

The Missouri Valley went 8-2 this week. Included in those wins were two wins against FBS competition. Illinois State demolished Eastern Michigan 31-14 and North Dakota State controlled Colorado State in their 22-7 victory. Southern Illinois and Missouri State were the only teams that lost, they lost 30-14 and 35-7 respectively to FBS competition. In other games, Indiana State put Quincy away early as they won 44-0, Northern Iowa steamrolled Central State 59-0, and Youngstown State flew by Valpo 59-0. As expected, South Dakota and South Dakota State took care of their opponents and came away with wins last night as well. The most surprising game was again, Western Illinois. Western Illinois struggled with Indianapolis more than I thought they would; they won by 10 points. This was the second week in a row that Western Illinois has played below my expectations.

Illinois State 31, Eastern Michigan 14

Illinois State came out strong and took a 10-0 lead in the first quarter. Soon after, Eastern Michigan came running back to take a 14-10 halftime lead. The second half was completely dominated by Illinois State and the Redbirds pulled away to seal-the-deal. The Redbird defense in the second half was amazing; it was 3-and-out time-after-time for Eastern Michigan. Illinois State will take on Eastern Illinois next week. This should be a revenge game for the MVFC as Eastern Illinois took down conference-mate Southern Illinois in the first week.

Miami (OH) 30, Southern Illinois 14

This game didn't surprise me much. However, Southern Illinois performed much better in this game than they did against Eastern Illinois last week. The Salukis actually out-gained Miami in total offense 349 to 336. This could be a step towards getting their defense in order. Next week Southern Illinois will play Southeast Missouri State at home.

Indiana State 44, Quincy 0

Indiana State got on the board quick; 21-0 after the first, 37-0 at halftime. After halftime the starters were out and Indiana State was just running the ball. Sycamore defensive lineman Ben Obaseski got a TD run today. Next week Indiana State will play non-scholarship Drake. Drake played Montana State tough last night, the Bulldogs lost by 10. This game might not be as easy as it looks for Indiana State.

Illinois State WR, Tyrone Walker

Youngstown State 59, Valparaiso 0

The Penguin starters barely played in this game. Kurt Hess went 7-10 for 136 yards and 2 TDs, Jamaine Cook only carried the ball eight times. Didn't really matter how much they played, they still racked up 524 yards of offense. Next week, Youngstown State will play Albany, a tougher team from a lesser-scholarship conference.

South Dakota 31, Colgate 21

The Coyotes picked up a nice win here. They played much better on defense, however, Colgate had a lot of success running the ball. South Dakota will need to fill those gaps once conference play comes around. Colgate had two backs go over 100 yards in this game. On a good note, Coyote RB Marcus Sims had a great day running; he averaged over 9 yards a carry and scored once. USD will be on bye this week, however in two weeks USD will take on Northwestern who struggled with Vanderbilt last night.

Louisville 35, Missouri State 7

Again, Missouri State played well against ranked FBS competition. Missouri State hung in there and was only down 18-7 at halftime. Ashton Glaser is a pretty good quarterback for the Bears and things are looking up for them. However, in two games they still have been outscored 86-16; even if its against ranked FBS competition, these losses take their toll. Missouri State will get a home game versus Murray State next week. Murray State is 0-2 as well and was beaten pretty bad by Central Arkansas last night.

Western Illinois 27, Indianapolis 17

I predicted Western Illinois to win 35-14; it was worse than that. Indianapolis hung in there with Western Illinois and only lost by 10. Western Illinois has a tremendous amount of work to do if they want to challenge Iowa State next week. Indianapolis out-gained Western Illinois in total offense by about 50 yards, if they hadn't turned the ball over four times they might have beaten the Leathernecks. On the bright side, the Western Illinois running game was alive and well again, Caulton Ray and Nikko Watson both had decent days. However, a quarterback change seriously needs to be considered. I'm afraid Leatherneck quarterback Josh Hudson just does not have "it".

North Dakota State 22, Colorado State 7

Northern Iowa WR, Phil Wright
(Photo: Matthew Putney/WCFC)

The best part of this game was that I immediately went over to the Colorado State rivals message board. Holy cow Batman, it was pure gold. Honestly, anyone who didn't expect this is an idiot who is conceited to the level of delusion. But of course, I'm forgetting that 95% of FBS fans do not understand that there are good teams at the FCS level, and because of those 95% of FBS fans, these wins are just that much sweeter. Really, there isn't much else to say; it was a normal game for the Bison, Brock Jensen was efficient and threw a TD pass, Sam Ojuri and John Crockett combined for over 100 yards, and the defense played amazing. North Dakota State will be on a BYE this next week; they'll match up with Prairie View A&M in two weeks.

Northern Iowa 59, Central State 0

I picked 63-0, pretty close, but easy prediction. Freshman quarterback Sawyer Kollmorgen was stellar again he threw 3 TDs by the time Jared Lanpher took over in scrub time. Not much else to say about this game other than I think that Northern Iowa might seriously have a shot at beating Iowa next week.

South Dakota State 31, Southeastern Louisiana 14

South Dakota State RB, Zach Zenner
(Photo: Randy Bergeron/SELO Public Info)

The Jackrabbits were fairly dominant in this game. Southeastern Louisiana was completely overpowered at the line-of-scrimmage as Zach Zenner ran for 278 yards and a TD. Quarterback Austin Sumner added two touchdown passes as the Rabbits cruised past the Lions. South Dakota State will definitely need to work on their red-zone offense in order to pull off the big wins against top MVFC competition. Had South Dakota State converted their FG's into TD's this game would have been a larger blowout.