SCSU wins 54-48

Ok, so who saw this one coming..? Not this guy!

For the record, I thought that SCSU played better than the Mavs played poorly. I think the Huskies played exceptional on offense. Kato wasn't fantastic, but they were punched in the mouth and taken a bit out of their own game.

By now you already know the story, but here's how I saw it. SCSU gets off to a fast start (up 3 scores), Kato narrows down the margin at the middle of the game (staying within striking distance), then SCSU extends their lead by a few more scores, and then the Mavs make a run at the end but come up about 1 play short.

Helluva game. One of the best I can recall watching in a while....keep in mind that I enjoy small college sports better than D1, etc.

Some of the main details.....Klaphake throws for 344 yards (4 TD) and runs for another 144 (2 TD), while not throwing an INT. This is one exceptional performance against what a lot of us thought was the best defense in D2 football.

Wolf throws for 335 yards himself (2 TD) and rushes for 103 more (2 TD), but did have 1 INT and got sacked 5 times. He also played very well and led his team back in this game when it seemed like they were left for dead.

People are saying that Klaphake is better than Wolf because of this game. I dunno about that. Is he a better passer, certainly. Throws a much prettier ball and throwing motion. While Klaphake is a good runner himself, he doesn't run with nearly the athleticism that Wolf does. Overall I'd say Wolf is still more then play maker, while Klaphake is the better conventional quarterback. Fair enough..? (Keep in mind, I did mention when the All Conference Team came out that you could make a case for Klaphake being the POY. I would have no issue with that, both are fantastic D2 signal callers)

Looking at the game itself, tactically, I was stunned that Mankato was willing to continue playing man coverage (with seemingly no deep help) against SCSU, while Klaphake was continually taking deep shots over the top....and completing them. Huge kudos to the Huskies OL, they kept their QB clean for the better part of the day against a front 4 that basically beat the heck out of the best offenses in the NSIC this fall. I almost got the feeling that SCSU had viewed the Valdosta game film from last year....as Valdosta took some shots down the field successfully on Mankato while keeping their QB relatively clean.

Maybe I'm nuts, but I'm not sure why the Mavs didn't play some cover 2, and try and make Klaphake march down the field by hitting underneath routes. I realize that Kato played aggressive this year on defense and isn't afraid to take chances, but by halftime it was apparent that Klaphake was loving the coverage he was seeing by the Mavs as he was torching them. (190 yards at half if I recall correctly) The running game for the Huskies isn't so good that you need to commit your safeties to the running game. If Klaphake is doing a zone read play, sure, safeties need to help....but we are talking about drop back passes here without the threat of him taking off in a zone-read manner. (I know he took one long one, but that's 1 long run he made with his feet versus several big plays over the top)



Watching the game I was just stunned that SCSU was putting up these kind of points on a team that I was convinced had the ability to throw down with NWMSU, and beat them. I was very much looking forward to that contest and that it would be one of the top recent small college match-ups of 2 unbeaten teams, very evenly matched. Now this was all going away, with Cinderella (6 seed out of 6) seemingly now making the trip down to play NWMSU.

After having watched bits of the game again Sunday, I now wonder a little bit more about SCSU. They played with nothing to lose against the Mavs and kinda got the home team out of their own game. Wolf was really the only person Kato got involved in the first half, and by the time everyone else got more involved it was seemingly a bit late. That said, the Mavs did score 48 points....that should win at home in the playoffs. This SCSU team is pretty multidimensional on offense though. They run the ball ok (not great), but Klaphake can supplement that with his decent feet. Then he can also bomb it over the top. As a defense, that's a lot to prepare for.

....and how about the last 30 seconds of the game. Eh boy. Mavs are marching, but no timeouts means that the clock disappears in a hurry. The Mavs get out of bounds a few times (or close enough that they get the call), but then Dennis Carter catches a 9 yard ball and goes down short of the first down sticks. I didn't get any impression that the Mavs were going to get a measurement, so they were clearly at risk of the clock running out or very low at that point....but Carter then comes up with a hammy..or something. I wasn't sure at the very moment if it was a fake job or not, he did wobble off the field at one point earlier in the 4th quarter. Moments later when he returned to the game for the final play, any speculation of an injury went out the window. I thought the refs made the right call for the 10 second run-off, which basically put the clock down to 3 seconds for 1 last play.

So Wolf takes the snap and runs around like crazy (barely escaping the rush), and eventually travels about 40 yards back and forth and lets the ball fly into the middle-back of the end zone. The ball is about 1-2 yards past the end line, as one of his guys comes down with the ball in a small crowd of players but was not nearly close enough to the end zone to draw any thoughts of it being a touchdown. Even thought the ball was thrown out of the end zone there was still drama til the very end.

To think that SCSU almost missed making the playoffs really shows how good this region is....and I really hope that somehow things change with regard to getting the best teams in the dance. I realize it likely wont, just sayin.

For the Mavs, this has been another fantastic season. Both this year and last year I end walking away with the impression that the Mavs should've been in the championship game (one of the top teams), but fell just a bit short. Can the Mavs continue with the type of success they'd had the last few years, I think they can to an extent but they will lose their 2 biggest play makers in Wolf and Carter (along with DE Chris Schaudt) so I doubt they will be quite as dynamic.....but they return a lot of depth (and a solid #2 QB), and still should be very solid.





NWMSU 45, UMD 21
Kinduva weird game this was. It's a near stand-still for the first half but then NW gets 2 scores, is up 10-0 at the break and all the sudden that starts to feel like an insurmountable lead. Then in the 2nd half the Bearcats get the best of things and end up winning comfortably. Ok, how did we get there..

Duluth had plenty of chances early in a slow going half. The Bulldogs get 2 INT's early in this one and some half decent field position but they come away with no points after 2 trips into the red zone. I felt the 2nd trip when they were at the goal was very costly. I thought UMD was a little too vanilla at that time and became predictable, and that they needed to at least come away with 3 points. at least....a lead. However, the UMD kicking game looked a bit shaky in the playoffs so I get it..

The NWMSU D lived up to their lofty reputation in this one, basically shutting down the UMD rushing game..instead of just not getting run over by it. Sikorski gets held to 21 yards on 13 carries. QB Drew Bauer was slippery at times, but a fair amount seemed too little too late. The front 7 for the Cats did a good job of not letting UMD have success on the ground like they've had all year long. This forced some tougher down-and-distance for the Bulldogs, and their passing game just doesn't do well in that situation. The UMD passing is setup by a plowing running attack. It's not meant to get the Dogs outta a hole. Bauer did struggle, 13 for 38 and 138 yards, while getting put on his back often....7 sacks. This was really what I feared for UMD, getting down or put into passing situations and looking like they were a fish out of water.

I thought the UMD defense played very well in the first half, but then when the NW passing game started to mix things up a bit and when Brady Bolles came in to give a the Cats a different look, things changed a bit. It looked like NW was really able to mix things up a lot in the early 2nd half and this broke things open.

When Duluth never was able to get an early lead (and play with one), it seemed like the game was left for NW to grab it....and they did. After 2 early interceptions, Adams was able to start hitting his targets and NW was able to start getting some chunk plays in the passing game. The speed of the NW passing game ended up hurting Duluth and really drove the game was being close to feeling like a blowout.

To the credit and heart of Duluth, they found themselves down 31-0 in the 2nd half, and kept on fighting. The Bulldogs get a score, then get a pick-6, and get the ball again and march for another td. All the sudden it's 31-21 with about 6 minutes left. Wow! Just when the game looked like it was going to get a little hairy for the Cats, they opened things up again..closing it out at 45-21.

Some quick takes from the game..
-Duluth would be well-served to get a little better at throwing the football, for emergency purposes. I realize they do fantastic running the football and have for a while, I'm just sayin.
-NWMSU does a better job with the 2 QB system than just about anybody I can think of. It works.
-Reuben Thomas is a dangerous offensive for NW, a deep threat who can get lose in the secondary.
-Very fitting that the guy who gets the pick-6 for UMD was one of the top defenders in the NSIC, Colby Ring, in his final game.

NWMSU is a very complete squad, playing at home, and will be a very tough out with only 8 teams remaining. One could make a case that the Duluth team they beat last Saturday might be the best team they face in the postseason. I think it's far too early to answer that.

Duluth had another great year and continues to forge a legacy at the D2 level. The Bulldogs might have lost to the 2 top teams in the country, in my eyes. Nothing to scoff at. This Duluth team will bring back a lot of starters, along with a freshman qb who will only get better. They are in good hands and their program will continue to be a measuring stick program in the Northern Sun....and the country.


Up Next....SCSU at NWMSU, Noon, December 7th.