Week 13 live thread

[Ship69]

IUP maybe the favorite. However, health concerns regarding key players will play a part in how well IUP plays.

Off past form IUP is probably the favorite, but that was an impressive performance by the Shepherd "O" today against what has been a tough Slippery Rock defense for most of the season.

[Ram Tough]

IUP maybe the favorite. However, health concerns regarding key players will play a part in how well IUP plays.

To be fair, Shepherd has some key players banged up after today as well.

[IUPNation]

The MIAA/GLIAC death battle in Meatchicken looked like they both came down to the end. It’s Grand Valley vs Ferris Bueller in that regional final.

[Ram Tough]

Off past form IUP is probably the favorite, but that was an impressive performance by the Shepherd "O" today against what has been a tough Slippery Rock defense for most of the season.

Shepherd's O-line won the day. They absolutely manhandled Slippery Rock's defensive front. And Joey Fisher showed why he is an NFL prospect. Amazing work by that group!

[IUPbigINDIANS]

The MIAA/GLIAC death battle in Meatchicken looked like they both came down to the end. It’s Grand Valley vs Ferris Bueller in that regional final.

That probably should be called the national title game.

[ironmaniup]

That probably should be called the national title game.

and it’s a rematch, as are 3 of the 4 regional championships

[Ram Tough]

and it’s a rematch, as are 3 of the 4 regional championships

That is an absolutely wild stat.

[EyeoftheHawk]

Had to be miscommunication is all I can think. That was awful.

Totally on the TE Laney. He was supposed to check up with the defender in zone behind him but instead he kept running and Sexton threw to the spot. You could see Laney was upset with himself after the play. The second interception was on Mak. He apparently didn’t see the safety sitting there and when it floated over the corner it was a pretty easy pick.

Ashland played a lot of two deep zone today and had some success with it. The problem with that is you’re more susceptible to the run and we all saw what happened. IUP may not have put up a lot of points, but they controlled the action and dominated time of possession. Ashland’s front three got manhandled most of the day. It wasn’t until they started bringing extra guys that they had any success stopping the run.

[ShepFan1]

Shepherd played one of their best games of the year on offense. Brown ran as tough as I have ever seen. When he wasn’t breaking a long run, he was still getting 4 or 5 yards. Bagent was Bagent, some absolute bullet passes.

Defensive line was getting consistent pressure on SR’s QB. Gave up some 8-12 yard runs, but forced a lot of negative plays as well.

Very happy with the way the team played overall. The kick off coverage needs to improve. Kudos to our kicker who has struggled at times this year, he was perfect on field goals and XPs.

Should be a great game against IUP next week.

[GregD]

Terrible, terrible INT by IUP at about the Ashland 5 yard line. I'm not sure what the IUP QB saw on that play.

Not the QB's fault

[EastStroud13]

The Pitt vs Ferris game has a PSAC crew. I would like to hug all of you and tell you it will be ok. This bunch of bumbling idiots are the absolute worst ref crew I've ever seen. They have been equally bad for both teams, they can't count, they call things randomly and they can't keep track of downs. I feel bad you all are stuck with this ineptness week in and week out.

LOL. This is my favorite post on this board. Your condolences are appreciated, sorry you got saddled with our garbage this week.

[ShepAlum]

Disclaimer: I realize Attendance figures at the D-II level are wildly unscientific ...

... that being said, would those at the IUP game confirm (or ballpark a closer figure) the reported attendance of ~ 1,300 people? If that is accurate, that's awfully sad for an important game. Shepherd reported close to 5,300 and I'd predict it was closer to 6,000+.

Shepherd folks ... any idea what's going on with Marlon Cook? He was dressed the entire game, but not once did we see a helmet in his hand let alone on the field.

[ShepAlum]

Similar to the New Haven game, Shepherd had several opportunities to pull away and go up by multiple scores--but failed to do so. Today's game was I think what we all expected--a dog-fight between two perennial contenders in the conference and region. I hope the Slippery Rock fans (and team) appreciated the game-day atmosphere at Ram Stadium and enjoyed safe travels to and from. While the score was higher today, today and next week's matchup takes me back to when Shepherd's 2015 historic playoff run had to go through IUP and Slippery Rock (albeit reverse order).

[IUPNation]

Disclaimer: I realize Attendance figures at the D-II level are wildly unscientific ...

... that being said, would those at the IUP game confirm (or ballpark a closer figure) the reported attendance of ~ 1,300 people? If that is accurate, that's awfully sad for an important game. Shepherd reported close to 5,300 and I'd predict it was closer to 6,000+.

Shepherd folks ... any idea what's going on with Marlon Cook? He was dressed the entire game, but not once did we see a helmet in his hand let alone on the field.

Were your students there? Net weeks game is still at IUP.

Maybe IUP fans were somewhere on a holiday weekend and Shepherd fans had nowhere else to go. :-)

[Ram040506]

Were your students there? Net weeks game is still at IUP.

Maybe IUP fans were somewhere on a holiday weekend and Shepherd fans had nowhere else to go. :-)

Band and cheerleaders were there. You could tell the students were at home because there wasn’t a ton there standing in the field house side of the home bleachers. It was packed though, because Martinsburg was on the road for the playoffs. Beautiful day too.