FCS Playoffs Round 1

Well that was a very interesting Saturday...eight teams no longer in the hunt as we had a good mix of games from the sloppy to the the evenly-matched. This week was most likely a sign of how the playoffs will roll as a hole. Before I get to each game individually, some general thoughts about the weekend

• Note to ESPN, can we get back the multiscreen for the WatchESPN page? Scrolling between 6 games can be rough and would have been made at least a tiny bit easier with that feature. Though admittedly once the Western/Weber St game came on I focused most attention that way
• The NCAA really needs to find a way to do away with the regional match-ups. Its like how the D-II playoffs are done without the regional rankings and it made for a few uneven match-ups and a couple games with teams that should be hosting playoff games not going on the road
• There were some solid crowds at all the games this weekend with the smallest being the UNH/CCSU game with only 2,300+ and the largest being a bit of a surprise with Nicholls/S. Dakota drawing just under 10,000. NCAA should be pretty impressed with those numbers on a holiday weekend and we should see those numbers rise with some of the top schools in terms attendance hosting games
• Also good call by ESPN to bring in crews who know their FCS football. Too often its easy to have some low tier FBS crew calling a game and their lack of knowledge show but in every broadcast you had guys who have called FCS games during the year 

Elon V Furman

• First game of the day did not disappoint as a blocked XP was the only thing keeping this game from being more exciting and probably being the best of the day. Still one hell of a game between two conference rivals
• That was one hell of a performance from Elon RB De'Sean McNair (15-101-3) who you could clearly see limping the whole day. 
• Its nice to see some trickeration during the playoffs, even when it isn't too successful as both teams tried flea flickers and WR passes 
• In a game that had less than 3,000 people, it seemed like a good chunk of them were Furman fans. A lot of purple in the crowd
• It was a bit of a rough game for Furman WR Thomas Gordon as his two fumbles set up two Elon touchdowns...luckily in the end it didn't matter but still rough

New Hampshire v C. Conn. St

• This was a very sloppy game, UNH missing 3 field goals and throwing a pick in the redzone. Luckily for them CCSU didn't muster up much offense all game and threw three picks themselves
• It was interesting hearing the reasoning behind the suspension of CCSU QB Jacob Dolegala as he was suspended for having a party during the football season. Now I would be interested to hear more details about it and if he willingly had the party knowing the punishment that come to him
• This would have been a totally different game if the trick place that the Blue Devils ran was run properly. What a momentum killer it was too...instead of first and goal at the 2, you have third and 24 at the 46. Just ouch
• Seeing the reaction of CCSU Head Coach Pete Rossomando during the review of the double forward pass was classic. That was a coach who knew the best chance to pull even had vanished 
• The crowd at this game was just a little disappointing, I wonder how much CCSU plus the holiday had to do with things but makes you wish someone else (Western, San Diego, Samford) had a home playoff game instead 

Stony Brook v Lehigh

• The first of three blowouts on the day and while showed some intrigue early, as the game went on you saw the class of Stony Brook shine over Lehigh
• Coming into this game you knew Lehigh would struggle on D but the Seawolves put up their best offensive performance in a long while racking up over 600 yards, 354 of them on the ground
• Its always cool to see a guy who has been through some rough times perform. 6th year senior Donald Liotine, who started at UMass and has had two season-ending injuries, put together a 17-133-2 performance. Not bad
• Troy Pelletier is one talented WR...the Senior had 10 catches and a number of times looked like the best player on the field. It'll be interesting what kind of interest he gets from NFL scouts, he definitely has a football body

Kennesaw St. v Samford

• A rematch from a Week 1 tilt wasn't as good as the first one but still pretty good 
• Jacksonville St is gonna have their hands full with this Owls team, seeing that triple option humming is a sight. By no stretch were they perfect but even then cranking out over 300 yards on the ground like blinking an eye, impressive
• Admittedly I didn't watch as much of this game as I wanted but what I did see was two teams too evenly matched to be a first round game. This felt a lot like quarterfinal with both teams going blow for blow

Weber St v Western Illinois

• It really sucks being both these teams; Weber St for doing what needs to be done to get a home playoff game only to draw a Top 10 team and Western for being a Top 10 team who only played four home games (maybe one under somewhat ideal situations) and drawing a really good, under appreciated Wildcat team
• With bad draw aside, this game was as good as it gets (not the best game of the weekend).
• The matchup between WIU WR Jaelon Acklin and Weber St CB Taron Johnson was as good as you might see. Acklin did end up with 10 catches (the first a really good one handed catch) but Johnson made his fair share of plays and showed how both could be looked at seriously by NFL scouts
• Weber St TE Andrew Vollert had a monster game (8-112-1) and one of the smoothest one-handed catches you will ever see. I mean just stuck his right hand up, made the catch, tucked it all in one smooth motion. 
• The moment in the game that will have Western fans really upset is the roughing the passer penalty and unsportsmanlike conduct on Pete Swenson. Is it a penalty? I mean, yea alright, but the game is still football and it wasn't like it was anything really that special. But in the age of protecting QBs, boom flag. The yelling at the ref and getting a second flag? No excuse
• One play later, Vollert catches his TD pass which turned out to be the game winner

Nicholls St v South Dakota

• Say what you want about these teams not being worthy of a playoff birth but they had the game of the day. Yeah it was a bit sloppy but every time you thought USD was going to run away and hide, Nicholls came charging back
• Chris Streveler had the best performance of any player this weekend. While his Int in the 2nd quarter gave life to the Colonels, overall his 400+ yards and 4tds of offense was enough
• I said this in the beginning but the crowd at Nicholls was amazing. They were into the game and really gave the game that extra boost you love to see in playoff games. And the tip of the cap at the end of the game was a class act by a fan base that appreciated all that those kids accomplished throughout the season
• You have to feel for Kyran Irvin...the fumble at the goalline to end the game was a crusher. What makes it worse is that it never looked like he had full control of the ball to begin with
• Anyone else looking forward to the matchup between Streveler and Sam Houston QB Jeremiah Briscoe? Could easily see 700+ passing yards between the two

Northern Iowa v Monmouth

• Northern Iowa is a pretty good team from the best conference is FCS but man did they luck out with the draw. The Panthers were a big step up in class for the Hawks and it showed
• It was a really rough 1st half for Monmouth...their seven possessions went like this (INT, Punt, Punt, INT, Punt, INT, Half). Yikes, for a team that was hoping for an upset that is doomsday
• On the flip side UNI 1st half possessions (TD, TD, TD, FG, FG, TD). That's really good and overall UNI went 9 for 9 in redzone opportunities 

Norther Arizona v San Diego

• Talk about a surprise...the Toreros went to flagstaff and came away with a 31 point victory and it was never really that close
• Just like with UNI, San Diego was efficient once it reached the redzone as they went 6 for 6  with four touchdowns
• What makes this result amazing was just the level of domination shown...the Toreros D held the Lumberjacks to only 238 yards of offense 
• After back to back open round playoff wins on the road, it makes you wonder if San Diego would get a home game if it made the playoffs next year