Playoffs: Second Round

So what to make of the playoffs so far... We have had some interesting games, impressive performances along the first sixteen games. The weather has played a role in a couple and we got our good snow game in Brookings during the SDSU/Duquesne tilt.

Also, while the first round had an impressive showing attendance wise...the second round was a different story. Numbers outside of the FargoDome were pretty down. Yes, the weather did play a significant role in a few games (more on those later) but the venues and matchups for the second round games played a larger factor. Larger crowd numbers would have happened if James Madison and Jacksonville St would have hosted over Colgate and Maine. Though it wasn't like either crowd was silent and they did earn it. The quarterfinals should bring larger numbers overall as there are more rival matchups and better traveling fan bases

But at the end of the day, for all of the craziness the regular season has brought us, the final eight teams are the eight seeded teams when we started the playoffs. Home teams have gone a near perfect 15 for 16 so far in the playoffs and you have to wonder if that might change next week. The question becomes, is it a bad thing the chaos hasn't come over the playoff side or have we been lulled to sleep and the chaos is upcoming?

For now a look back on the second round


No. 7 Maine 55 - Jacksonville State 27

• If you were to look at this game from a boxing standpoint, what the Black Bears did was like a first-round knockdown that looked to end the fight early and while JSU countered, they had no real answers to the flood of shots from Maine. The defense (which is really underrated) forced a fumble on the opening JSU drive and from there the blitz was on. Maine scored on seven of its first nine possessions including a 99-yard drive towards the end of the half that basically ended the fight
• So Maine doesn't have a terribly complicated route tree and one route, in particular, was run over and over and JSU had little answer and that was the fade route. Three of the five touchdown passes thrown by Chris Ferguson were fade routes and there were so many other passes that were the same fade route. It was pretty crazy cause not all of them were run great but almost all of them were effective 
• It can be pretty funny seeing how a warm weather team deals with coming up north and playing a football game. You will always get those who don't let it bother them, warming up with no shirt on or wearing no sleeves during a game, but you can tell with body language how a team lets it get to them. Save for the 14 point burst in the middle of the second quarter, you could tell that the JSU players were not fans of sub 30-degree temps and snow. 

No. 8  Colgate 23 - James Madison 20

• Games like this are fun because the teams mirror each other in so many ways with the only difference really being the talent level advantage that James Madison had over Colgate. Both teams defenses really shined but its really hard for a team to win when you turn the ball over 5 times. Overall, this was a gritty game that came down to the final seconds 
• JMU's Ben DiNucci picked the worst time to have the worst game of his career. Four of the five interceptions he threw were just simply awful. Two really bad overthrows, a telegraphed comeback route, and a rushed throw in traffic where among the turnovers. It got so bad DiNucci got benched. But here is the best part...even after all that bad, he came back and led a game-tying drive late in the fourth quarter. Takes guts to pull that out the hat
• It's really hard to imagine that JMU wasn't at least a little affected by Mike Houston and his back in forth with E. Carolina and Charlotte. And just the whole thing kinda shows how much it really blows the advantages coaches have and how, still in season, can look for a new job and leave asap with no penalty while the player has to go through a song and dance. Also, kudos for Charlotte pulling the offer to Houston after ECU came into play and Houston waffled hard

No. 4 Kennesaw State 13 - Wofford 10

• So when you think of these two teams, you immediately think of teams that will run the ball down your throat. And the with the added element of a driving rainstorm you would think the number of passes would be somewhere around 7. Well, guess what? Combined these two teams decided to chuck it up 31 times! 31 times is not what I am expecting when these two go at it and just like all option bases offenses, the passing attack looks so bad and pop warner-ish. Oh and just for comparative purposes, they ran the ball 88 times (should have been somewhere around 120)
• Yeah, the rain had a lot to do with the sloppiness of this game but man the defenses for each team showed up in a big way. There were a combined 18 first downs, the teams went a struggle bus riding 7 for 32 of 3rd down, both teams had a pair of turnovers, and while Kennesaw only managed 3.7 yards a carry, Wofford was at a rough 1.7. 
• All down the line attendance numbers were low for the second round and this game was no different. The rain definitely kept people at bay as only 3,515 people showed up and sat thru the game. Luckily with everything, the game didn't last long. Though next week's numbers might not be that great either as a trip to S. Dakota is up next and they are dealing with a lot of snow

No. 5 South Dakota State 51 - Duquesne 6

• Speak of weather...it was a winter wonderland (always wanted to play in a snow game) in Brookings. Only a little over 3,000 people showed up for the game but a big home crowd wasn't needed as the Jackrabbits outclasses the Dukes. Kinda sucks when you think about it for the Dukes, they went from a downpour in Towson to a rough windy snowstorm. A game where if you don't come out quick, you want it to end as quickly as possible. Well the snow didn't get bad till it was already 14-0 and probably not really bad till halftime so, yeah Duquesne just had a rough go
• In games like this, throwing the ball isn't going to be the easiest thing to do so its not to have a ground game. And when one team has 326 yards and the other has 84, its pretty easy to figure out who won. The Jackrabbits averaged over 8 yards a carry and had only back averaged less than 7 ypc, yeah that 3.1 ypc from freshman RB Jefferson Lee V really made it rough on every. On the other side of the coin it was a rough day A.J. Hines, a week after racking up near 250 yards of total offense versus Towson, SDSU's defense held him 21 yards rushing and no catches
• It was a powerful day for the Missouri Valley as the two top dogs in the conference destroyed the competition. We will get to NDSU in a bit but SDSU performance was every bit as dominant as the Bison. We could easily be seeing a rematch of one of the best games of the year in the semi-finals in a couple weeks

No. 1 North Dakota State - Montana State 10

• Umm...well...they did trail for all of 5 minutes in this game but this was a statement by the Bison. 38 point onslaught in the first half where they scored on all six possessions, ran for over 400 yards, had three separate 100-yard rushers (first time since 1996, strange with all the dominant rushing performances over the years), and the four touchdown runs by Lance Dunn tied a school record
• When you see a performance like this, the question has to arise, is this the best ever? Yes there is more and better talent in the FBS, but the extended length of dominance between two coaches (currently Chris Klieman is a front-runner for the vacant Kansas State opening) makes it hard to argue against this decade-long stranglehold in the FCS top spot. The likelihood of this team not making another championship game is pretty low (though a SDSU/NDSU rematch is a nearly a coin flip) and outside of the Jackrabbits, you can see maybe two other teams (Weber St/E. Washington that could beat the Bison. It really is a long way from the Bison to the next best

No. 2 Weber State 48 - Southeast Missouri 23

• The tables were turned on SEMO...a week after not turning the ball over and a +4 turnover margin, the Redhawks had a -3 margin and Daniel Santacaterina threw 4 interceptions including two backbreakers in the first half. Overall the turnovers lead to 21 Wildcat points including a pick-six that put the game out of reach. 
• Weber State loves themselves some trickeration. Two fake punts and fake field goal wherein the cards and all three successful with the fake field goal leading to a touchdown run by Doug Lloyd, he would be the punter for the Wildcats. And all three so well designed to take advantage of weak spots on the Redhawk special teams 

No. 3 Eastern Washington 42 - Nicholls (9-4) 21

• For a while it looked like Nicholls was primed to pull off the upset and then a field goal happened and things went way south in a hurry. Up 14-3 and looking to add three more at the end of the first half, a 37-yd fg was blocked by EWU's Dylan Ledbetter, Kedrick Johnson scooped it up and returned it 55 yards and that was the end of all potential excitement as the Eagles woke up and rolled in the second half. What's worse about everything, the 3rd down play before should have been a touchdown but the ball was slightly overthrown
• Up until the tide turning blocked fg, Nicholls was playing this game masterfully. Using its run game and defense to eat up clock and hold a potent EWU offense in check. The defense forced two first-half turnovers and the offense controlled the ball and it just looked like they had the formula to pull of the upset
• Credit EWU defense, even though they were down three starters, the second half they really stepped up the pressure. Yes the end of the first half was fuel but they really made adjustments in the second half to shut down a Nicholls team that was up to the blocked kick, controlling things. It'll be interesting to see how EWU goes about things this weekend cause they had a few players go down late and depth will be tested in a rematch

No. 6 UC Davis 23 - UNI 16

• Admittedly the last game of the day was a bit tough to watch because it just lacked a pizzaz that holds you and keeps you watching. Though admittedly it was my first look at NFL prospect, UC-Davis WR Keelan Doss and he definetly looks the part of an NFL WR. Not super sure where he may land but from what I saw he was smooth and has sneaky speed. It will be nice to see him in some all-star games and see how he fairs versus some top teir FBS DBs
• Its been 100 years but UC Davis with the win, won its first-ever FCS playoff game. In fact, it was the first time in its entire history that it won a postseason game of any kind. It had gone 0-5 before Saturday in such games like the Pear Bowl, Palm Bowl, and Knute Rockne Bowl. Oh you gotta love the creative names for bowl games back in the day