The Javelinas finally came out on the positive end of things when playing Midwestern State with their 27-7 win on Saturday night. Prior to that game, the Hoggies had lost the previous five games against the Mustangs.
The Hogs used a dominating performance on offense and defense to notch the victory. They outgained the Mustangs, 358-161 and doubled the total number of first downs 26-13. The win evened up the overall series at 6-6. Midwestern had been the only team to hold a winning record against the Javelinas with at least 10 games played.
Double Digit Wins
The Javelinas are going for their 10th win of the season this week when they take on Southeastern Oklahoma. The Hoggies have won at least 10 games in a season on 15 occasions. the first double digit victory season came in 1959 when the team went 12-1 en route to winning their first NAIA National Championship. The last time they recorded at least 10 wins came in 2003 when they went 11-2, won the Lone Star Conference and advanced to the NCAA Division II Semifinals.
Wonderful Woodson
Since moving into the starting lineup four weeks ago, sophomore running back Jonathon Woodson has been playing like an All-American.
A week after earning LSC South Division Offensive Player of the Week honors, he gained 199 all-purpose yards in the team’s win over Midwestern State. He picked up 96 rushing yards on 19 carries and scored a touchdown. As a receiver, he caught a career high nine passes for 61 yards. He also added two kick returns for 42 yards.
Since taking over the starting role Woodson is averaging 101.5 rushing yards, 42.0 receiving yards and another 54.3 kick return yards. He has moved into fourth place in the conference with 118.6 yards per game.
Getting Defensive
The Javelina defense has been consistently great this year and Saturday was no exception as they held an offense that came in averaging 37.0 points, 215.2 yards rushing and 226.1 yards passing per game to seven points, 86 yards rushing and 75 yards passing.
Midwestern State became the sixth opponent this year to score one touchdown or less against the Javelinas. It was the eighth time this season the Hogs have held an opponent under 100 yards rushing and the third time they held an opponent under 100 yards passing.
The Javelina rushing defense has been especially good this year and has been ranked first in the nation for the majority of the season. They are giving up only 2.1 yards per carry and three total touchdowns on the ground for the season.
Land of Lincoln
Senior wide receiver Ryan Lincoln has become more involved in the offense since fellow senior receiver Delashaun Dean went down with a season-ending injury in Game 6. The Javelinas have incorporated Lincoln more than ever before in the running game.
On Saturday, Lincoln carried the ball a career high 10 times as he took a number of direct snaps in the "Pineapple Express" formation that includes a trio of Samoans, Johnny Tivao and Roman Pula in the backfield and Sifa Pinomi as an extra tight end. Lincoln only gained 23 yards rushing, but picked up two touchdowns and another two first downs.
In the past four games, Lincoln has scored three rushing touchdowns while picking up 334 yards receiving. He has 200 receptions for 2,712 yards and 53 carries for 262 yards in his career.
Running Down a Record
The Javelina defense against the run has been nothing short of outstanding this year. They held their first five opponents to less than 50 yards rushing and are still first in the entire NCAA Division II in rushing yards allowed per game.
The team is currently holding opponents to 54.1 yards per game on 2.1 yards per carry. The Lone Star Conference record for fewest rushing yards allowed per game in a season is 48.5 by Texas A&M-Commerce in 1952. The current Javelina record is 60.7 yards per game and 1.9 yards per carry both set in 1989 when John Randle was stuffing opponents.
The Hogs have held opponents to under 100 yards rushing per game in 13 prior seasons. They are a combined 117-33 with nine conference championships in those years.
Three and Out
The Javelina defense has been outstanding this year, but because they have been so good they have not had much time to accumulate tackles. The Hoggies have forced 50 three-and-outs this year, an average of 5.0 per game.
The defensive unit uses a team first approach that does not lends itself to a lot of personal stats. Marcus Sanders leads the team with just 6.1 tackles per game. Matt Romig leads the team with 6.0 sacks while he and Tressor Baptiste each have 8.0 tackles for loss. No one has more than two interceptions.
Ball Control
The Javelinas have been outstanding when it comes to ball control this year. They have won the time of possession battle in eight of ten games this year.
On Saturday, the Hoggies held the ball for 40:46 against Midwestern State. Over the final 45 minutes of the game they had the ball for 35:20. The 21:32 time of possession advantage in the game was the largest of the year.
For the season, the Javelinas have over a 100:00 time of possession advantage for the season. They have held the ball for an average of 35:03 per game.
Running Wild in the Top 25
The Javelinas entered the 2010 season ranked 16th by the American Football Coaches Association and 13th by D2Football.com. They moved up to #6 in the AFCA poll and #5 in the D2football.com poll after their win over #1 Northwest Missouri State. They have been ranked in both polls ever since the first week of the 2009 season.
Five straight wins have propelled the Javelinas to fourth in both polls, a season high. This is the 10th straight week they have been ranked in the top 10.
The Offensive Line
The offensive line group of Trent Perkins, Cory Baumann, Tim Byerly, Cobly Lowrie and Keenan Woods have been outstanding over the last four weeks. They have paved the way for the team to average 466 yards of total offense while giving up only one sack during that time period. Nearly 200 yards of that offense have come on the ground game.
In the National Rankings
Since joining the NCAA Division II back in 1982, the Javelinas have played exactly 208 games as a ranked team and have played 84 games against ranked opponents. The Javelinas are 158-51 (75.6%) alltime as a ranked team. They have played 41 games as the #2 team and are 30-11 (73.2%) in those contests. The team is 20-3 (87.0%) when ranked #4 and has a winning record at all spots except when ranked #23 where they are 0-2 all-time. The Javelinas are 49-36 (57.6%) against ranked opponents since joining Division II. They are 37-15 (71.2%) in home games and just 12-21 (36.4%) when traveling. When they are the higher ranked team they are 29-16 (64.4%) and they are 20-20 (50.0%) when they are ranked lower than their opponent.
The Brom Bomber
Senior place kicker Christian Brom continues to put up big time numbers in the kicking game for the Javelinas. On Saturday, he went 2-for-3 on field goals with his only miss coming from 49 yards out. He booted field goals of 35 and 29 yards both in the second half.
Brom is now 12-for-16 for the season on field goal attempts. The school record is 16 field goals in a season set by Walter Rule in 1985. Brom is 33-for-48 in his career and he just passed John Cortez to move into second place on the Hoggie career field goals list. He is currently 10th in career points with 229 and needs six more to move into ninth place.
Roderick’s Big Day
Junior defensive end Roderick Benman entered Saturday’s game with only two tackles on the season. He was given the start when Matt Romig was held out of the game.
Benman made the most of his opportunity. He led the defense with 10 tackles, a forced fumble, quarterback hurry and a half sack. The most impressive part of his 10 tackles is that he is a down lineman and Midwestern State only ran 48 offensive plays in the game.
Road Warriors
The Javelinas went a perfect 6-0 on the road this year which is the first time the team has not lost on the road during the regular season since going 4-0 in 2004. However, the 2004 team’s season ended on the road in the playoffs. The last time the team went at least 6-0 on the road for a season came in 2001 when they were also 6-0.
Long Drives
The Javelinas put together five drives of at least 10 plays on Saturday night. Their three touchdown drives compiled a total of 45 plays. They had another 10-play drive end in a punt and a 12-play drive end in a missed field goal.
The Hoggies put together a pair of 17-play touchdown drives which are their longest on the season. Both drives came in the second half.
The team was also 16-for-23 on third down conversions. They are third in the LSC in third down conversion percentage and first in opponent third down conversion percentage.
No comments:
Post a Comment