Blind Folded Predictions UMAC WEEK 5

"Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun... but mama, that's where the fun is" -Manfred Mann "Blinded by the Light"

If you don't think that's in the top 100 greatest songs of all time you're wrong. I was trying to figure out which song to quote for this week's blind folded predictions and I had some solid ones. "Blinded Me With Science" -Thomas Dolby was a close second but lost when I listened to the Guitar Riff one time with Manfred Mann and I was like nope you lose. Right now I'm chilling at 85% for the season predictions and I just got to stay above 80% to consider myself good for the year. So far the team that's been ruining my perfection is IWC and it's been noted. This week I've only got one toss up, one maybe "upset" and one closer than expected to predict this week.

Crown @ Greenville

To Quote The Intro for Vince McMahon "You've got no chance... no chance in h*ll"

I'm thinking Crown would probably enjoy just taking the week off and accepting the loss than traveling to Greenville to get torched. That unfortunately isn't a option for them and they will have to get on the bus and try to stay positive. If you think I'm being too harsh on Crown look at all the things I said before about my expectations for them and I think I can say a few negative things here. This game is important on getting any idea of if Greenville has a shot to upset Scholastica. So far teams have destroyed crown, but can Greenville? This is why I'm picking Crown to play this one closer. In no way am I expecting an upset, but I'm going to say Greenville doesn't Win by more than 20. Everytime I've predicted something positive for Crown I've been wrong, so assume it won't happen.

Final Score

Greenville 34 Crown 14

Now that I've had a little fun with my high-tech "Paint" program I suppose I can actually make some predictions on this game. I don't want to see Morris lose this game to be honest, but facing off an upset Northwestern team I don't think they'll have that strong of a shot. The running game for Northwestern should tear apart the Morris defense and I suspect this one won't be too close. I think Morris does have an underrated defense, but Northwestern has a powerful offense and a whole comity of running backs. This will tire out the Morris Defense quickly and I don't see Morris putting up a lot of points on offense.

Final Score
Northwestern 34 Morris 7

Martin Luther @ IWC

No doubt I'm picking IWC on this game from the sheer fact that IWC loves to prove me wrong when I pick against them. (Excluding CSS) I think Martin Luther really fell of the map last week with a big loss to Eureka and I think with a Similar type of team they're playing this week they're going to have a tough time. IWC has got a shot at finishing strong this year and I don't see Martin Luther stopping that.

Final Score
IWC 42 Martin Luther 24

Interesting Match-Up Here
Eureka @ Westminster
Just kidding, I'm hopeful that Westminster is going to win out this season. I think they're an underrated team all together. Their only UMAC loss is to Scholastica and that was a close one for sure. Coming into this year I kinda thought Eureka would be a threat but that isn't it.

Final Score
Westminster 31 Eureka 17

Scholastica @ MacMurray
Hold on to your hats here for this game folks. I'm expecting Scholastica coming out of the gate slow in this game off that big win last week. It's really hard not to... Especially with that long road trip and you're not going to have near the amount of fans or under the light atmosphere. MacMurray on the other hand has a nice home field advantage and also they've got nothing to lose. (besides maybe the game) The running game of MacMurray is no joke, they've got a running back who can start to eat defenses up and cause your offense to need to have a day. As of right now I still have no idea on the condition of "The Gas" which is a bummer because I believe if I remember correctly he had a monster game 2 years ago on this field. Robinson is really starting to become a number one running back which will make a insane two headed monster when "The Gas" does return. This game will hinge a lot on whether or not Scholastica can contain the edge and linebackers are hitting Hall in the backfield. All that being said I expect Scholastica to figure things out in the second half and to start putting some good points on the board. I think we might see some new faces emerge in the passing game. I'm going to just make a bold statement that Murphy gets more than 50 yards receiving this game. Finds the endzone? I neither confirm nor deny that. He's really had some big miss-matches in size the past few games and I think he will get noticed this game. I think that "Type of tree with it's method for catching the sun and using it for photosynthesis" might have to think of a new nickname, but I think he will tie the record for sacks here in this game. I would like to see a big game from Moran this game. Scholastica wins this game but I wouldn't say you'll be impressed all game.

Final Score
Schostica 42 MacMurray 13

UMAC RECAPS!

I "Do you believe in Magic?"  - Lovin' Spoonful. If you do, you're probably a pretty happy Scholastica fan right now, but I'll get to that a little later in this post. Once again I shoot a solid 4 of 5 on my predictions for the games, but scores not super close I will admit except a few. Still I think 80% or above every week is solid and something to be admired. So if you would like an autographed photo of me, please comment your address below.

Alrighty, let start of the festivities with Morris vs Westminster. Now after watching the Westminster/Scholastica game I looked at this game as a no chance game for Morris and actually at points in this game I thought... Well maybe... But I think the closeness of this game stemmed from maybe a lucky play or two considering Morris broke their longest play ever while being on a winless season. Soo congrats? Not to take anything away from them or that play, but tough to break a record and feel good about it when you lose the game. I might just be jealous though... I only hold one record right now in college football that still stands. 5 tackles while playing offense. My solid JUCO QB threw 7 picks and I made 5 tackles. Point of that rant there? Nothing. So Morris has to find a win soon before their chances run out. I would say Morris actually has a relatively solid defense and I think that might help with a win over Crown. I predicted 38-13 final score was 28-14 so meh... Not impressive but still relatively similar game as I expected. 

Next to keep this blog rolling let's take a look at Eureka vs Martin Luther. This match-up I thought was kinda exciting considering I figured Martin Luther was on their way up as the season was goin along, but looks like they had a setback here. I predicted this to be a 21-20 game and although I got the winner right I over estimated a few things and I better make sure to not give some teams the benefit of the doubt. Not sure how deep to look in this score, but I'll chalk it up to a bad perforce on Martin Luther and less on Euerka domination. Finals score of this one was 40-15 so I can admit to being way off.

Come on IWC.. What did I do to you? For the second time now you ruin my perfect predictions. Oh wait... I'm the one that keeps picking against you, but I'm always on the fringe for your games. I applaud the direction that your team is headed and it doesn't look like you'll turn into "Presentation College" but you'll actually play a role here in the UMAC! I like this development and I look forward to see if you can be a spoiler to finish off the season! As for Crown, I tried my best to make my prediction of you winning be a little luck for you to get that first win, but atlas that didn't help. Hold on to your hopes for Morris and don't let go.

This game I was kinda surprised at the score just because I wonder if either team had a defense on the field at all during game. Turns out they did when I looked and saw some people had tackles. So that surprised me... I guess I don't know how teams give up 66 points to a UMAC team, but MacMurray had 44 points also so maybe fast scoring between both teams helped them get those stats up. I wonder if both coaches came together before the game and said "hey let's get some good offensive stats going here" Greenville was this game off of their 3rd down and 4th down conversions. Not sure still what to think about Greenville's team. Guess when they play Westminster or Northwestern I'll have an idea.

Now I can stop making up stuff and talk about the game I was at. Now I could start boring you with the ol' "I was right about this... I was right about that" and that's exactly what I'm going to do. I called "The Irish Blessing" stepping up and having a big game. I asked for Robinson to put the rushing game on his back and he did. He even exceeded my predictions, which I don't mind. I said this game comes down to the redzone and that's what happened. CSS was 4/4 while Northwestern was 3/5. My score was also within 4 points of what the final score was so I'll take another pat on the back. What I won't take credit for tho is how nice the Northwestern fans were. I received tons of positive feedback on the Twitter account about how good our broadcast was. Also numerous comments about how cool my suit was from their fans. So thanks Northwestern fans! This game was just an absolute roller-coaster game, and it didn't look good for CSS at any point of the game except for about 2 minutes of it. Northwestern came out of the gates flying and basically said "try and keep up with us" CSS got lucky that their mentality of that got dropped after the first half. Northwestern looked strong on all aspects of offense, but made mistakes on the passing side of it that cost them way too much. Tyler Harper once again did the thing he does... That is win games. Not having the greatest game of his career, but he saw an opportunity to take his team to a win and that's exactly what he did. Northwestern made him seem very uncomfortable in the pocket and had solid coverage down field. Even with all that though he just looked relaxed on that last drive and had a great first down run from a collapsing pocket. He tried for that run all day, but Northwestern had sniffed it out till then. The O-Line looked spectacular late in the 4th quarter.  Rhodes with a couple big picks once again shows how important he is in that defense. There was a few things Scholastica needs to improve on. Bull rush is one that I will highlight. I would like to see more of the pass rush coming from bull rushes. That last drive that Northwestern had when Scholastica only rushed 3 is understandable because you're just trying to not give up something too big, but when that happens you need to close the pocket on the QB and that only happens with a good bull rush. Just my two cents though being a defensive lineman back in the ice-ages. Not over for Northwestern now tho... Scholastica has some tough games still left and you can hope for that three way tie. You will have a ton of CSS people rooting for you and Westminster to win out. Nothing I would love to see more than Greenville having 2 losses going into the last week.

Welp... there's your recaps with all opinions and no facts. If you hate my blog posts please continue to look at them for hate. (I like seeing my views go up)

Score Predictions, THE BIG WEEK!

Well well well... Here we are folks. Week 4. I'll have to be honest, even with my great mind I have no idea whats going to happen this weekend. I decided after last week's 5/5 predictions it wasn't fair for me to time travel to figure out game outcomes. So I'm flying blind here this week. I would say I'm only going to be confident about 1 of the 5 match-ups this week, and that's Westminster @ Morris. Lots on the line this week for everyone and I might as well get down to it.

Westminster @ Morris

This one I can sit back and enjoy without too much worry. I mean yes Morris could pull of a victory here at home, but I don't really believe it's going to happen. Westminster has some athletes this year and they've got some high scoring ability, which is a nightmare to Morris. I suspect you'll see Westminster get an early lead in this game with some deep balls,might throw one or two interceptions, but I don't think that will matter. Right now Morris is just holding onto hope of winning one game this year and they have might have that "Nothing to Lose" mentality which might help them find one win. This game though won't be that one win for them.

Final Score

Westminster 38 Morris 13

Martin Luther @ Eureka

Man do I want to pick Martin Luther on this one... two (1-3) teams battling for the .500 record chance. I think the winner of this game will finish the season at 5-5 and the other will finish at 2-9. So at lot at stake if you believe in my blog predictions. (which you should)

Martin Luther has lost the last three games, but each game they look better and better. If this game was week 10 I would think Martin Luther would have a better shot. I'm still contemplating who to pick on this one as I am typing. Eureka is going to get the nod of my head just because it's in Eureka and that is it. I think from what we've see Martin Luther is the better team in this match-up but I think the cards wont be in their favor.

Final Score

Eureka 21 Martin Luther 20

Northwestern @ Scholastica

I couldn't wait any longer to start typing this prediction, so I decided right in the middle of the blog post is a decent spot. This is it right here folks... This could be the UMAC champion playing in this game. That being said, if not careful the winner of this game could set up another 3 way tie. (Ouch that hurts for anyone other than CSS) Looking ahead before I think too much about this game if Scholastica wins they've realistically only got one more really good team and that is Greenville. If Northwestern wins this game they've still got two teams left that I think have a shot at beating them. Those two teams being Westminster and Greenville. That being said I think that the winner of this game has the UMAC in their hands.

Now let's take a look at the game itself. This one really could go either way. Northwestern has a solid defense that could cause the CSS run game issues and they've got a decent balance that could keep CSS guessing. Northwestern has a great pass rush that Scholastica hasn't seen yet and Harper is going to have to be ready for quicker throws or more pocket movement, but be careful the linebackers at Northwestern are built to take down fast quarter backs. The match-up issue this week is going to be for the defensive backs of Northwestern. They don't have the size (nobody does in the UMAC) of the wide receivers of Scholastica. So if Harper is on point and they're catching the football it could be a long day for them. This is going to come down to if Scholastica's offense can keep up with Northwestern. No way is Scholastica going to get a shut-out here and I kinda see a time killing types of drives from Northwestern to keep it out of their hands. This is going to be a big test of if Robinson can put the run game on his back and break some tackles. It's not going to be easy, but Scholastica has to get a running game going here. The pass will be the deciding factor in this game, but It'll be too tough without at least that threat of the run. I think we might see just as many if not more Northwestern fans at this game so that will take away a little home field advantage, but hopefully that Homecoming crowd will make some noise. I'm expecting Harper to throw for 270 yards and 3 touchdowns. I also expect a solid goal-line carry from Robinson to bust in for a touchdown. Robinson is going to fall just short of 100 yards with 92 yards. Northwestern will make long drives this game and kill a lot of clock, whether or not they score in the redzone will decide this game.

Final Score
Scholastica 31 Northwestern 23


IWC @ Crown College

This is another game that I think will be a tough one to call. Crown is at home playing against IWC, but IWC can stop the run and Crown hasn't found a passing game whatsoever so I'm going to have to lean towards IWC, but Crown College can win this game if they just control the clock and their defense plays above average. You know what, I've just got a weird feeling actually that Crown is going to win their first game here and I'm going to go with my gut on this one. Sorry IWC, another chance to prove me wrong for you I guess.

Final Score
Crown 28 IWC 24


MacMurray @ Greenville

While I've seen improvement from MacMurray I just don't think you can pick against Greenville at home. This game will just go to show that Greenville still has a high powered/high scoring offense and that will be enough to win games like this at home.

Final Score
Greenville 38 MacMurray 21