Boilernation

Shooting at Ben Davis / Carmel game?

Grant caused that fumble by stonewalling the Valpo RB in the backfield.

It was. Banks was the difference maker though. I think he had 2 INT's as well. Did he normally play defense or was he just used because of the threat of Samardzija?

I don't know. I think I would still have Zionsville as the favorite. The HCC is such a strong conference that it's hard for me to knock Zionsville for getting handled by a Brownsburg, Westfield, or Hamilton Southeastern. I wish Noblesville was still in Sectional 3. Would have been interesting to see how they faired against the Fort Wayne schools and/or Warsaw.

Agreed. Go from one of the oddest hires I've ever seen to a coach who can take them to Indy in November and whose early returns show he bas the potential to be better than Hoffman. For those asking about the live video stream, Porter County TV has it listed on their You Tube page.

I haven't seen Valpo play this year. I'm curious why you feel they're that good? Samardzija's Junior Year was probably when they were their best during his tenure. They had some really good seniors, BIG lines, a big bruising RB (Matt Handlon) who played at Yale. They also had Carl Gioia at PK who was solid at Notre Dame. He nailed the ame winner in 2001 when they finally got past Penn in Regionals.I believe a lot of the Juniors and Seniors that year were guys who Hoffman played on Varsity their Freshman/Sophomore years to have them ready for when they were upper classmen.

Yeah. Grant is a pretty big dude as well.

I will say I was expecting both Valpo and Merrillvile to take a step back this year after losing some generational type of talent. I think it's a promising outlook for the future that both Seiss and Marshall can rebound quickly from losing a very productivie Senior class.

I think both are true. Trubisky is likely better than how he looked while playing in Nagy's offense, but he's still not starter material. The guy needs what Buffalo had him do in the pre-season: A lot of rollouts and narrow down the reads. He can't sit in the pocket and read his progressions. My guess is he'll have a long career as a backup and generate Fitzmagic type buzz when an injury gives him start starts. Nagy is a distaster and should have been fired last season. I listen to a lot of Chicago sports radio while working. The Chicago media was calling for Pace/Nagy's head on a platter last year and National talking heads that make the daily rounds on Chicago sports shows all chimed in that Nagy/Pace didn't deserve another season. The owners son (George) went on one show after the season and was getting absolutely grilled on he could say he wants the Bears to succeed but has a career Accountant (Ted Phillips) running football operations. All he could say is they trust Pace/Nagy to make the football decisions. Nagy is just clueless. I respect Rex Ryan as a defensive mind and here was his view on Sunday: "...thirty drop backs in this game, 21 times to go five man protection, Are you out of your mind? I wouldn't do that with Tom Brady. This is absolutely ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous." It's a valid point. Cleveland's D Line was killing the horribly constructed Bears O-Line and Nagy is still going with 5 man protection. Crazy. The disaster this season will turn into was inevitable at the end of last season with Ted and George praised Pace/Nagy as the football guys. Ted is a career riser on the Financial side of the Bears org and has no business as Pres. of football operations. George is part of a family that has no knowledge of football other than their dad married George Halas' daughter (Virginia). The best hope for Bears fans at this point is for the McCaskey children to cash in on their inheritance and sell the team once Virginia (Age of 98) passes.

The Illinois game was an ugly one to watch, but I'll take a 3-1 start with the top 2 RB's and David Bell not playing. I'm surprised to see the Bowling Green loss has moved Minnesota to the underdog. I don't like this matchup. Fear their O-Line is just going to pummel the Boiler D into submission with at least 250 yards of rushing. Plus, I don't like Purdue not be settled at QB. I'm hoping O'Connell is QB1 on Saturday.

I turned the game off at 24-13 with 9:34 left. Did a double take when I saw the 41-13 final score on the score ticker. On the contrary, I hope I'm wrong once again about an ND score. 😉

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/bears-matt-nagy-shredded-olin-kreutz-alex-brown-david-kaplan

Haha! Love that handle.

On the plus side I’ll be at Soldier Field next Sunday.

Eddie Jackson (# 4) is the worst. Makes Prime look like a good tackler.

I completely underestimated just how bad of a QB Mertz is. Yikes. ND will survive again. I think your over 8.5 is a lock Temp.

I woud love to see a Duneland team finally make it out of the North in 6A even if they were completely pasted by Center Grove; however, nobody is beating the Sectional 4 winner unless Fishers or Noblesville pull off a miracle.

Fishers 27 Avon 13 -- Avon's worse season since?? Westfield 31 Brownsburg 17 -- How did Cathedral keep the Rocks out of the endzone? Such a great offense. HSE 42 Zionsville 31 -- Nice bounce back W for the Royals Franklin Central 24 Noblesville 14 -- West keeps rolling.

Yeah, IU under 8 appears to be a lock. That ND one is going to be close. I think Wisconsin beats them in Chicago. Have a feeling they'll bounce back at home against Cincinnati. I could see at least two losss between @ Viriginia Tech, North Carolina, and @ Virginia and @ Stanford. USC, Navy, and Georgia Tech should be gimmes. @ Stanford should be tough regardless of Stanford's record. 9-3 or 8-4 seem like the most probable outcomes. I would be surprised if they hit 10 wins in the regular season.

I really don't get why Morton scheduled this game. I can see adding Elkhart or Bloomington South to round up excitement for Morton following the consolidation of HS's in Hammond. But, Cathedral? That's nearly as asinine as Warren Central scheduling Bishop Sycamore.

Sounds about right. Cline Avenue is just east of the HS and a major thoroughfare to get to Arcelormittal in East Chicago. There are a lot of industrial businesses / organizations lining Cline between Hammond and Gary.

IU only giving up 9 in Bowling Green. I would take Western Kentucky straight up on the money line if I were still a Bachelor and didn't have to explain a potential monetary loss to the spouse. Gut feeling the woes continue on the road against a non P5 viewing this as a huge game.

No, it's not. They have a powering O-Line that can push the ball down the field and some bruisers and speed at RB. I would love to see them figure out a way to sprinkle in an effective passing attack out of the power formation. Just something to rely on 7-10 times per game to keep the chains moving and the back 7 from selling out on the run.

I wish I had some drive charts or specific notes to rely on, but I would say any yardage of at least 5 and longer they will still dial up the power run game.