Week 6 Predictions-Jay

Jay’s Picks (3 of 5 Week 5, 19 of 24 on the Season)

This last week was the most exciting week of games to date in the UMAC. Northwestern is the new top dog in the conference…for now. I did not pick games according to my standards but on the bright side I guess this means I can empathize with Tommy a little bit more. This is the week of lists. I don’t know why. I just started making picks and noticed a nice little “list trend.” I hope it gets me back to picking games a little bit better. MacMurray is on a bye, so no freebies this week.

Northwestern @ Crown- This is an interesting matchup for two reasons: 1) Northwestern is coming off of a very emotional win against St. Scholastica and 2) Crown plays its best football of the year against Northwestern. I expect Northwestern to come out a little sluggish and let Crown hang around for a while, but ultimately the Eagles have too much talent to lose this game. Crown, remember, Baby Steps.  Northwestern 41 Crown 20

St. Scholastica @ Westminster- I fully expect St. Scholastica to be absolutely ticked this week. It doesn’t matter who they play or where. Get ready for 60 minutes of some pissed off Saints. On the other hand, Westminster is a team that has been subpar all season long with no signs of showing up after a particularly lame effort last week against Minnesota Morris. The only way that Westminster wins this game is if all of the following happens: 1) QB Tyler Harper throws 5 interceptions this week 2) All of the rest of the Saints skill players get hurt and DL Chas Lemon has to play RB 3) Carl Givens discovers that he has more eligibility and starts at WR for Westminster 4) Ray Lewis and Herm Edwards tag team the pregame pep talk to Westminster and finally 5) Westminster allows Tommy to suit up and play nose tackle (Needless to say, it wouldn’t be pretty). St. Scholastica 56 Westminster 14

Greenville @ Martin Luther- Greenville was less than impressive against MacMurray last week and faces a team that has a much better defense, and an improving offense. Greenville’s backfield punch of QB Brendan Chambers and RB Manny Gamble has been outstanding this year both averaging over 6 yards a carry but Greenville hasn’t seen a run defense like Martin Luther’s since they played St. Scholastica. The Knights problem is that they just can’t score. They are averaging only 6.5 points a game in conference play (I refuse to count the 30 points they scored on Maranatha Baptist). I expect a close game, even though the score might not be close, for three reasons: 1) It’s in New Ulm and I’m pretty sure the refs are actually Martin Luther professors 2) The Knights defense is outstanding 3) Greenville’s defense is not which means that if the Knights are going to have a good game on offense (and by good game I mean more than 14 points) this might be the game for it to happen. Greenville will still win by double digits. Greenville 34 Martin Luther 21

GAME OF THE WEEK

Minnesota Morris @ Eureka – You can call this the battle of the three QB’s. Eureka’s Sam Durley will be battling against Minnesota Morris’s QB’s Dan Gerrigan and Derick Foss. In Minnesota Morris’s case, two QB’s actually means that you have zero QB’s. On a positive note, both QB’s will benefit from WR Brandon Foss becoming more and more a part of the offense. Morris has been feeling underappreciated as of late probably because 1) we didn’t make WR Brandon Foss our outstanding player of the week for his good game against Westminster (sorry Brandon). Or maybe 2) it’s because we have ragged on the 2-QB system all year. Finally, it could be 3) I picked a subpar Westminster team to beat them last week. Anyway you slice it; the Cougars are looking to prove themselves in a big game. Here’s the way I’ll put it, if WR Brandon Foss goes off again…this is actually a big time game and would warrant an outstanding player of the week award.  Eureka has played well in back to back weeks and will enjoy another home game. The defense has been playing better, but they still haven’t faced an offense like, wow was I about to say Morris? Ok, Morris won’t scare anyone but the offenses that Eureka has been facing make Morris look respectable. I expect this game to be a fairly high scoring affair with Eureka QB Sam Durley leading a 4^th quarter touchdown drive to win the game. Eureka 35 Morris 31

Bye MacMurray