Week 4 Power Rankings

(photo credit to Channing Smith)

Week 3 of UMAC conference play is in the books and teams are either beginning to pull ahead or fall behind. Westminster came out of the gates strong this season but took a big step back this week. Crown appeared to have some fight in them, but took a round off this week at Northwestern. St. Scholastica seems to be returning to form after a dominant performance. It’s still tough to tell where everyone in the middle of the conference sits, but the top and bottom has started to take shape.

1. Greenville – After a little scare last week, Greenville came out strong this week and trounced the Martin Luther Knights 56-6. Their offense seems to get more and more deadly each week, and there may not be another UMAC team that can stop them. While nobody was statistically impressive for Greenville, they played smart football, not turning the ball over once while gaining 31 first downs and only having to punt on 3 possessions. Greenville will likely be cruising until the final game of the season when they face the stout St. Scholastica defense in what looks to be the game to determine the conference championship.

2. St. Scholastica – Last week may have showed some offensive weaknesses for the Saints, but this week we saw the defense we’ve come to know over the past couple years as the Saints held a strong Westminster offense to 261 total yards while forcing 3 interceptions, 2 of which were returned to the endzone by DB Mike LaValley. Between the defense and the Saints “thunder and lightning” combo in the backfield, this already strong team is improving and should add another to the win column next week as they face MacMurray.

3. Eureka – While the win over UM-Morris was not pretty by any means, Westminster’s thrashing from the Saints was even less so. Therefore, Eureka moves up to the third position this week. But they may not be here long as they face the Blue Jays this week, where one of them can prove who is the better team. The first half this week was ugly for the Red Devils offense, only 77 yards of offense (61 on one drive) and maybe 3 or 4 first downs in the first half. The only scoring by either team before the fourth quarter was from two pick sixes by the Eureka defense. The only thing the Red Devils offense did right was not turning the ball over. Eureka’s defense is carrying this team thus far, but as we all know “defense wins championships” so as long as they can make the opposing team score fewer points, they will continue to win.

4. Westminster – If this was the big test of the season for the Blue Jays, our grade for them is a D-. The only bright spot, as strange as this is to say after last year, was their running game. Ronnie Seals Jr averaged 5.8 yards per carry for 145 yards and is still leading the UMAC. The passing game, as strange as this is to say after last year, was atrocious. The Blue Jays completed 3 passes to the defense (those are called interceptions) for 131 yards and two touchdowns and only 8 passes to their offense for 95 yards and one score. I am not sure what went wrong, but the Blue Jays had better figure it out fast because Eureka’s defense this week is not going to make it much easier on them.

5. Northwestern – After a decent win this weekend, we were tempted to move the Eagles up a place or two. But let’s be honest, they only beat Crown. There was a lot of good to be seen in this game. It appears UNW is beginning to figure out their running game as they rushed for 267 yards, with Josh Sinnen gaining 200 of those. QB Jacob Fletcher looks to have had an off day, but that may just have been in part because of the success of the running game, he was not needed to throw the ball as much. If the Eagles can pull off a decent win this week at UM-Morris, they may begin to rise up the power rankings.

6. Minnesota-Morris – If QB Caleb McLaren had been able to avoid tossing three interceptions, the Cougars should have been able to get a win here. But those two early interceptions that Eureka turned into 14 points turned out to be too costly to be overcome against a tough Eureka defense. The Cougars defense looked a little improved although Eureka’s offense has not been too impressive yet this season. If they want to get in to the top half of the conference, they will need to pull off a win against a fast improving UNW team this week.

7. Crown – Had it not been for a 74 yard touchdown on 4th down against the UNW backups, Crown would have finished with 146 total yards and averaged 2.4 yards per play on offense. The defense has been serviceable and making a few plays, but without an offense to back them up, this team will be headed nowhere this season.

8. Martin Luther – Nobody here expected the Knights to win this week, but we thought with their offense against Greenville’s defense, there would be a few more points on the board for the Knights. This team still has potential, but potential is useless unless you can make something out of it.

9. Iowa Wesleyan – Congratulations on your first Division III victory in the “Game of the Weak”. After a tough welcome to the UMAC, the Tigers began facing the lowest three ranked teams (other than themselves), three weeks in a row beginning with this week’s victory over the Highlanders. If this week was any indication of what to expect in the future, they could be riding a 3 game win streak in a couple weeks.

10. MacMurray – First, Presentation, now Iowa Wesleyan. The UMAC keeps trying to bring in teams to give MacMurray some sense of hope, but they keep falling short. I’m not saying it’s time to hang up the pads, but something needs to be done before the UMAC has to bring in a pop warner team for the Highlanders to beat.