Quote Originally Posted by OrangeAndBlack View Post
There's no denying that South Dakota State is a world beater team, but there's 2 games that stand out on the schedule:

Montana State 16
South Dakota State 20

South Dakota State 17
Southern Illinois 10

In both games, SDSU had one turnover, while their opponents had 1 (MSU) and 2 (S. Ill)

Montana State had a 77% chance to win the game with only 2:30 remaining in the 4th quarter.

Southern Illinois went yard-for-yard with SDSU (308 total yards each)

SDSU QB Mark Gronowski has been impressive with 2359 yards, 30 total touchdowns, and only 3 interceptions.

Mercer QB Carter Peevy nearly matched these numbers.. 2200 yards, 23 total TD, and also only 3 INT.

A key for the game for Mercer is ball security. 20 (!) fumbles on the season, with 13 lost. SDSU has 6 fumbles (5 lost).

The other key (obvious for any game) is 3rd and 4th down. SDSU is successful 55% on 3rd and 78% on 4th (7-9). Mercer is 36% and 56%.


So let's watch the film of the Southern Illinois and Montana State games. The amazing Mercer D will have a chance to force some turnovers (not too long ago I saw a Mercer team force 5 fumbles at Auburn and be within 1 score in the 4th quarter).
The Montana State game was wild. MSU was up 10-0 before SDSU came back. We took a 13-10 lead, then after a series of awful SDSU mistakes, MSU tied it up with 2 minutes left (they couldn’t punch the ball in from the 2 yard line). SDSU went 75 yards in 2 plays for the go-ahead score.

The SIU game, while close as the score indicates, never really in doubt. 14-0 at the end of the 3rd quarter, SDSU threw an interception going in for a would-be 21-0 score. SIU ended up scoring a TD off that turnover. SDSU drove down, got a FG. Then, SIU made a FG with 32 seconds left.

Completely agree with you. The path for Mercer will be to force SDSU into painful turnovers, and then capitalize on them.


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