Game 7 Preview: Augsburg at #22 Concordia

Last Week:
Last week Concordia scored touchdowns on its first nine possessions of the game and went on to beat Hamline 63-7. The Cobbers won the coin toss, elected to receive and then drove 48 yards in six plays to take a 7-0 lead. CC then recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and got a 15-yard TD run from Alex McLean to take a 14-0 lead before the game was even five minutes old.

Concordia enjoyed a 21-7 lead at the end of the first quarter and then pushed it to 42-7 at the half.

The Cobbers finished the day with 481 total offensive yards. Concordia's defense limited the Pipers to just 266 total yards including 87 passing yards.  The passing yardage is the lowest of the season by the Pipers.

Concordia's ground game racked up 342 yards. It is a season high for rushing yards and is the first time they have rushed for over 250 yards in a single game. The 300-plus rushing yards pushes the Cobbers to the top of the MIAC for total rushing yards and rushing yards per game.

The Cobbers had five players with at least five carries in the game and four players had at least 35 rushing yards. McLean came away with a team-high 88 rushing yards while Domenic Fraboni added 80 yards and scored three TD's. Concordia quarterback Griffin Neal was 7-for-9 for 128 passing yards and threw for two scores. He also had 27 rushing yards on five carries.

Concordia vs. Hamline Game Recap


Augsburg is coming off a 41-17 win over St. Olaf last Saturday. The Auggies outscored the Oles 20-0 in the second half after St. Olaf had closed the gap to 21-17 in the final minute of the first half. Augsburg quarterback Ayrton Scott connected on three passing strikes in the final two quarters of play to give the Auggies their fourth overall win of the season.

Scott had a huge game under center for Augsburg. He was 30-for-47 for 384 passing yards and threw for five touchdowns. The 384 passing yards and five scoring strikes were career highs for the sophomore signal caller.

Augsburg had five different receivers catch touchdown passes in the game, with four gaining 70 receiving yards or more each. Adam Carl caught 11 passes for 83 yards and a six-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, while Joey Sonnenfeld caught six passes for 99 yards and a 25-yard scoring pass in the third quarter. Erickson Saye caught three passes for 72 yards, including a 55-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter. Scott Bossard caught two passes for 32 yards and a 16-yard touchdown in the first quarter.  

Augsburg came away with 469 total offensive yards and outgained the Oles 469-385. Both teams had one turnover in the game. One of the biggest statistical advantages in the game came on third down. Augsburg connected on 55.5% (10-for-18) of their third down attempts while St. Olaf managed to convert just 35.7% (5-for-14) of their third down tries. 
   

Augsburg vs. St. Olaf Game Recap


Stat Central:
- 2013 Concordia Statistics

- 2013 Augsburg Statistics

- 2013 MIAC Statistics

- 2013 Concordia NCAA Team/Individual Rankings

- 2013 Augsburg NCAA Team/Individual Rankings

Pick 6 - 6 Items To Help You Take It To The House:

1. In search of No.500! The Cobbers are now one win away from collecting their 500th victory in program history. One more win and Concordia becomes only the fourth school in Minnesota college history in either NCAA Division I, II or III to win 500 career games. The only other colleges to have achieved this milestone are the University of Minnesota (656), St. John's (589) and St. Thomas (566). Concordia is in its 96th season of football and the Cobbers have a 499-287-38 all-time record. Some other milestones along the way to 500 – The first-ever win came against Jamestown in 1921. The 100th win came against St. Mary's in 1953 and the halfway point to 500, 250, came in the 1976 season against Gustavus.            
     
2. If 2013 form holds true then the first team to score will win on Saturday. That has been the case in all six games this year for CC. The Cobbers have benefitted from lightning fast starts in their five wins and faced a huge uphill climb in their only loss. Concordia is outscoring its opponents 77-21 in the first quarter in their five wins and has been outscored 21-0 in the first period in their only loss of the year.

3. If Concordia/Augsburg series form holds true then the scoreboard should be kicking out lots of kilowatts. The Cobbers and Auggies have a history of putting up big numbers on offense and posting scores that are usually found on the basketball court. The teams have scored a combined 485 points in the last eight meetings and are averaging 56.7 points in the last 10 games. Since 1999 the winning team in the series has scored at least 27 points. The "exception to the rule" came in 1999 when the teams struggled to score points and Augsburg won 7-5.
   
4. Saturday's game features the league's top rushing attack against the conference's leading passing team. The Cobbers used their 342 rushing yards at Hamline to take the lead in the conference for most rushing yards per game. The Cobbers are now averaging 217.0 rushing yards per game. Augsburg is averaging 280.3 passing yards per game which is tops in the MIAC. They also have the most completions of any team in the MIAC (125) and third most attempts (198).    

5. The Marquee Match-Up - With the No.3 "Pick 6" item in mind, the marquee match-up on Saturday will be the Concordia defensive secondary against the Augsburg vaunted passing attack. The all-senior Cobber secondary will be matched up against the league's top passing attack. The Auggies are averaging 280.3 passing yards per game and have passed for over 300 yards for two straight games. Last year Augsburg QB Ayrton Scott threw for 374 yards vs. CC. The Cobber defense is currently seventh in the MIAC against the pass and is coming off their best performance of the year. CC held Hamline to just 87 passing yards. 

6. The Marquee Match-Up II - The Cobber GameDay staff is feeling so good that we are going to give you a second marquee match-up that could swing the game. Another key could come in the kicking game where the Cobbers' have one of the best placekickers in the MIAC. Ben Wagner is 24-for-24 in extra points this season and has made 68 straight PAT's. He is also 4-for-5 in field goals in 2013 and 9-for-12 in his two-year career. Augsburg has employed two freshmen kickers this season who are a combined 20-for-29 on extra points and 2-for-5 in field goal attempts.

7. Once again we give our readers a bonus "Pick 6" item. And as always - because we are certainly not superstitious - we finish off our preview section with the "Wagner Watch".  Wagner continues to be perfect in extra point attempts in his career for CC. Since taking over the kicking duties last season, he has connected on 68 straight PAT's. The new portion of this section comes from the addition of the MIAC record. The GameDay staff did some research this week and found out that the MIAC record for consecutive PAT's is 84. St. Thomas kicker Tim Albright connected on 84 straight extra points from 2010-11.

Last Year:
Last year Concordia had a 31-point lead with just over 5:00 left in the third quarter and had to hang on to earn a 38-31 win in Minneapolis. The Cobbers led 38-14 heading into the fourth quarter but then watched Augsburg rattle off 21 straight points to get to within seven at 38-31. The Auggies got the ball back with 1:02 left in the game but Cobber defensive back John Bye picked off a pass on the third play from scrimmage to seal the win.

Concordia quarterback Griffin Neal was 14-for-23 297 passing yards and threw for three TD's. He also ran for 43 yards and scored one touchdown. He led a CC offense that amassed 463 total yards. On the other side of the ball, Augsburg QB Ayrton Scott was 25-for-36 for 374 passing yards and also had three TD passes. Scott also had a game-high 136 rushing yards and led Augsburg to 564 total offensive yards.

The biggest difference in stats came from turnovers where the Cobber defense forced five Auggie miscues.


Concordia vs. Augsburg 2012 Game Recap

Cobbers vs. Auggies Series History: Cobbers lead 55-13-2 (series started in 1926)

Series Synopsis: Concordia has won 12 of the last 13 games between the two teams. The lone Auggie win came in 2009 in a 27-20 overtime thriller in Moorhead...the Cobbers are 8-2 against Augsburg in the last 10 games played at "The Jake"...Concordia is averaging 35.6 points per game in the last five contests played at home vs. Augsburg... the longest win streak for either team in the series is 16 games. CC won 16 straight from 1978-1993...the teams met in the NCAA playoffs in 1997 where Augsburg won 34-22 in a game played in the Fargo Dome...that game in the Fargo Dome was the first of five games played in a dome in the series. After the 1997 playoff game, Concordia and Augsburg played four straight times in the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Each team won twice in the Metrodome...Cobber head coach Terry Horan is 11-1 vs. Augsburg.