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Big game for both teams. This may be what makes the difference later at playoff time Bears similar to UTM last year. A 2nd OOC win over a FCS team ( vs D2) has meaning coupled with good showing at TTU and MSU.

Missouri State (another MSU) is 2-1 with opening win over Northwestern State at Natch by 34-27 then a solid game at Ok State for a 40-23 loss then a 38-0 shellacking of North Dakota in Springfield. Maroon Bears wlll know the stakes of this week's game as their MVC schedule is a tough climb...#21 Youngstown State at home, then at #11 South Dakota State with later road games at Illinois State (who whacked #25 Eastern Illinois yesterday) and #10 Northern Iowa (nearly beat Hawaii yesterday) and with #1 North Dakota State in Springfield. Along the way they play #20 Southern Illinois. This is a tough schedule.

Win over Northwestern State is hard to judge. Demons next got blown out at Baylor (as expected) then won a road game at Southern Utah by 51-27.

Ok State is also a bit of a challenge to know what the Pokes have this year. The opening unexpectedly narrow loss to Florida State says they are have potential to be near top of Big 12 and notably better than TTU. Pokes put away UTSA pretty routinely yesterday by 43-13.

North Dakota is 1-2 with losses to Mo State and a 42-10 loss at San Jose State, no surprise. UND's sole win is a 16-13 squeaker at home over Robert Morris from the Northeast Conference and who is 0-3 with losses to Eastern Kentucky and Lafayette as well as UND.

Working assumption needs to be that with Maroon Bears having a good showing at Stillwater coupled with the importance of game at UCA, they will be very tought to beat.

Purple Bears needs to get out much faster this week.

One thing for sure...the Bears need a better start in the first half than
they have had the past two games. The offense has been stuck in
first gear and intern putting a lot of pressure on the defense.

The coaching staff by this stage of the season has surely figured out
the strengths of the offense and I think we will see a different approach
to start the game vs. Missouri State.

I look for Ryan Howard to get the start and take the vast majority of the
snaps. I believe Taylor Reed took another blow to the head vs. Montana
State and had some symptoms. This would be twice already this year and
that has to be a concern for the young man.

None the less the Bears still need to figure out a way to run it some.
Maybe throw it some in the middle of the field to get the linebackers out
of the box.

Looking forward as always to the game and seeing all of the Bear fans.

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GO BEARS

This game is practically a must win. The view of the Southland is that it is very top heavy. A win here would drastically lessen the burden for the rest of the year. Out of McNeese, SELA, and Abliene (I would have SHSU, but that D2 loss was devastating not only to SHSU but to the conference), we still need to muster 2 wins out of that group to have a shot of getting into the field of 24.

I think we can do it, and I think we are better than the 1st two halves of the UTM game and the Montana St. game. We've got to sustain drives in the first half to keep from digging a hole for the rest of the game. We were able to dig ourselves out in the UTM game, but MSU was good enough to keep us at bay.

Looking for 4 quarters Saturday. We can do it.

This is really a must win game if we want to keep our playoff hopes alive (outside of winning the conference). Winning @ACU will be no easy task...remember they just beat Troy this past weekend. Also, don't forget that we don't face McNeese this season, which lightens our SLC load a little. Besides the poor reflection in our record, if we don't win this weekend, I think this team's morale will be broken which will not bode well for the rest of the season.
As has been stated, we HAVE to come out firing on all cylinders and I think that will start with the crowd. We need a great and LOUD crowd this weekend. MO State had 18,000+ at there newly renovated place this past weekend. I hope we can get close to "11,000" this weekend, but more importantly I hope the student section shows up in force again!

Only thing that is for sure is that the Bears will win.

I will see you guys this weekend. Should have momma bear and cub in tow as well.

Its BAND weekend... that means there will be MANY MANY high school kids there.

We need to pack the stadium so those high school kids see UCA as a fun place where they want to come when they graduate!

I'm buying 10 extra tickets to hand out to friends who didn't plan to come but are now.

Now if we ALL could do just a little something to put butts in the seats.

The Bears are scoring 31 points per game.
The Bears are allowing 36 points per game.
Got to change the trend.

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GO BEARS

Some stats on Mo State...

Rushing Offense:

Northwestern State - 47/223/4.7
Ok State - 41/155/3.8
North Dakota - 46/235/5.1

Passing Offense:

NWS - 11/22/195/8.9
OSU - 16/24/219/9.1
UND - 11/17/149/8.8

Primarily a run offense with effective passing.....pretty balanced attack..DL and LBs need to have very good games...

Rushing Defense:

NWS - 40/175/4.4
OSU - 35/206/5.9
UND - 34/84/2.5

Pass Defense:

NWS - 31/42/318/7.6
OSU - 21/35/274/738
UND - 10/28/82/2.9

Shutout and shutdown North Dakota.....had probelms with both NWS and OSU...Purple Bears offense has opportunity for a big night..o-line really needs to play well.

Others...

Held OSU to only 5/15 on 3rd downs....

No turnovers vs OSU...

UCA has better punting stats...MSU gives up 12 yards per punt return..be nice to see Wilson/Muprky gett a couple good returns...

MSU has 6/8 red zone TDs and holds opp to only 3/8...

3 avg over 50 yards ruishing per game with leader Calan Crowder with 76 and 6.8 per carry...

QB Kierra Harris is 61% passer with 180+ per game.... also runs fro 50+ per game...

Have outscored opp 40-6 in Q4...

Julian Burton lewads receivers with 11 catches for 218 (19.8 per catch)....

12 different receuvers have caught a pass...

Dylan Cole and Andrew Beisel lead tacklers at 26 and 24 tackles....Cole has 8.5 tackles for losses...

Have only allowed 6 sacks...

Minus 3 on TOs.....

It's GAMEDAY

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GO BEARS

Interesting note on this game: Taylor Reed and Kierra Harris quarterbacked against each other both in the regular season and the 6A State Championship game in 2010. Taylor's team, El Dorado, won both games and they were both shootouts. In the regular season meeting. Arkansas High(Texarkana) was attempting a game winning field goal, but El Dorado blocked the field goal and returned it for a touchdown as time expired. In the state championship game, Taylor and El Dorado took over in the fourth quarter and put away the game.

WHAT A WAY TO START THE GAME!!! Go Bears!!

I just can't figure this team out...

another INT...

This offense must be missing someone...or something. Our defense and special teams are into in right now, but nothing doing on offense.