The lone remaining unbeaten teams in the Iowa Conference race collide on Saturday when Dubuque hosts Wartburg. The winner will be in the drivers seat in the league race.
“Whoever wins this game will be 4-0 in the league with 3 to go, so you could conceivably stumble and still get it into the NCAA playoffs. But again, I think like anything else when you are ahead and people are chasing you it’s a heck of a lot better than being behind and trying to catch somebody,” Dubuque coach Stan Zweifel says.
The Spartans used big plays in the passing game a week ago to snap Coe’s 16-game regular season win streak with a 38-14 victory and Zweifel says much of the credit goes to am improving ground game. He says their tailback Kyle Acker has run very hard in the last 3 games and been very difficult to bring down, and that has made a big difference.
Zweifel is concerned about Wartburg’s balanced offense and says one way to defend it is to keep it on the sideline. Wartburg has won four straight games overall and coach Rick Willis is rotating quarterbacks. He says they are excited about what each of the QB’s bring to the offense and says they have both been developing.
Willis says the defense needs to limit big plays from the Dubuque offense as that is their goal to make big plays against you. Willis sas the Knights need to limit mistakes against a Dubuque defense that has generated 16 turnovers so far this season. “Obviously the turnover margin is one of the most key stats at any level,”Willis says.