Wheaton's defense was strong all day, but it took the offense until the fourth quarter to come around vs. UW-Eau Claire on Saturday. Wheaton athletics photo by Michael Hudson Photography

In my experience, the perception seems to be that at about Week 3, most Top 25 voters do major teardowns and rebuilding of their ballots.

While I don’t subscribe to such a “guideline” when I fill out my weekly ballot, this past Saturday’s games offer a pretty good indication as to why this is a good week for voters to break out the hammer and nails and to make sure that they are working with fresh materials and not just the ones they unearthed in the preseason.

For example, a couple of final scores from Saturday can be deceiving. Sure, Wheaton shut out UW-Eau Claire and ultimately turned in a fine 17-point margin of victory, but did you catch the fact that the score was only 3-0 going into the fourth quarter. Or that Thiel, which hasn’t had a winning season since 2005, was beating Thomas More 27-21 at halftime before the Saints really turned up the juices both offensively and defensively for a 66-27 win.

For the latter, we all have to ask ourselves what that says about a team: Is Thomas More as vulnerable as the first half suggests or is the team one that wins because of second-half adjustments, proving that the game 60 minutes long, and not a second less.

Not to be overlooked, of course, are the lopsided matchups between Top 25 teams, where John Carroll handed a crusher to OAC rival Heidelberg and where North Central left UW-Platteville in its dust early. (As a side note: Whitewater excluded, the WIAC hasn’t founds its swagger yet this year, something that will come up when Around the Nation revisits the preseason conference rankings a couple of weeks from now.) Heidelberg’s and Platteville’s stock should be dropping considerably after this weekend, because while it’s one thing to lose to someone higher ranked than you, it’s another when the teams on the field seem so far apart in terms of skill.

The other side of that coin, however, is how much higher to slot the victors. Going into the weekend, North Central was No. 5 on my ballot, and JCU was No. 10. While the Blue Streaks are certainly going to leap over my then-No. 9 Platteville (my ballot this week isn’t done yet as of this writing), there’s only so much I can raise them up because the Top 10 is so dense with talent. However, games like what we saw on Saturday are burned into my memory, and going forward, as a voter, I’ll be looking for opportunities to reward these teams in the poll.

Not to be forgotten is Illinois Wesleyan, which overcame concerns over experience early in the season with a win over Franklin but now stumbled against undefeated Simpson. With the Titans going into the weekend ranked at No. 21, it’s unlikely we will see too many people hanging onto them with so many other teams across the nation still undefeated and playing convincing football.

Going beyond the Top 25

• As the NESCAC began play this weekend, Williams’ shutout win and Tufts’ long-losing-streak-breaking win stand out (see Saturday’s wrapup on the front page of D3football.com), but to see Amherst, Wesleyan and Trinity coming out of their debuts with wins is not particularly surprising. For those who aren’t familiar with this conference, the 10-team NESCAC plays an eight-game schedule, all in conference. And they don’t participate in football’s postseason. Gauging the strength and competitiveness of this conference has always been complicated.
• Misericordia has beaten just one team since starting up in 2012, but now the Cougars can say they’ve beaten that team twice. After hefty losses of 55-0 and 41-7 in the first two games, Misericordia turned the tables on the scoreboard and pounded FDU-Florham 35-0. It’s too strong to say that the Cougars’ stock is rising – there are too many pitfalls in the weeks ahead – but at least the team has something to smile about before Week 11.
• Wisconsin Lutheran’s win over Kalamazoo helped the NACC avoid being swept in the MIAA/NACC challenge this weekend. The results probably weren’t much of a surprise if you read Kickoff, which had the NACC ranked 25th out of 27 conferences.
• Once again Rose-Hulman turned in a multiple-overtime game, and once again the Engineers came out on top. Last weekend it was the 74-68 juggernaut against Illinois College, and this time it was a 48-42 win against Hanover. Exciting? Sure. Feels a bit stressful, too.
• Speaking of OT, Massachusetts Maritime had 20 third-quarter points to bring them back into their game with Maine Maritime and then got a touchdown in overtime to claim the Admiral’s Cup. The game was heavy with turnovers, with Mass. Maritime committing five and Maine Maritime three.
• Despite losing, N.C. Wesleyan is finally showing signs that the team is coming together to be something better than it has been in the past. Christopher Newport needed a fourth-quarter score to win 31-28 in a Thursday night matchup, and the fact that the Bishops held on to make it competitive is a big positive. In the preseason, coach Jeff Filkovski, a former coach in the OAC, said sincerely that running back Jacques Alston was one of the best he’s ever seen. A dismal 43 rushing yards in the opener didn’t mete that out, but a performance of 177 yards and three scores in Week 2 as well as Thursday’s 106 yards and one touchdown are giving us clues that there’s something more to this back.