You know the cliché "offense wins games, defense wins championships?"

A quick glance at Saturday’s Bridgewater-Rowan matchup might prompt the thought: "The first team to find its defense should win a championship."

Both teams are offensive juggernauts, each averaging more than 45 points and 500 yards per game. But as Rowan coach K.C. Keeler and Bridgewater head man Michael Clark will tell you, the defenses aren’t playing badly at all.

"Defensively, we don’t get nearly as much credit as we should," said Keeler, whose team has outscored three playoff opponents 131-31. "Right now, we’re playing as good a defense as I can remember."

That’s saying something coming from a coach who has guided the Profs to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl five times in the past eight seasons. For proof that Clark’s defense has arrived, he need point no further than Saturday’s 57-32 win against Widener.

The Pioneers arrived at Jopson Field averaging nearly 47 points per outing. Though they scored 32 and piled up 539 yards of offense, the Eagle defense forced three critical turnovers and stuffed Widener on downs three times inside the 30-yard line.

"With these guys, it’s not about yardage or completions," said Clark, the defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech from 1988-1992. "It’s about turnovers and stops."

With Rowan (11-1) bringing an offensive résumé similar to Widener’s, the Eagle defense will again have to play a great defensive game. But prior to the emergence of quarterback Jason Lutz and running back Davon Cruz last season, Bridgewater (11-0) was a team led by its defense.

Though both defenses are overshadowed by their offenses (as is that of potential Stagg Bowl opponent in Mount Union), neither is short on speed or talent.

The Eagles' defensive line is led by 6-2, 224-pound junior defensive end Ryan Bailey. Linebacker Lonnie Parker and corner Henry Eggleston are impact players as well.

Rowan’s defense is probably one of Division III’s biggest, if not fastest. But it was after a 32-31 loss to Cortland State that the Profs fixed what was wrong with their defense. And Keeler says it wasn’t in the let’s-go-back-to-the-drawing-board and practice harder method that often accompanies a surprising loss.

"What I saw at Cortland was we were exhausted," said Keeler. "The evaluation was that I demanded too much of them."

The Profs had blown a 31-19 lead with less than two minutes to play, and Keeler said they missed three sure touchdown passes because balls were too far out in front of receivers.

"Tony [Raccioppi] didn’t overthrow them," said Keeler. "They couldn’t catch up with the balls."

Keeler and his staff cut back on practice time, and rearranged the secondary. Senior corner Clinton Tabb moved to free safety, sophomore Tremaine Hill switched from running back to cornerback, junior Steffon Davis joined the fray and Keeler decided not to redshirt freshman Kevin Evans, who injured an ankle in the preseason.

Keeler says they’re a different defense since. In fact, he said, they were "taking it to the offense" when the first teams battled in practice for four or five weeks, until this past week.

The larger story of this game is in how Bridgewater’s seniors were 0-10 as freshmen, the same season that Rowan seniors were making the first of two Stagg Bowl appearances. 

Before going 10-2 and earning the school’s first playoff berth last season, Bridgewater had just 127 wins in 101 years of football. They’d won just a single ODAC title, in 1980, since the conference’s inception in 1976. The Profs, meanwhile, are the only team to defeat Mount Union in the Purple Raiders’ past 81 games.

It’s easy to assume Rowan is so used to the success that they’re already looking forward to a sixth Stagg Bowl and a possible rematch with Mount Union, while Bridgewater is happy just to be here.

Not so.

"If you look at our winning percentage in the playoffs," said Keeler, "it’s one of the best in the history of college football. It’s because our kids understand that when you get to the playoffs, you don’t get [to play] any dogs."

"Our kids realize, that basically, Monday someone's going to collect the equipment, either them or us."

After beating Montclair State 53-21 in the annual matchup of NJAC rivals, Keeler recalls hearing Red Hawk supporters rallying for a rematch in the East Region Final.

"All they talked about was playing us again," Keeler said. "We’re like, ‘whoa, we’ve got to play Brockport this week’."

Keeler said his players learn from others’ mistakes. Bridgewater’s players learn from their own.

Current Eagle wide reciever Marcus Richardson told me this time last year that the mistakes made in the 1998 0-10 season are the difference now that the Eagles are among the nation’s elite.

"We’ve come a long way," he said. "When we went 0-10, a lot of people said we were the best 0-10 team they’d seen. Over time, we learned that the little things make all the difference."

"I don’t deny [that] what happened in 1998," Clark said then, "[for my seniors], in a perverse sort of way, has helped."

Keeler heaps praise on the 5-11, 222-pound Lutz for his ability to run the option. Lutz kept it on 12 options last week against Widener, rushing 18 times for 142 yards and three touchdowns. Keeler knows Lutz is just as much a threat to score as Cruz (who rushed 18 times for 163 yards last week) and Richardson are. Keeler also has sophomore quarterback Joe Watson, a big, talented runner himself, emulating Lutz in practice.

Raccioppi (44 touchdowns, 15 interceptions, 285 passing yards per game and completion percentage of 55) won't resemble Lutz (124 carries for 973 yards, 14 rushing touchdowns). The 6-2, 220-pound junior took over for Mike Warker when he left for Widener. Keeler put in a no-huddle, spread offense to take advantage of Racioppi's skills, as well as those of senior wideouts Al Beverly (54 catches, 981 yards, 14 touchdowns) and Scott Lipford (59-1195-19). The offense is crisp, quick and based on exact timing.

Whether it’s Bridgewater, just two hours from Salem, becoming the first Virginia team to play in the Stagg Bowl or Rowan making its sixth trip, we’ll all be sure to hear about how Lutz, Cruz and Richardson or Racioppi, Beverly and Lipford got their team there.

But mark my words, and don’t forget the classic cliché. The team that plays the best defense on Saturday will play for the championship.