FB: Middle Atlantic Conference

wone3 · September 20, 2015, 07:47:45 PM

I do agree that it is way early for title talk; but if those 2 were to win out then it would come down to that.

Still way too much to go, Stevenson has to go to Del Valley October 10 and play Widener at home on Oct 24 with the week off in between those 2 games. I think Albright has the lead in the clubhouse tho since they beat Widener. Wilkes could be a dark horse since they beat Del Valley already even tho Del Valley couldn't do their thing in deep. There's still a lot to play and a fun season ahead in what seems like a wide open conference as of now.

Simba · September 22, 2015, 05:07:43 PM

FACTOID....
Albright has been victorious over Lycoming in only four games since 1978...There was one tie...All four of those victories came in the only years Lyco has had a loosing record (after 2004)...

If the Warriors play the way they did the second half against Wilkes the remainder of the season (down 21-20 at the half), they will be hard to beat and will contend for their 15th MAC Championship!..Simba

wone3 · September 22, 2015, 06:45:55 PM

Ummm Simba,

This is one where I hate to burst the bubble but gotta do it even as a Lyco 90's alum.

The Lycoming secondary has gotten picked apart it seems regularly. They have given up 259,307 and 357 yards passing in the past 3 games. I was at the Stevenson game (my kid is in the color guard in the band there) and it was 28-7 right before half and the deluge hit. The Stevenson QB had time (only sacked 2x) and found his target 3x deep, the 4th TD was a Pick6. Outside Lyco's Senior WR and maybe the starting RB, Lyco seemed to have had little to answer on the offense side and they need to have it if the D is going to give up that many points consistently. Course this was only game 2 and it looked like they found a spurt in the Wilkes game.

Lycoming has to get by Widener (top 8 defense this week) and Del Valley ( who is in top 50 of scoring defense) as well and it seems that one or both seemed to have their number in the past years. Granted strange things are happening this season; but it's gonna take a LOT for Lycoming to be title hunting this year.

Simba · September 22, 2015, 07:58:10 PM

wone3...

My point had nothing to do with the first two games...

If the Warriors play the way they did the second half against Wilkes...

Wilkes in the 2nd half... Lyco in the 2nd half...
PUNT. TD
PUNT. TD
FG. PUNT
DOWNS. INT
INT. PUNT
INT. TD
PUNT. TD
PUNT. PUNT

With only 57 total rushing yards on 33 attempts (1.7/rush), of course they had to pass!!!

Simba

wone3 · September 23, 2015, 03:41:28 PM

My point tho Simba; was that yeah you scored well against an average D at best with not a lot of offensive firepower unless you got some other guys to REALLY step up after what I saw in game 2 against Stevenson. Stevenson has a better than average D and Lyco got shutdown in that game. You still have 2 better Defenses on the schedule with Widener and Del Valley, both appearing in top 50 of D3 stats this week. Just saying temper those thoughts because Lyco is in a DEEP hole to even think about title consideration.

bman · September 24, 2015, 11:08:14 AM

How about some predictions for the week?

Games
Wilkes @ FDU-Florham This depends on which Wilkes team shows up...The Wilkes team that shut down DVU? Or the Wilkes that got crushed by an average Muhlenberg team, and blew a lead to a young Lyco squad. The easy pick here is to take Wilkes here based on pedigree...however, FDU Florham has a taste of victory this year, despite their gut wrenching loss to Kings last week... In case you didn't see it, FDU had an 8 minute 18 second drive late in the 4th Q to go up 7, and Kings responded with an 8 Play 65 yard drive in 54 seconds to tie it up late, and scored to win it in the first OT...That close in spite of their starting QB Tyler Maurer not playing after the second quarter...(not sure if it's due to injury or another issue)
That being said, assuming Tyler Maurer will play and I'll pick FDU Florham in an upset 35-31...if not all bets are off

Lebanon Valley @ Widener There have been some great games between these two in the past...
Leb Val, lost to a solid Franklin and Marshall team that is 3-0 (with 3 solid wins), and barely to Stevenson a game in which Mr. Thompson would like to forget...however, it is clear that this is a good team.
Widener has a very good defense, yet no speed on offense and a suspect O line. It is at home, yet a night game...and I don't remember too many WU night game wins...
In such, I don't think WU will still get it completely together yet, leading to a Lebanon Valley (upset?) in a lower scoring affair 21-20

Albright @ Lycoming Well we all know tough tough tough it is to play in Williamsport. However Lyco has struggled this year. The real question is: Was that scouring onslaught in the 2nd half against Wilkes was an indicator of things getting back on track? Simba says Yes Wone3 says No! I tend to agree with Wone3. As the Phila Eagles can attest, 1 good quarter, doesn't particularly mean future success. especially as 2 of those were defensive touchdowns... Albright has never seemed to get over the hump though, and has always had one loss that took a MAC title away. This year so far seems different. A great comeback win against a very competitive Salisbury team, and a dominating win last week, seems to say that Albright dominates this one. I'll take the away victory for Albright 27-14

Misericordia @ Stevenson I root for Misericordia...I really do. They stayed pretty close to a good Utica team (we'll see how good this week after they play Cortland St...), which I though may indicate a change for the better. Subsequent losses to Lebanon Valley and Delaware Valley indicate that they will stay pretty close to where they normally fall, however the losses were not by as large of a margin as they have been. Maybe it's slow and steady progress... Stevenson is right where they need to be, and seemingly got away with a win last week, despite (the above discussed) 5 turnovers. Good teams find ways to win when not at their best...Stevenson 38 Misericordia 7

King's @ Delaware Valley Kings has lost all of the momentum they gained a few years ago. Losses to an average Moravian team and a bafflingly average Widener team don't indicate good things are on the horizon for this team. The upside was the (above mentioned) comeback win against FDU last week. Despite Del Val having youth at critical positions, and no consistency, I'll still pick Del Val here 28-14

Simba · September 24, 2015, 05:48:07 PM

WILKES OVER FDU BY 3
WIDENER OVER LEB-VAL BY 13
LYCOMING OVER ALBRIGHT BY 7
STEVENSON OVER MISERICORDIA BY 21
DEL-VAL OVER KINGS BY 17

gordonmann · September 24, 2015, 06:22:53 PM

Great stuff, Bman.

I'm really at a loss for making predictions in the conference this year. I could make a credible argument for either team in four of the five games this weekend.

Misiercordia won't beat Stevenson and I don't think it will be close. But Misericordia played Del Val closer than the 21-point deficit indicated. The Cougars reached the Aggies' red zone on their first three possessions and came away with no points, remniscent of Del Val's struggles at Wilkes eight days earlier.

The most concise way to describe Del Val this year thus far is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They are extremely young. They had basically two returning starters on offense coming into the season (LT Josh Wallace and FB Jarret Reinhard). Josh left Saturday's game with a knee injury and Jarrett doesn't play a lot of downs because Del Val doesn't use a FB in a lot of sets. The Aggies may have 10 different starters when they play King's on Saturday night relative to last year. And if they don't need a fullback, they'll have 11.

In one way it's kind of fun. Much less pressure than last year and it'll be fun to watch the young guys develop.

After the first two weeks of the season, the Aggies are a week to week proposition. They absolutely could lose to King's on Saturday or FDU-Florham the following week. They almost lost to the Monarchs last year and I don't know how they slow down Malik Pressley next Friday night. On the other hand they absolutely could beat Stevenson or Albright. They aren't going 2-8 or 9-1 but a W or L is possible any week at this point.

I guess you could say that about most of the conference, though.

wone3 · September 24, 2015, 08:51:11 PM

Quote from: gordonmann on September 24, 2015, 06:22:53 PM
Great stuff, Bman.

I'm really at a loss for making predictions in the conference this year. I could make a credible argument for either team in four of the five games this weekend.

Misiercordia won't beat Stevenson and I don't think it will be close. But Misericordia played Del Val closer than the 21-point deficit indicated. The Cougars reached the Aggies' red zone on their first three possessions and came away with no points, remniscent of Del Val's struggles at Wilkes eight days earlier.

The most concise way to describe Del Val this year thus far is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They are extremely young. They had basically two returning starters on offense coming into the season (LT Josh Wallace and FB Jarret Reinhard). Josh left Saturday's game with a knee injury and Jarrett doesn't play a lot of downs because Del Val doesn't use a FB in a lot of sets. The Aggies may have 10 different starters when they play King's on Saturday night relative to last year. And if they don't need a fullback, they'll have 11.

In one way it's kind of fun. Much less pressure than last year and it'll be fun to watch the young guys develop.

After the first two weeks of the season, the Aggies are a week to week proposition. They absolutely could lose to King's on Saturday or FDU-Florham the following week. They almost lost to the Monarchs last year and I don't know how they slow down Malik Pressley next Friday night. On the other hand they absolutely could beat Stevenson or Albright. They aren't going 2-8 or 9-1 but a W or L is possible any week at this point.

I guess you could say that about most of the conference, though.

I so agree with the bolded stuff
The no scoring in the red zone was some of Stevenson's issue last week too especially late. Stevenson had a nice drive late which stalled and they turned it over on downs deep inside the 10 with less than 2 minutes left. Stevenson is still kind of young but they have guys who played last year. The big thing is the penalty mistakes. Misercordia won't beat Stevenson but it looks like they are improving cause the scores look a bit better. Stevenson by 21.

The other 4 could be toss ups.

I do tend to think based on their performance last week against Widener that Albright will beat Lyco by 7-10 points and potential more depending on what Albright does on D.

Wilkes is my dark horse for the title since they beat Del Valley already and just not sure what FDU has. FDU does usually find at least 1 week each year they pull the upset tho and this could be the team they do it too. Wilkes by 7.

Widener is gonna come in angry after losing 2 in a row and what kept LVC in the game last week was the defense. I just don't see Widener going down 3 in a row. Widener by 10 points but this could go worse.

Del Valley and Kings- normally this would be no contest for Del Valley but with the young team and Kings has been scoring even in losses and the only win is against FDU. Still gonna go Del Valley by 7 points.

jmcozenlaw · September 25, 2015, 09:47:06 AM

Wilkes - 27 FDU - 21 (will be close until the end)
Widener - 20 LebVal - 17 (Widener has too much back on defense)
Lycoming - 21 Albright - 20 (because those 14 previous MAC Championships will pull them through.....that's for Simba

)
Stevenson - 38 Misericordia - 13 (Miser has a nice running QB and not much else)
Kings - 21 DelVal - 17 (you can't start 11 new offensive players and win much in year one)

Warren Thompson · September 25, 2015, 05:37:32 PM

Mercy, bman! You picked your Pride to fall to the Dutchmen this evening? I'm stunned and shocked.
(And what's with the "mr." stuff? That makes me feel even older than my already-advanced years.

)

HSCTiger74 · September 25, 2015, 07:01:11 PM

Quote from: Warren Thompson on September 25, 2015, 05:37:32 PM
Mercy, bman! You picked your Pride to fall to the Dutchmen this evening? I'm stunned and shocked.
(And what's with the "mr." stuff? That makes me feel even older than my already-advanced years. )

You should be okay until they start calling you "Pops".

bill · September 25, 2015, 10:16:40 PM

Congratulations to the FDU Devils,ending 30 years of frustration by defeating Wilkes, 29-26. Even more impressive was the team had to use the backup QB...hopefully get starter Maurer back next week!

gordonmann · September 25, 2015, 11:37:18 PM

FDU receiver Malik Pressley may be the most dynamic offensive player in the conference. He had two more touchdowns tonight and has seven for the season. And he's just a sophomore. Scary stuff. Wilkes missed two extra points tonight and gave up a two-point conversion late.

Del Val LT Josh Wallace is out for tomorrow so it's official -- 11 new starters on offense tomorrow. I mistakenly said Jarrett Reinhart was a starter last year, but the starting fullback was Joe Meehan.

jmcozenlaw · September 26, 2015, 11:04:16 AM

Quote from: Warren Thompson on September 25, 2015, 05:37:32 PM
Mercy, bman! You picked your Pride to fall to the Dutchmen this evening? I'm stunned and shocked.
(And what's with the "mr." stuff? That makes me feel even older than my already-advanced years. )

I think that bman played the old "if they lose, I called it" game. In that case, the Eagles will lose to the Jets tomorrow (let's see if that works as well

)
LebVal has no passing attack to speak of. QB's went 5 for 21 for 104 yards.......with 76 of the yards coming on one play. They make DelVal's passing attack look good!
Klein threw the ball 65 times and ran it another 16 times. I have never seen a MAC team so solely reliant on one player. God forbid he goes down.......Widener is toast!