FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[Nescacman]

2016 Week #1 NESCAC Preview

Welcome to Week 1 in the NESCAC..."the league where they pay to play". We went 30-10 for the season and are 92-28 for our career picking NESCAC games.

Bates College at Hartford State: Hartford State 35 Bates 14

Hamilton College at Amherst College: Amherst 38 Hamilton 7

Colby College at Williams College: Colby 17 Williams 14

Bowdoin College at Middlebury College: Middlebury 28 Bowdoin 7

NESCAC Game of the Week

Wesleyan University at Tufts University: Wesleyan 28 Tufts 14

NESCACMAN's Picks
2015 Season: 30-10
2014 Season: 30-10
2013 Season: 32-8
Career: 92-28 (.767 winning percentage)

[AUPepBand]

Who's ready for some foosball?

[PolarCat]

Pregame report from the Coop.

Surprisingly, Trinity played the National Anthem before either team took the field.  I guess the Bants didn't want to risk a Colin Kapernick incident on Family Weekend.

The Jumbotron is interesting, but not particularly Jumbo, particularly since its erected about 30 yards behind the south endzone.

Trinity won the toss and elected to kick.  Good luck to both teams.

[polbear73]

We knew it was going to be an ugly year for Bowdoin and the first half at Middlebury proved it.  Midd's offense can't be stopped and, aside from a nice Bowdoin initial drive, the Bears did nothing on offense.  It would be hard to believe that Middlebury is this good and Bowdoin is this bad, but the results speak for themselves.  34-3 Middlebury. 

[nescac1]

Heartbreaking loss for the Ephs in the first game of the Raymond era.  Looked like the Ephs had won the game but the Colby frosh QB made a HUGE 4th and 12 completion (with a defender grabbing his arm, I believe, to boot) to save the day for the Mules.  Frustrating loss for the Ephs as they had the ball FOUR times deep in the red zone.  They must not have a lot of confidence in their FG kicker, because on three of those occasions they went for it in difficult fourth down situations (not 4th and 1) when they could have kicked a short FG.

For Williams,  despite the late game score the defense was nothing short of heroic.  They showed more pass rush than they have shown in years, and despite being constantly placed in rough situations due to turnovers, offensive ineptitude, and special teams, they generally stopped Colby cold on just about every series.  Justin Harris and Jameson DeMarco in particular looked like all-NESCAC caliber defenders, exploding into the Colby backfield all game.  The Eph secondary looked a bit leaky especially late in the game, which will be a problem vs. teams with better passing games, but the front seven looked like a solid unit.

Williams' two TBs, Harris and Sorrento, both played very well, they are a very solid 1-2 punch and the heart of the offense.  None of the Ephs receivers really had a chance to stand out, although big TE JOhn Dillon and Regensburg look like the two go-too targets.  The Ephs just killed themselves on offense however with penalties -- not a huge surprise for such a young team, alternating two QBs, alternating (it appeared) a soph and a first year player at LT (both of whom were penalized), playing at a very fast pace, they just had a lot of delay of game, false start and holding type penalties several of which were drive killers.  Need desperately to clean those up since this team has VERY little margin for error on offense.

Moaney is a very shifty and dangerous runner but can't throw the ball more than about ten yards down the field with any sort of accuracy -- the two times he even tried, it was right to a Colby defender with no Eph in sight.  I have a feeling we will see a lot more of Jansen Durham as the season goes along.  He led the Ephs on two clutch drives when inserted down the stretch.  The first he made an insane play on a 4th and goal but unfortunately the receiver dropped the ball in the end zone.  He made a number of clutch throws on the second TD drive, including a bullet on 4th and long to keep the drive alive.  Moaney's destiny will be as a WR and effective occasional change of pace QB for the Ephs, but you need to have some sort of verticle threat so I imagine theE phs will use more of Durham as he gains some confidence from this performance.  He certainly looked sharp in the 4th quarter.  But the Colby frosh QB got the last laugh with, after doing very little all game, a few huge completions down the stretch, so hats off to him.

The Ephs are not gonna beat Trinity next week.  But it would be nice to see progress in a few areas, in particular, avoiding offensive penalties and integrating a bit more of a vertical passing game.  The defense is going to need to keep Williams in games this year since it doesn't seem like the offense is going to put up a ton of points.  I do really like what I see from Raymond in game one -- despite the tough result, the D looked like it had a ton of life and did a great job of getting to the QB and the offense at least showed it has some potential to improve, albeit a LONG way to go to be remotely competitive against anyone left on the schedule. 

This game is really one the Ephs shoudl have won and may be their best chance for a victory all year.  But we all know it's going to be a long rebuild and for such a young team, playing in an entirely new system under an entirely new staff, they acquitted themselves pretty well I thought.  Certainly not the total embarrassing disaster some here were predicting.  Raymond is going to turn this ship around.  But there just isn't enough talent on hand right now for that to be this year.  Still, good to see so many young players seeing the field and making key plays -- they will only improve over time. 

[quicksilver]

We knew it was going to be an ugly year for Bowdoin and the first half at Middlebury proved it.  Midd's offense can't be stopped and, aside from a nice Bowdoin initial drive, the Bears did nothing on offense.  It would be hard to believe that Middlebury is this good and Bowdoin is this bad, but the results speak for themselves.  34-3 Middlebury.

Yup -- what little I could bear to watch was very painful. It's going to be a long season for the P-Bears . . According to the boxscore, Bowdoin deployed only 28 players, 2 of whom were kickers and 10 of whom were FYs. I was surprised that we did not see anything of Noah Nelson at QB.  Middlebury was impressive in all facets of the game, with the exception of the kicking game . .

[polbear73]

Good points, quicksilver. The small deployment also occurred with a handful of Bowdoin players assisted off the field with injuries. Gives new meaning to being thin.

[Rte27Driver]

I was there as well, Nescac1 and agree with everything you said. Omg, the last seconds. I felt terrible for the Ephs, but felt great for that kicker's family. How proud they must have been. And good for them. Agree, Eph defense absolutely was heroic today.

That said, just a thought. This is a really small conference, and as strongly as we all can feel about these games, today I was hearing some unconscionable smack talk about the Ephs' QB (who is playing QB essentially in extremis and doing his best) from a guy a few rows below us. This is how small the world is. He had no idea he was sitting right across the bleacher aisle from the QB's family, who basically got very upset and reiterated for this guy that this player has been a WR up until just now and that "the boy is still playing the game." I seriously thought there was going to be an incident in the stands today.

As the poster whose son played at Hamilton said, let's all keep perspective. All of these boys are doing their best. They know when they make mistakes and feel it the worst. Their families and friends in the stands feel it next. Let's all be respectful. There is a significant contingent of senior citizens in the stands, and the smack talking guy was older, but that is still old enough to know better.

I'm sorry the Ephs lost, but congrats to the Colby parents, that must have been an adrenalin rush. Well done, Mules. Your kicker is the man this week

[middhoops]

Attended the Midd/Bowdoin game with Vandy74.
We have seen a few good QBs at Midd over the many decades.  Lebowitz is the real deal.
Waiting to see him against more experienced defenses, but thinking his combination of athelticism and confidence with the ball in his hands can be nothing but good news for us old Panther fans.
An apparent injury to Tanner Contois is worrying. 
Kicking game still a work in progress.

Great post by nescac1.  Even made ME sad for the Ephs.  Nothing against Colby, just a great post.

[PolarCat]

I'm sorry the Ephs lost, but congrats to the Colby parents, that must have been an adrenalin rush. Well done, Mules. Your kicker is the man this week

John Baron is a quality young man.  Like every kicker (with the possible exception of Stephen Gostkowski) he's had days when he was the goat.  For example, his blocked kick last year was the difference in the Bates game.  It looked like a bad snap, but the kicker always takes the blame.  So it's great the karma wheel came full circle for him today.

Baron is a rarity in today's football world: a kicker who also handles punting duties.  And while his clutch kick was the game winner, his punting was pretty darn good, too.  9 punts for 319 yards, including one for 63 (!!!!!) yards in the fourth quarter.

NESCAC kickers have a really neat mutual admiration society, and it's not unusual to see them hanging out together at halftime (like the Trinity and Bates kickers today), and congratulating / commiserating with each other after the game.  Maybe no one but a fellow kicker truly understands the stress of the position, but it's sportsmanship at its very best.

[amh63]

Been watching a bit of the Tufts vs Wes game. Going into the 4th quarter, the halftime score of 14-3 holds. Game full of mistakes...first game errors.  Tufts has no offense as their star RB is shut down...thus no running game and no real passing game.  Wes looks to me to be a team wanting to live up to all the hype...but trying tooooo hard.  Long ball passing game not there yet.  Anyway bored and here I am.   Jumbo cast with it's replay ability is real nice.   Wish NSN could add that capability.
Oh,the Amherst-Hamilton game.  The score indicates a blow out....of sorts.  Amherst's defense dominated.  Some nice new RBs introduced into the offense....impact of the new RB coach??  Yeah, I know...another Midd great QB.   Is it the mountain air or the B&J ice cream??
In  brief, the Sr QB has the arm, feet and composure to run the offense.  Four TDs by RBs....short red zone runs.  Hickey ran for three. 
Big game next week!  Guess it is a big game every week for the senior class!  Go Jeffs!!

[middhoops]

Apologies for being late to the day of NESCAC football.
Tufts over Wesleyan! 
We thought it was a big upset when the Jumbos beat us late last season.  Looks like they're for real.
Congrats. 
The top level of the conference just expanded, no?

[westcoastDad]

Wow, Tufts came back to win.....otherwise NESCAC man picks them all correct.

Was at the Amherst game.  Hard to tell much because Hamilton seemed over matched everywhere except at QB.

The Amherst offense put up 34 but didn't have to really show much.  Would be nice to see both Hasan and Hickey in the backfield together.  Hasan has an extra gear missing from this offense.  Hickey is nice power that wears a team down.  The passing game was much better than expected as Berlutti made several nice throws.  His athleticism may not be like Foy but it's still plenty good.  His stable of relievers began to impose their will on the tired Continental defense in the 2nd half.  Offensive line play well at times opening some big holes.  But will have to play better if the Jeffs are to continue their win streak late into October. 

On defense, the Jeffs smothered the Continentals for most of the game.   Great pressure from the front 7 caused much grief for the Hamilton QB.  The game could have been a different feel but many receivers either dropped passes or were  slightly overthrown.  Typical Jeffs defense in that they will force u to make those plays while at the same time causing turnovers or crucial mistakes.  Today's game was just that....turnovers caused that gave the Jeffs offense the ball in great field position.  It's going to take an experienced or good QB/WR tandem against Amherst.  That front 7 DL and LBs gets the game ball in my opinion.  They laid some vicious hits on the Continentalsame.  Only going to get better!

Safe travels back home

[lumbercat]

Predictable day in the NESCAC.

Colby-Williams game was a nail biter-a nice win for the Mules but the QB situation for Colby is baffling.........Harrington was the starter and looked to split some reps with Sparacio.......at the end of the day a Freshman QB played the lead role for Colby today???

I'll ask the Colby posters to explain what transpired here.
In the Colby-Bates scrimmage the QB situation was Harrington/Sparacio splitting time with the ones. FY O'Brien was the smallish lefty who looked liked the 4th stringer behind other FY Drew.

Colby folks................What happened today where O'Brien ends up orchestrating a nice Colby win?  Quite a story.....

[mariner75]

Nice comeback win for the Jumbos with 2 Chance Brady TD's in the 4th Q. Two evenly matched teams who'll be near the top of the standings but not sure if they'll be able to match Trin/Am this year.

Announced the crowd as 6500 for Tufts first night game on campus.