FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[JEFFFAN]

A few random thoughts after if nothing else a beautiful Fall afternoon in the Hartford area:

(1) Trinity was just flawless today.   Pretty much the perfect game on their part.  They will go down as a very good second place finisher this season - today they were terrific
(2) Not sure who #2 is but he shouldn't be playing in the NESCAC.  Too good for us mortals;
(3) My goodness is the talent cupboard bare at Amherst.   I'm sure they're nice young men but they were the JV today.  There is zero special talent on that team other than 44.  Haven't seen that little talent since the post-Darp dark years;
(4) If the combination of the "we can cure racism all by ourselves" President and her Admissions Director tag-along boy wonder are messing with EJ's recruiting, he will be gone soon. Why stay if they won't give you the players?  This could get ugly fast;
(5) Nice gesture by Trinity to keep the starting offense in and throw the ball on a drive with ten minutes left in the game ahead 42-0.   If anyone on this board wonders for one nanosecond why Trinity is the target of so much disdain, that is why.  Right there.  Way to stay classy!
(6) Finally, kudos to Williams for a terrific wha-will-be undefeated season.  A quick turnaround on their part and they've done it very well.

It was a beautiful Fall day in New England!

[lumbercat]

Nescacman was right on the money when he said Costa was the key factor in the game at Bowdoin tonight. He was banged up but he answered the bell very unexpectedly.

Bowdoin blitzed, blitzed and then blitzed some more. I don't blame them, they knew he was not 100%. Every throw was hurried in the first half. Bates couldn't get the offense going.

In the second half Bates made some adjustments and started to chip away. At the end of the day the game was decided by several big plays that Costa was able to pull off.

Two 1-6 teams, I get it, pillow fight etc etc

Costa is a huge playmaker on an undermanned team and the kid is as tough they come.

[xPolarDadx]

In the second half Bates made some adjustments and started to chip away. At the end of the day the game was decided by several big plays that Costa was able to pull off.

Two 1-6 teams, I get it, pillow fight etc etc

Costa is a huge playmaker on an undermanned team and the kid is as tough they come.

That Bowdoin missed short FG as time expired for the loss really hurt.  Great last drives by both teams. 

[lumbercat]

A few random thoughts after if nothing else a beautiful Fall afternoon in the Hartford area:

(5) Nice gesture by Trinity to keep the starting offense in and throw the ball on a drive with ten minutes left in the game ahead 42-0.   If anyone on this board wonders for one nanosecond why Trinity is the target of so much disdain, that is why.  Right there.  Way to stay classy!

It was a beautiful Fall day in New England!

That has become Devanney's calling card, his MO. He will really run it up. Especially after he gets embarrassed by coach Raymond and Williams the prior week who were better prepared and came in with a superior game plan. I still don't believe that score.

[polbear73]

In the second half Bates made some adjustments and started to chip away. At the end of the day the game was decided by several big plays that Costa was able to pull off.

Two 1-6 teams, I get it, pillow fight etc etc

Costa is a huge playmaker on an undermanned team and the kid is as tough they come.

That Bowdoin missed short FG as time expired for the loss really hurt.  Great last drives by both teams.

The real playmakers were the refs who called 7 personal fouls on Bowdoin to one on Bates, wiping out an Andre Eaton 80 yard touchdown run on a phantom hold, all by the same ref. I never complain about officiating, but this was egregious,

[polbear73]

A few random thoughts after if nothing else a beautiful Fall afternoon in the Hartford area:

(5) Nice gesture by Trinity to keep the starting offense in and throw the ball on a drive with ten minutes left in the game ahead 42-0.   If anyone on this board wonders for one nanosecond why Trinity is the target of so much disdain, that is why.  Right there.  Way to stay classy!

It was a beautiful Fall day in New England!

Nothing to like about Devanney yesterday. Classless


That has become Devanney's calling card, his MO. He will really run it up. Especially after he gets embarrassed by coach Raymond and Williams the prior week who were better prepared and came in with a superior game plan. I still don't believe that score.

[nescac1]

I too was pretty stunned by that last Trinity play.  If you are gonna throw the ball there, at least put your second unit in so you are giving them reps.  Running up the score on an outmatched opponent doesn't erase the prior week's shellacking. 

Eden is a really special player for Bowdoin.  I wonder how they snagged him.  He and Nicholas are right now miles ahead of the other TBs in the league.  Trinity's TB is also rock solid, but not a dynamic playmaker like those other two.  It's been a strangely thin position in Nescac this year, as reflected by two QBs near the top of the rushing yardage leaders.  Doesn't help that guys who looked like they'd be stars for Midd and Bates in 2019 opted not to return.  I'm surprised Wesleyan with all its other skill position talent hasn't managed to bring in an all-league caliber TB for many years.  And Amherst even when its passing game was iffy used to always be rotating two stars at the position but there has clearly been a drop-off there. No one like Hickey since he graduated, certainly. 

[polbear73]

Eden and Boel are part of a sophomore class who could become special on offense for Bowdoin. The problem is that the Hammer needs to find counterparts on the other side of the ball.

[SpringSt7]

A couple thoughts on Williams vs. Wesleyan:

-At some point you just run out of things to say about the Eph defense. For the last 3 seasons they were able to mask underwhelming secondary play and an average D line by building around a stud core of LBs. Now the D Line and Secondary are legitimate strengths and complements the LBs in a way that seemed impossible a few years ago. The result is keeping Trinity and Wesleyan to a combined 3 points in the last 2 weeks.

-Credit to Wesleyan where credit is due. I'm not going to say "the game was closer than the box score indicates" because that's not true---Williams gained 444 yards of total offense and a blistering 6.8 yards per play. But Wesleyan made it tough for them in the red zone and made them fight for every single point---3 of Williams' scoring drives were 11, 12, and 12 plays long and they only got a TD on 1 of those 3 drives. The 25 points they allowed were the least Williams has scored in a game all year. As expected Helbig was an absolute force in the middle and kept his team in the game in the first half. If it wasn't for the coverage blunder on the Burke TD the game could've potentially tightened up.

-With that being said it was pretty obvious early in the game that Raymond and co. had Estevez figured out and that Wesleyan was going to have a really hard time moving the ball. It was a little surprising to see him only run the ball 14 times. Like all games this year he was their best offense and while they were behind for much of the game, it wasn't like the game was out of reach early and they had to abandon the run game.

-I'm a huge fan of his but it seemed like Dice got a little cute in this one for Wesleyan. They went back to the Estevez pooch punt after having success with it against Amherst but he punted the ball off of one of his OL and gave the ball back to Williams at around the 40 yard line. Furthermore, they did a poor job of disguising the play as Estevez was significantly further back in the shotgun than he normally would be and was lined up with his right foot back, very clearly punting the ball. Additionally, the Estevez/Scott duo seemed to lack any real plan on a play by play basis, and it seemed like a weird time to go back to Scott and not go down with Estevez.

-Speaking of Ashton Scott, what a bizarre year. After being arguably the best QB in the league as a sophomore in 2019 he just looked totally lost this year. What a difference it might've made for Wesleyan if he was even 75-80% of his former self this year and they were able to play him together with Estevez.

-I'm probably the biggest Bobby Maimaron fan on this board but at some point when does Joel Nicholas start to get his due? It feels weird to watch him rush for 180 yards a game and keep giving all the credit to the QB for placing the ball in his chest. I would have no problem with Nicholas as POY.

-I'm not really into the best team ever talk, and even if I was I would definitely wait until after the Amherst game to have that conversation. But there was a lot of talk yesterday afternoon and night in Williamstown from a lot of people that have seen a lot of football that feel like this might be the best Williams team they've ever seen.

[BigKat]

Kudos to the Ephs but lets be honest, their D was porous in Medford and they were lucky to escape with a W.  Maybe the wake up call they needed? Yes, Trinity classy as always Congrats to Costa- glad he played. Lord jeffs perhaps the worst of the middle of the pack squads and way overrated. What a gutless effort yesterday. That qb needs to sit and try someone else.

[D3FLETCH]

A few random thoughts after if nothing else a beautiful Fall afternoon in the Hartford area:

(5) Nice gesture by Trinity to keep the starting offense in and throw the ball on a drive with ten minutes left in the game ahead 42-0.   If anyone on this board wonders for one nanosecond why Trinity is the target of so much disdain, that is why.  Right there.  Way to stay classy!

It was a beautiful Fall day in New England!

Nothing to like about Devanney yesterday. Classless


That has become Devanney's calling card, his MO. He will really run it up. Especially after he gets embarrassed by coach Raymond and Williams the prior week who were better prepared and came in with a superior game plan. I still don't believe that score.

Is it possible the Hartford State players/staff did not understand the scoring procedures involved?

[CC_Camels]

I have been lurking for a while here and this is my first post, but I wanted to comment on the Bates - Bowdoin game and just how impressive it was to see so much interest and passion from the players and fans for a late season game between two one win teams.

The rivalries make this league so special and it is it is awesome to watch the games that both teams have circled on their schedules even if they are essentially for bragging rights only.

[nescac1]

The Ephs D had one off game out of 8 - early in the season, on the road vs. a talented offensive unit that played very well, but I think they are better judged by completely shutting down the two best teams in the league (as well as everyone else) towards the end of the season.  The Eph secondary has performed wayyyy better since the Tufts game as shown by how they locked down Trinity.   A great team can win even when it doesn't play particularly well and the Ephs managed to do so during their one off day this season.

I think Nicholas has been the best player in NESCAC over the latter half of the season but he was too quiet during the first half of the year, when the Ephs relied on him far less, to be in the POY conversation.  Also hurts his cause that four Eph runners are averaging over 5 ypc, so obviously a lot of credit has to go to the online, as brilliantly as Nicholas has run the ball the last two weeks ... when he sniffs the end zone, it's over. 

[D3FLETCH]

I have been lurking for a while here and this is my first post, but I wanted to comment on the Bates - Bowdoin game and just how impressive it was to see so much interest and passion from the players and fans for a late season game between two one win teams.

The rivalries make this league so special and it is it is awesome to watch the games that both teams have circled on their schedules even if they are essentially for bragging rights only.

Welcome to the board. CBB is one of the better rivalries in D3.

[SpringSt7]

Just because cherrypicking stats are fun, Joel Nicholas' last 9 games:

144 carries, 897 yards, 19 total TDs

16 carries per game, 99.7 yards per game, 2.1 TDs per game.