FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[GroundandPound]

Trin QB 72% completion rate but 52% completion rate v Midd D

[Charlie]

Trinity / Middlebury

Middlebury for the last two years have completely out coached Trinity. Middlebury ran a very simple concept Cover two don't allow long pass plays and force Trinity to move the ball and the chains and eventually they become impatient and throw into coverage. This is exactly what happened the last two years. Trinity was able to move the ball on the ground and complete short passes. They became imnpatient in oppostions end and instead of either running the ball or throwing short went for the homerun ball. In another instance they were running effectively and insidee oppoenets end decided on throwing and QB was strip sacked. The Trinity OC just looses it in preasure games I think and makes some serios head scratching calls. A few times they could have put this game out of reach in opponents end but kept Middlebury in the game. I will say Middlebury DL really played well rushing three Dl and an occasional blitzer and Trinity looked uneasy all day. Middlebury defense did an outstanding job and Trinity while having the game in hand just made terrible offensive adjustments instead of staying with what was working.

Defensively Trinity played well #41 had a great game. I will aslo say the secondary played well and despite the ending just were not put in good situations by the Coiaches. However the same problems all year plague Trinity DL with exception of #98 were just man handled by the Middlebury OL. I do not have the stats but I think the DL had maybe a handful of tackles excluding sacks. Middlebury exploited the weak Dl and were moving them like chess pieces. Only When Trinity inserted #51 , #95 and #92 were they able to maintain the line of scrimmage. However again head scratching these players were played sparingly. The pass rush was nonexistant except for #98 and Middlebury adjusted to negate his pass rush the rest of the day. Trinity needs to adjust their DL been a weak point all year against the run. I recognize they are first in defensive catagories. But this has been there downfall stopping the inside runs and pass rush against solid teams.

The secondary played well but the terrible pass rush and playing man to man allowed WR to literally run across the field all day. Trinity made real poor adjustments all game allowing Middlebury open WR. The worst was the last drive of the game. Instead of playing two safteies and playing evrything in front of them they stayed with Man to man despite no pass rush and Middlebury shifting to quick throws. I thought the HC was the secondary's Coach he should get and F Grade on this drive. Leaving your fastest DL and pass rushers off the field on the most critical drive is crazy. In fact if any one watches the game the final play both Wr were open the slant and the fade pattern for the TD in the end zone.

Coaching blunders and the fact that Trinity was not ready for a fake punt I would have to give the entire staff a F grade for this game. the hard part about this loss is that Trinity had the ball in Middlebury's end and could have easily walked away with 3 pooints each time making this a two score game.

My take is that Trinity was in position to win the game despite their Coaching debacle but hats off to Middlebury for out Coaching and playing Trinity in the final drive for the win. They certainly seem to have Trinity's number.

[westcoastnescac]

Here we go with the annual "are the mules back" - no, they aren't. another Bowdoin beatdown imminent

[GroundandPound]

Trin D averaged allowing 285 yards per game and yielded 426 yards to Midd O
Trin O averaged 400 yards per game and got 350 yards v. Midd D
Trin O averaged 31 pts per game and got 21 points v. Midd D
Trin D averaged allowing 14 pts per game and yielded 24 to Midd O

[NescacNewbie]

Here we go with the annual "are the mules back" - no, they aren't. another Bowdoin beatdown imminent

Absolutely agree!

[Charlie]

Trin D averaged allowing 285 yards per game and yielded 426 yards to Midd O
Trin O averaged 400 yards per game and got 350 yards v. Midd D
Trin O averaged 31 pts per game and got 21 points v. Midd D
Trin D averaged allowing 14 pts per game and yielded 24 to Midd O


I am not taking anything away from Middlebury. However lets look at these numbers for what they are. Trinity despite loosing a statistical battle should have won this game they had every opportunity to go up by several scores. So I would not call this a domination by any means. I am curious to see your stance if Trinity actually Coached like a champion and did not make such stupid mistakes. If Trinity won these stats are useless.

Middlebury played better when they had to and out Coached Trinity in every aspect of the game. They deserved to win and Trinity deserved to loose. I would say each team is evenly matched and have to say Middlebury has better in game Coaching. If these teams played 10 times though I bet you it would be 50/50 wins to loss. Again not taking anything away from Middlebury they played better and Coached better then Trinity

[Charlie]

Trinity game did anyone look at the individual stats. Trinity NT , DT each had only one tackle. The De #98 had four tackles However if I am not mistaken he also had two sacks. So really only two tackles in the run game. that 5 tackles stopping the run all game by the starters.

In my prior post #95 ,  # 92 DL who were more Stout each had a tackle but maybe played a handful of plays. Why is perplexing. Trinity kept playing starters despite them underacheiving all game and getting man handled by Middlebury OL. I did like # 51 even though he did not have a tackle but was able to get some LOS preasure.


So that means out of the 35 runs Middlbury had the LB and DB were making all the tackles you cannot win a game at any level with these statistics. Interesting to see what happens next year when these two teams meet I beleive the Middlebury Qb coming back but OL / DL is graduating. This is why I would have loved playoffs to see these two teams in finals this year would be interesting but that is story for another day.

[muleshoe]

Here we go with the annual "are the mules back" - no, they aren't. another Bowdoin beatdown imminent

Absolutely agree!

Did anyone say that? Mules just played their best game of the year and probably their most complete performance since the opener in 2022 vs. Williams.

Colby and Bowdoin are really in the same spot, and it will be settled in Brunswick on the 9th. Watch out for the frisky kitties in the meantime...

[BantChamps]

To Whom It May Concern,

I just wanted to aggregate the statements on this board that demonstrate the least knowledge of ball.

"The more I look at the Trinity-Middlebury game from last year the more confident I am about tomorrow. " - Trin 9-0

"Midd is fighting for the lives " - Trin 9-0

"Trinity will dominate Middlebury." - lumbercat

"Not in relation to the unfortunate beatdown the Pants will incur on Saturday" - Nescacman

"this game won't be close." - Nescacman

"He won't be able to post after Saturday. Will be working overtime to pay up that panthers gamble!" - Gray Fox

"If the panthers are even money I have a farm or 3 I want to sell. Bantams by a lot." - BantChamps

Still not sure why Trinity fans have been so quiet on the board since Saturday. Might have something to do with BantChamps having his Camry repoed. Don't even want to guess the interest rate he was paying on that thing. North of 15% if I had to guess.

- Honcho, NESCAC Legend

Yes. Working overtime. 

Congrats on the win! Maybe the two teams will tie again, and the league will be pressured into reimplementing the tiebreaker rules.

[Trin9-0]

Another absolute heartbreaker for Trinity. To lose with less than a minute on the clock to the same team in consecutive seasons is just brutal. I was on a Cub Scouts camping trip with my kids so wasn't able to watch the game but am anxious to see the breakdown that Devanney sends out each week.

To illustrate how rare it is to beat the Bants in consecutive seasons; since 2003 only four times has an opponent had a winning streak against Trinity:

Middlebury - 2013-2014 and 2023-2024
Amherst - 2013-2015
Williams - 2018-2021

Congrats to the Panthers and their faithful. Bantam fans are right back to hoping Tufts can pull off an upset over Midd. At least this time it'll be in Medford.

[Brady12]

  The Ephs are clearly the better team with the brighter future, but the D, which continues to start only two seniors and five (very talented but still) FY players, can look stellar or porous on alternating possessions, as one would expect for such a young unit, and the coaches have gotten very conservative with the offense. 


The Ephs' elite special teams has helped make up for that in creating good field position.

Conservative is understatement of the year. They don't seem to trust anyone but running 12 or 22 up the middle in the 4th qtr and as a result are very predictable. They need to put a wounded opponent down rather than allowing them to stick around.  Both PK and P have been elite this year.

[GroundandPound]

Present and future of Midd Offensive skill positions looks very solid:

Midd WRs:
Patrick Jamin (Sr.) 6-0
Ethan Vashel (Sr.) 6-1
Mike Ahonen (Jr.) 6-2
Michael Yamin (Sr.) 5-9
Jeremy Kiefer (Fr.) 6-3
Brendan Logan (Fr.) 6-4

Midd RBs:
Carter Stockwell (Sr.)
Caleb Smith (So.)
Cody Weitzman (So.)
Connor McClellan (Fr.)

Midd QBs:
Brian Moran (Jr.)
Nick Perez (Sr.)
Aidan Moss (So.)

Midd TEs:
Liam High (Sr.)
Will Lazzaro (So.)
Tom Welker (Fr.)

Punter: Ty Brinkmann (Fr.) 

[GroundandPound]

and of course:
PK: Zack Levy (Sr.)

[mhoncho123]

Trinity / Middlebury

Middlebury for the last two years have completely out coached Trinity. Middlebury ran a very simple concept Cover two don't allow long pass plays and force Trinity to move the ball and the chains and eventually they become impatient and throw into coverage. This is exactly what happened the last two years. Trinity was able to move the ball on the ground and complete short passes. They became imnpatient in oppostions end and instead of either running the ball or throwing short went for the homerun ball. In another instance they were running effectively and insidee oppoenets end decided on throwing and QB was strip sacked. The Trinity OC just looses it in preasure games I think and makes some serios head scratching calls. A few times they could have put this game out of reach in opponents end but kept Middlebury in the game. I will say Middlebury DL really played well rushing three Dl and an occasional blitzer and Trinity looked uneasy all day. Middlebury defense did an outstanding job and Trinity while having the game in hand just made terrible offensive adjustments instead of staying with what was working.

Charlie,

Very good insight here. And I think you're spot on Charles. Eliminate the big plays and make them snap the ball again. For the 2023 season, the Panthers yielded 3,133 yards of offense, good for 3rd worst in the league. However, they only gave up 15 TDs (fewest in the league). The Wesleyan game this year shifts the average for the Panthers defense, but the idea is still fairly the same. Other members on this board were extremely fixated on the yardage the Panthers defense had given up this year. This is an extremely short sighted approach because yardage doesn't win football games, points do.

I think you also touched on the difference between Trinity's current QB #15 and their former QB #1. Many more higher percentage and shorter passes this year than last, shown by #15s TD-INT ratio. Very few downfield shots and long passes, because that isn't #15's strength. This is also why you see more production out of Trinity's slot receiver #11 than #82. I do agree that the Trinity offense became impatient at times, but I think it had more to do with the Trinity offense just not being good enough to drive down the field on the Panthers. No disrespect to Trinity here, but it doesn't matter who you are, it is extremely hard for an offense to put together a 15-20 play drive without messing up once.

Obviously, I think this was no surprise to anyone who had seen the film and had done a statistical deep dive. It was great to be able to make the trip to Vermont this weekend and catch this game. Unfortunately, I have to meet with some government environmental agency this weekend over an allegation relating to me improperly disposing motor oil in my neighbors yard (completely false) and me conducting a prescribed burn on my neighbors oak tree (mostly false). That's all I can share at the moment.

- Honcho, NESCAC Legend

[Charlie]

I don't agree with your stance that Trinity did not throw deep they did and not effectively at all. They drove down to Middlebury's 30 yard line mixing run and quick short pass to negate Middlebury's pass rush. Rather than continue doing this perhaps score or at least a FG considering they have the best kicker in the league they got greedy. If they kicked the field goal they would have been up two scores and changed tenure of the game. Instead he was striped sacked and no points came from this.

Trinity simple was out coached from fake punt to bizarre play calling by OC to leaving players in on defense who were clearly not productive. The clincher was playing man to man with a safety in middle of field when Middlebury was not throwing in the middle all day. Perhaps maybe we have found that the Trinity Coaching staff can't handle the big game possibly. At the minimum Middlebury has the formula to beat them and have done so back to back years.


On side note how pathetic is the NESCAC going to look with Co-Champions again. They really have to develop a playoff format like I said best four teams play two games for championship. At the least would be fun to watch and make the end of the season fun with teams playing for the fourth spot. Again off season banter for another day