FB: Empire 8

[AUPepBand]

Yea, Id say Ithaca made the e8 look worse by losing to Cortaland and Lycoming, but Alfred probably still deserved it............

anyway I really feel bad for sjf, I think theyre a great team that could beat anyone in the country, but they needed to beat alfred to get in.  Alfred has to beat W&L though, a similar team that hobart and union kind of took care of in their regular season......

this aq stuff ends up hurting one team every year but what are ya going to do?

Check out Washington & Lee....they were not a Kings Point, Coast Guard, etc. They finished 7-3, came very close to knocking off Bridgewater. AU's young offense turned it over 7 times in a 36-22 loss in 90 degrees after traveling 450 miles. Saxons have come a long way since Sept. 10.
I respect the fact that maybe Fisher offense had a bad day, but it was the R&R Express going head-to-head with a freight train. It was a train wreck. Take a glance at the D3Football.com Top 25 from this perspective: the E8 second place team gets 4 votes, the E8 third place team gets 84. What's wrong with this picture?

[saxontad]

Good Morning AUPepBand,
any scuttlebutt on campus on who we may be playing??

[gobombers]

None offense taken John, this is a message board after all!  Just that IC and Cortland were in similar positions last year, and this year, Cortland DOES make the playoffs with 2 losses.  I doubt that either of us could conclusively say that the HC of Cortland being on the committee had something or nothing to do with it, I was just informing people, that was all.

Hmm, that or the fact that there are more than twice as many Pool C bids this season. Duh.

Pat, so you are saying YOU KNOW FOR SURE, that Cortland's bid was one of the Pool C bids that was added?  Were you on the conference call?

If you definitely know, then please accept my apologies for not knowing the FAQ and NCAA Regional Committees to the extent that I should.

[AUPepBand]

Good Morning AUPepBand,
any scuttlebutt on campus on who we may be playing??

GOOD MORNING! Haven't heard a word. Invites will be extended today. I have no clue. I would suggest that AU (8-2), Fisher (8-2), RPI (7-2), Bridgewater (MA) (8-1), Fitchburg (MA) (8-2) and either Endicott (7-3) or Maine Maritime (7-2) will fill the three North ECAC championships. AU should get a home game BUT....no telling how long we have to play this Rodney Dangerfield role. GO SAXONS!

[gobombers15]

I got back from Ithaca last night but decided not to post until I organized my thoughts a little bit. Mainly, though, I needed some time to sober up and calm myself after two very difficult losses for my football teams(Ithaca, NY Giants). I pre-emptively apologize for the length of this post but, hey, I haven't said anything since Thursday and there's a lot to cover. I'll try to hit some things quicker than others and elaborate on some things. Congrats to Cortland, it was a big win for their program. Here are my "Friday and Saturday Thoughts." I'll post my feelings about the playoff selections a little later after I do some homework about the selections and the processes behind them.

1)Post-Happy Hour FDC Encounter:Good to see TecmoBowler, Maninorangehat, et al., Friday night at Moonshadow's. At that point, I'm not sure any of us put together a logical statement or complete sentence(sorry, 2-for-1 pitchers are my weakness), but it was still good to see everyone there..

2)Fisher loses to Alfred: I almost destroyed my cell phone--when I was listening to the Vmail message from Caz Bombers informing me of the upset--because a mouth full of Molson involuntarily came exploding out. I was that surprised.

3) 30 Minutes of Nothing: I agree with the others when it is said that the 1st half of the Cortaca Jug was the worst half of football I've ever seen from the Ithaca Bombers, and I have seen a lot of games since I arrived in 2000. The unforced errors were ridiculous and, ultimately, were the difference in the game. Felicetti hitting Sair right in the numbers with that Pick Six was quite possibly the ugliest throw I've ever seen. Bam Bam's unprovoked fumble in the red zone as Ithaca was driving late in the half hurt a lot. A blocked PAT ran back for two? Seriously?! Just a poor, poor display.

4) Um, Defensive Coordinator Raymond, Are You Alive In There?: I hate that I feel like this almost every single time Ithaca loses, but I was just at a complete loss, several times, at what the coordinators were calling.

I would estimate--and those who were there will probably agree--that approximately 85% of Ithaca's blitzes were successful. Either Smith was sacked, forced to throw the ball away or he just threw the ball up for grabs(he did it about four times, only one was picked though). However, on almost every 3rd down, the Bombers would just sit there in a soft zone, rush four people and just get picked apart. The blitzes were successful because the linebackers(Medici and Ross) and the safeties were coming clean. Yet, when they need a stop, let's just sit back.  I'm speechless just thinking about it.

5)The Tale of Two Playbooks: Ithaca's first playbook is titled, "Scoring Would Be Nice, But Not Necessary." This is the collection of work we usually see in the first half or when the game is close. You know, the conservative off-tackle runs, swing passes, six-yard in's by the TE's, and WR screens that Ithaca runs when they deem points an unnecessary entity at the time.

However, when they fall behind by a decent amount--as was the case on Saturday and the Fisher game--they break out my favorite, "We Are Going To Score On You Right Here And There Is Absolutely Nothing You Can Do To Stop Us." These are the deep seam routes to the TE's that seemingly always get 20+ yards, the balls to Espo where Felicetti just throws it up there and he gets it and, generally, the plays where Ithaca actually uses the wealth of playmakers that they have at their disposal. The Bombers, with the aid of a turnover, in 61 seconds essentially erased the lead Cortland had spent building for a half. Why can't we see these plays more? I mean, the defense isn't going to get any stops. Can we at least try to outscore the other team. I think that would work more times than not. It's like there's a post-it on "that" playbook that warns only to use it in emergeny situations then revert to the first option once the game is tight again. Unbelievable.

6)Defense, Get Off The Field: I'm not gonna harp on this because we've been talking about it all year, but when a team goes 11-for-18 on 3rd downs, there are major issues. Even spurring the defense on with "3rd Down Noise" doesn't make a difference at this point. This defense needs to get a piss-and-vinegar attitude when they're out there, not one of accomodation that they seem to exhibit. Need seven? Here's nine! I think the play that best sums up Ithaca's 3rd down defense came in the 2nd quarter. Facing a 3rd and 10 deep in Ithaca's territory, Cortland runs a simple trap play. The intent was to play it close to the vest, get some points and not get knocked out of FG range if Ithaca got the bright idea to blitz. Trap play goes for 13 yards. Not even an inside draw from the shotgun. A trap! That doesn't even work on the rookie level of Madden!

7) "Fool Me Once, Shame On You. Fool Me Twice...": Forget for a moment that approximately 75% of the stadium knew the first fake was coming. Also, forget that the coaching staff had a return on for the first fake when Cortland was punting from around Ithaca's 35-yard line(how are you going to return a punt that short and high??). Forget that the same ICTV announcers knew the fakes were coming(yes, the same guys who once proclaimed PJ Canestrari had a concussion despite the contrary evidence depicting him wrything in pain and grabbing his lower leg.). A girl who couldn't even hold her own head up in the first half without aid from her boyfriend screamed "it's another fake" before the second fake. How does she(along with myself and everyone in our section) know that the second fake was coming but the coaches were so clueless, enough so to not leave in any of their base defense on a 4th and short. The ensuing result later in that possession was a pick but the principle is fairly telling.
______________________________________________

That's enough of a rant for right now. Again, congrats to Cortland; Alex Smith showed me a lot this year. I remember laughing at some of the passes he threw at last year's game and thinking the kid would be lucky to win one jug while he's at Cortland. This year he showed a lot of heart and though his stats weren't near what Felicetti's were, I think he played the better game. He got it done when he had to, that's the mark of a player.

Notice I didn't mention overtime. That's a crapshoot and, sadly, I think Cortland wanted(and needed) this one more than Ithaca did. End of story. Obviously, this post will not be received well by some of our more, um, blind loyalists, but I can deal with that. I think most in attendance are going to agree with what I had to say.

However, big game for the Bombers this weekend. It should be fun on these boards. I have some errands to run and a FEMA operator to belittle, I'll be back later about my thoughts for this weekend's game and my, uh, feelings on Alfred not being in and Cortland's seed. Thanks for readin.

[TecmoYellowHat]

Do any teams from the LL play out of their league?

[Jonny Utah]

Yea, Id say Ithaca made the e8 look worse by losing to Cortaland and Lycoming, but Alfred probably still deserved it............

anyway I really feel bad for sjf, I think theyre a great team that could beat anyone in the country, but they needed to beat alfred to get in.  Alfred has to beat W&L though, a similar team that hobart and union kind of took care of in their regular season......

this aq stuff ends up hurting one team every year but what are ya going to do?

Check out Washington & Lee....they were not a Kings Point, Coast Guard, etc. They finished 7-3, came very close to knocking off Bridgewater. AU's young offense turned it over 7 times in a 36-22 loss in 90 degrees after traveling 450 miles. Saxons have come a long way since Sept. 10.
I respect the fact that maybe Fisher offense had a bad day, but it was the R&R Express going head-to-head with a freight train. It was a train wreck. Take a glance at the D3Football.com Top 25 from this perspective: the E8 second place team gets 4 votes, the E8 third place team gets 84. What's wrong with this picture?

Yea if Ithaca smokes Union and Cortland handles Hobart, next year Alfred goes over Hobart if the smae thing happens

[maninyellowhat]

Do any teams from the LL play out of their league?

Union played Springfield and RPI played Utica this year

[Jonny Utah]

Do any teams from the LL play out of their league?

They do, but only private schools.  

Hobart, Union and Rochester are three schools that try to schedule the least amount of public schools as possible in all sports.  Something to do with similar student athletes or whatever.  They will also try to avoid playing private schools like Ithaca because they have a pys ed program which those schools want nothing to do with with the exception of the Union/Springfield game.

St Lawrence is so far away they usually will play whoever they can out of league.

RPI also plays a wide range of schools they dont care as much about playing public/private phs ed schools as hobart, union or Rochester does.

[Jonny Utah]

go bombers Ive also noticed that the defense has a lot more success when they blitz and put pressure on the qb to make a quick read.  Ithaca won that SJF game because of aggressive dback and linebacker play. 

I havent really had a problem with the offensive playcalling at all this year I think its been exceptional every year.

[ithacabaron]

Uh, it's been about 17-69 years since I've posted -- but don't call it a comeback...

Tough game for the Bombers this weekend -- frankly, the way we played the first half, I'm surprised we weren't down by more at the break.  In the end, we gave it all just getting back to the tie -- by overtime, IC had already exhausted their abilities.  There were so many odd things that happened -- two successful fake punts, the blocked FG for a runback, a muy suspicioso incomplete call on a Bombers pass down to the 5-yard line...between these freak occurances and what was simply a poorly played game on its own by IC, I'm willing to write this game off as a fluke, with simply nothing going right for the Bombers.  On to the playoffs!

My prediction is a win in the first round for IC, by a score of...oh, 69 to 17.


All in all, I have to say, it was an enjoyable weekend, even if I had to stand next to Geeds, who smelled like turpentine and cigarettes, as if I needed another reason to feel like I was going to boot.

[Grido03]

Phenomenal weekend, rough game.
I'm glad the Ithaca fans hung around through halftime, however painful the end of the game came to be.
I agree with just about everything gb15 said ...
There's always room to second-guess the playcalling, but I can't fathom why Ithaca wasn't throwing the ball downfield more. Coming into the game everyone knew Crotchland's run defense was stellar. As witnessed in the 1st half and the entire game, IC couldn't get anything going on the ground. However, once they went downfield, they couldn't be stopped. Coming out of the half coaches realized this and two straight plays, boom, back in the game. But then they reverted back to runs up to gut, screens to Donovan and swings out to Bam Bam. Great player, but he should not be thrown to more than Esposito. There was man coverage on Espo, just thrown him the goddam ball!
The defense just isn't that good this year, definitely need to see more blitzing, but the DBacks need to make a play also. The WRs were just sitting in the zone, right at the first down marker picking up third down after third down.

Onward to Union.

[AUPepBand]

Good Morning AUPepBand,
any scuttlebutt on campus on who we may be playing??

ECAC #1 seed Alfred (8-2) will host #6 Maine Maritime (7-2) at 12 noon Saturday at Merrill Field
I believe:
ECAC #2 seed Bridgewater (8-1) will host #5 Fitchburg (8-2)
and
ECAC #3 SJ Fisher (8-2) will host #4 RPI (7-2)

GO SAXONS!

['gro]

Bomber fans... you've braved not one but TWO trips to Troy the past few years... now you have to venture to Schenectady. You played here in the ECAC's before right?

Not much has changed. Here's a quick guide.
Hotel: Holiday Inn... if full, crack house
Food: Marino's Pizza, Mohawk Deli beef patties, Morrette's steak sammiches, Lyle's subs, or the Sanducci (you'll have to find that yourself)
Post Game Drink: Geppettoes, Clinton's Ditch, The Horses, Pinhead Susan's
Post Game Drug Induced Coma: Emmitt street
Post Game Quickie: Emmitt Street (bring cash or jewerly)

[Jonny Utah]

gro, where can I, and where cannot I not, do the following in Schenectetsedcey........(I can't spell I went to Ithaca I'm sorry)

-wear izod shirts
-teach a kickball lesson
-find prostitutes