FB: Empire 8

[DanPadavona]

I agree Wesleydad. Salisbury didn't overwhelm anyone. The video showed it was a well played game, but these games almost always come down to turnovers and red zone performance. Salisbury was far superior today in both categories.

And I also feel the field goal attempt was a head scratcher. Windy conditions, Division 3 kicker (always an adventure), and you are competing with a Salisbury team which is going to score a lot of points against you. If you go for it and fail, at least the other team has terrible field position.

[wesleydad]

dan, the wind also changed the field position on the next series.  fisher holds and forces the punt which gets into the jet stream and covers at least 80 yards with the roll, fisher backed up on the 12 instead of the 40.  also, the first drive was aided by 2 offsides on fisher, the first one was huge, came on a 5 yard loss which would have put salisbury in a 3 and 12 on the first drive of the game into the wind.  get off the field there and you have the ball near mid field or closer.  instead salisbury goes 80 and 9 minutes to score.

[DanPadavona]

Very true wesleydad. Though with Salisbury, the wind probably doesn't mean much when they are going to run it 55 out of 58 times.

That long TD pass looked like a total breakdown in coverage on the video feed. Did you see what happened?

[Upstate]

just got back from the salisbury - fisher game.  i would agree that salisbury is the better team, but i am not sure by how much.  fisher moved the ball on 3 drives in the first half inside the 30 and came away with no points, missed or tipped field goal, interception, turn over on downs.  they easliy could have been tied of in the lead at the half.  i will question the field goal attempt, 30 yards into a 25 - 30 mph wind, not sure if it gets there anyway.  was a little confused by the play calling once inside the 30.  kramer is a gutsy kid and does what he is asked well.  i think the big issue was the fact that the fisher d could not get off the field when they needed to.  several 3 and longs and they dont make the stop.  the game got a little chippy with too much pushing and shoving after plays.  my first time seeing fisher and i like a lot of what i saw, big o line and some nice runners and receivers.  they had a chance today, but just didnt get it done.

Yeah that's pretty much spot on, Fisher shot themselves in the foot time and time again but take nothing away from Salisbury they were the better team out there.  I like their QB, pretty athletic kid. The SU defense wasn't anything special but they made the plays they needed to make.

The fact that SJF is 7-2 right now is a big testament to Kramer and his play making ability.  I'm not sure they are above .500 if he's not on the team, however there's just no threat with passing like there was during the past couple of years.  It really limited their ability to move the ball consistently all year. 

[wesleydad]

dan, not a breakdown until after the qb avoids a sack and runs around, then the receiver slips behind the coverage, probably should have been a sack and you know how that comes back to bite you.  as i said, fisher had chances on both sides of the ball to change the outcome and just didnt get it done.

[pg04]

I'm not a debbie downer.  I was asking a serious question. Get past the colored glasses of your own region and think outside of it. 

Games vs. E8:  21-7, 70-45, 65-23, 69-0, 61-14, 41-21. 

A lot of impressive scores, there.  Look at the scores vs. the 2 other teams in D3 they played (yes, I realize one of them is Wesley and the other is a 7-2 team) and it's not as impressive.  Just asking how people outside might look at this. 

*Removed the possibly inflammatory statement 

[Bombers798891]

I'm not a debbie downer.  I was asking a serious question. Get past the colored glasses of your own region and think outside of it. 

Games vs. E8:  21-7, 70-45, 65-23, 69-0, 61-14, 41-21. 

A lot of impressive scores, there.  Look at the scores vs. the 2 other teams in D3 they played (yes, I realize one of them is Wesley) and it's not as impressive. 

I apologize for bringing something to the table that perhaps brings the rest of the E8 down a peg...

That's a really good point. Salisbury can be really good AND the E8 bad. The two things aren't mutually exclusive

Bottom line, the traditional E8 is horrible this season. Fisher's really the only other team I would call good. The rest are decent to bad. Think of it this way: Ithaca's below average and hasn't lost to a non-Salisbury E8 team by more than five. The LL is a bad league and yet, the best team in it WHIPPED the best traditional E8 team on the road by 36. What else can you say about that? PG04

[pg04]

I changed my post a bit but since you copied it anyway I guess it doesn't matter  .  In the end I'm just framing things from another point of view that perhaps others haven't mentioned or have not looked at. 

[wesleydad]

i can compare since i saw both the wesley game and the fisher game.  salisbury is good, but they will likely win one game in the playoffs and then lose in round 2 since they will probably be on the road and run into a team that shuts down the running game they rely on.  wesley is not a good barometer since they have beaten the gulls 6 or 7 straight times and have the athletes to shut down the triple option.  today was the first time i have seen an E8 team and i liked what i saw from fisher.  they have players but did not make the plays.  the score is not near how close the game could have been.  as far as the E8 being bad, that is for others to decide, but if you just go by what salisbury did then it looks bad.  it is easy to be down on the league since they just got run over by the new team and the other new team has won more games than it has in some years.  what i can tell you is that we at wesley always knew how good salisbury was and that frostburg despite getting trounced on a consistant basis had some players and could beat the middle teams in plenty of leagues.

[Upstate]

I'm not a debbie downer.  I was asking a serious question. Get past the colored glasses of your own region and think outside of it. 

Games vs. E8:  21-7, 70-45, 65-23, 69-0, 61-14, 41-21. 

A lot of impressive scores, there.  Look at the scores vs. the 2 other teams in D3 they played (yes, I realize one of them is Wesley and the other is a 7-2 team) and it's not as impressive.  Just asking how people outside might look at this. 

*Removed the possibly inflammatory statement 

How bad is the E-8 this year? A team with a RB playing QB has a shot at 8-2...

It's a horrible year for the E-8 this year, this isn't knocking SU at all.  They've came in and whipped them and proved they're a damn good team...

There has been some absolute horrid QB play this year in the E-8, the best QB coming into this year in the E-8 isn't even playing anymore for AU...

[DanPadavona]

Actually PG04, in the original post you referred to Eastern Region as a whole. Not just the E-8. If you want to consider the whole picture, then you have to factor in Kean beating Wesley in one of the biggest cross-over games of the season. E-8 is obviously having a down year. Look what Hobart did to Fisher in late September. Alfred fell like a rock from last season's playoff run. Ithaca is having its worst season in 40 years. I doubt anything like this ever happens again.

If Del Valley takes care of business next week, we are looking at a legitimate undefeated #1. And Salisbury is one of us now, an Eastern Region team. They are in position to be a pretty good #2 seed. Kean holds a win over Wesley and probably will miss the playoffs if Montclair wins at home next week. I think the region is looking pretty strong, especially now that Norwich has beaten Maritime and is not going to get a joke Pool B bid.

[pg04]

The Norwich/Maritime conference (ECFC) gets a pool A bid, so yes Norwich will be getting a bid. ...

[pg04]

Actually PG04, in the original post you referred to Eastern Region as a whole. Not just the E-8. If you want to consider the whole picture, then you have to factor in Kean beating Wesley in one of the biggest cross-over games of the season. E-8 is obviously having a down year. Look what Hobart did to Fisher in late September. Alfred fell like a rock from last season's playoff run. Ithaca is having its worst season in 40 years. I doubt anything like this ever happens again.

If Del Valley takes care of business next week, we are looking at a legitimate undefeated #1. And Salisbury is one of us now, an Eastern Region team. They are in position to be a pretty good #2 seed. Kean holds a win over Wesley and probably will miss the playoffs if Montclair wins at home next week. I think the region is looking pretty strong, especially now that Norwich has beaten Maritime and is not going to get a joke Pool B bid.

I'm still not convinced that Del Val will be made the #1 in lieu of moving a UMU team again.  But that's another argument 

[dlippiel]

dlip would just like to see a real powerful team come from the region for once (in quite some time). Like it has been stated before on here, the region is most likely very competitive on a national level when looking at the top 10-25 teams in the country. Yet, we just seem to always be missing a real powerhouse of a team, a that breaks the top five, and would put to bed the notion of a "weak" east region. It is really starting to annoy dlip.

[DanPadavona]

The Norwich/Maritime conference (ECFC) gets a pool A bid, so yes Norwich will be getting a bid. ...

My bad. I thought the Pool A qualification was starting in 2012.

Welp, yeah. Norwich is going to be terrible.