FB: Liberty League

[Oline89]

Not for nothing, but 23-21 is pretty close to my guess of 24-21.  The Statesmen finally came out on the plus side of a back and forth game. I am happy for the seniors to get that signature win for the season.  The LL continues to play great football week after week. 

[IC798891]

RPI and IC have a typical RPI/IC game...except this year, the Bombers make the plays at the end to win.

Lots more from me later, but this was the key:

After IC took over on their own 16 with 3:13 to go, Jake Williams rips off two runs, for 14 and 12 yards. Although the Bombers ultimately could not kill the clock, those runs, and a nice punt (net 35 yards) meant RPI took over on their own 22, needing a lot of yards to get into FG range.

Congrats to the Bombers on a great win. On to Union!

[Bartman]

Not for nothing, but 23-21 is pretty close to my guess of 24-21.  The Statesmen finally came out on the plus side of a back and forth game. I am happy for the seniors to get that signature win for the season.  The LL continues to play great football week after week.

+k to Oline for this awesome prediction and keeping the faith . Let's finish strong and see if we get a bowl bid . Last year's bowl was very satisfying over a good Westminster team. Good luck to the Union and IC squads next week in what is essentially a championship game(well at least for the Bombers as Union will still need to knock off the Slide-rulers) .

[tony/troy]

Not for nothing, but 23-21 is pretty close to my guess of 24-21.  The Statesmen finally came out on the plus side of a back and forth game. I am happy for the seniors to get that signature win for the season.  The LL continues to play great football week after week.

+k to Oline for this awesome prediction and keeping the faith . Let's finish strong and see if we get a bowl bid . Last year's bowl was very satisfying over a good Westminster team. Good luck to the Union and IC squads next week in what is essentially a championship game(well at least for the Bombers as Union will still need to knock off the Slide-rulers) .

First they will have to declare that they want a bid. At least as of Friday, no Liberty League program has.

Got a chuckle out of the very abrupt sign off from the Hobart announcers. Something like "that's all from here, now it's on to the cooler".

[Bartman]

Not for nothing, but 23-21 is pretty close to my guess of 24-21.  The Statesmen finally came out on the plus side of a back and forth game. I am happy for the seniors to get that signature win for the season.  The LL continues to play great football week after week.

+k to Oline for this awesome prediction and keeping the faith . Let's finish strong and see if we get a bowl bid . Last year's bowl was very satisfying over a good Westminster team. Good luck to the Union and IC squads next week in what is essentially a championship game(well at least for the Bombers as Union will still need to knock off the Slide-rulers) .

First they will have to declare that they want a bid. At least as of Friday, no Liberty League program has.

Got a chuckle out of the very abrupt sign off from the Hobart announcers. Something like "that's all from here, now it's on to the cooler".

Thanks Tony for the bowl bid observation, it will be interesting if Hobart or RPI have interest for consideration. As far as Ted Baker he does triple announcer duty for football, hockey and lacrosse(There was a 4pm hockey game against Potsdam he had to rush to.....I'd rather have him than the annoying students we used to have), he is very popular with Hobart listeners and while he leans to the Statesmen he is pretty objective(yesterday calling out the Statesmen on penalty killing drives and the LL refs on the "no measurement necessary" first down calls that seemed to favor Hobart yesterday).

[Bartman]

Ice Bear sends his congrats to the Pumpkinheads and the Pumpkinhead faithful (Ice is happy for you Bartman) for their victory over Union today. There were mother****ing pumpkin seeds left all over the field today by the Statesmen in a game where even though they took 50 penalties for a combined 1,000 yards they STILL deserved to beat the Dutchmen with their tough D and timely O. Ice is happy for Krewson as a senior to have TWO big TD throws. Ice knows the kid has struggled at times this season but he battled today and Ice is happy for him. That ****ing Pumpkin D front really took it to Union's O-line and bent, at times, but certainly didn't break. Overall, maybe an ugly W for Hobart but certainly a hard fought one where they made the plays on both sides of the ball when they needed to. For that, they deserve total respect.

Ice says as far as Union goes, well this team is simply just a good football team and nothing more. They have tremendous potential on offense at this level yet they have not gelled in a manner that has shown consistency vs tough competition (even average competition???). They have a defense that can be opportunistic at times, with that said, they are well below average defending the pass, both short and long, and they are not consistently tough up the middle against the run. Krewson would have had two or three more today if he didn't overthrow his receivers as Union CB's were beaten soundly on more than a couple of plays. This team has the potential to beat IC if they play their best football...Ice doesn't see it happening. Today they were beaten by a team that wanted it more and made the plays when needed. Union had the entire second half to put the game away and the gamely Statesmen shut them down.

Also, congrats to IC on the hard fought W. Congrats to a ****ing tough RPI team for always giving IC a hell of a ****ing game. Ice believes, in his mind that Union now sits at the 4 spot in the LL as far as the ranking of the top 4 goes.

IB,don't sell the Dutchmen short, at least they still have a shot at the LL title with wins over Ithaca and RPI. While that may seem like a tall order after yesterdays loss to a pumped up and "desperate-for-a-win" Statesmen team, at least your boys still have it in front of them. The Union passing game is lethal as shown by the three long TD passes yesterday. The RPI passing game had success against the Bombers yesterday, so if Union can improve their balance and success on third down(1 for 9 against Hobart on 3rd down was surprising with Irabor on the roster...but the Hobart LBs and Dline have matured nicely since the IC game), I think Union can break the Bombers streak. Since Hobart is out of the race ...I'm rooting for a Shoes game with everything on the line to force the Bombers to scoreboard watch at Yankee Stadium as they beat the Red Dragons.....a great potential dramatic ending weekend for the league only if the Dutchmen can get by the Bombers. This result , of course , is unpopular with the Bomber faithful, but highly entertaining to Bartman.
Good luck, and bring a lot of gunpowder for that f***ing cannon.

[IC798891]

RPI had two late hit penalties that I thought were questionable.  One where Wingfield was gunning for the first down out of bounds and got hit at the marker. 

This hit can be seen here

https://twitter.com/JaydenBeckerTV/status/1586475968473989121

I loathe these hits. I have no idea in Wingfield was out of bounds or not, but what I do know is he was heading out of bounds and they shoved him through the kicking net along the IC sideline. That's going to look awful, from an optics standpoint, even if it's really a borderline call. These refs are human, and you've got to know the risk/reward for a play like that is way out of line if you're the defense.

Ithaca also started to play conservative at times when I don't think they needed too.  It was like both teams were scared to run a trick play or take a chance.

I thought it was very clear in this game that both teams recognized their Ds were stronger, and they were going to play conservatively to not make a mistake, and see who pulled it out at the end. It worked for Ithaca here, thankfully.

[Oline89]

RPI had two late hit penalties that I thought were questionable.  One where Wingfield was gunning for the first down out of bounds and got hit at the marker. 

This hit can be seen here

https://twitter.com/JaydenBeckerTV/status/1586475968473989121

I loathe these hits. I have no idea in Wingfield was out of bounds or not, but what I do know is he was heading out of bounds and they shoved him through the kicking net along the IC sideline. That's going to look awful, from an optics standpoint, even if it's really a borderline call. These refs are human, and you've got to know the risk/reward for a play like that is way out of line if you're the defense.

Ithaca also started to play conservative at times when I don't think they needed too.  It was like both teams were scared to run a trick play or take a chance.

I thought it was very clear in this game that both teams recognized their Ds were stronger, and they were going to play conservatively to not make a mistake, and see who pulled it out at the end. It worked for Ithaca here, thankfully.

The conservative tactic was exactly how Hobart approached the RPI game.  I would prefer being aggresive on the offensive side againast RPI, make those long pass plays.  Trying to jam it up the middle against RPI's front four is low risk, but very low reward.

[jmcozenlaw]

Hopkins losing might but a wrench in the LL 2 berths.  But Susquehanna is also a top 25 team.  Frank R. mentioned some controversy at the end of that game but I don't see any comments about it here.

The end of the game was a clock management/timeouts/screwed up play clock disaster!!!

[jmcozenlaw]

Does anybody give Union a shot to beat Ithaca at home?

[Bartman]

Does anybody give Union a shot to beat Ithaca at home?

Yes, Union at home will be tough and the Union QB is an accurate passer, better than the RPI QB. I think Ithaca is vulnerable to the passing game. But Union cannot be one demensional, so they need to balance their attack with a solid ground game, which they did not do against Hobart as well as I expected.Union needs to be aggressive and put the Bombers on their heels the way Hobart started out against Union. Ithaca is the better all around squad, but not enough to smoke Union. This will be another LL nail biter, IMO.

[tony/troy]

Not for nothing, but 23-21 is pretty close to my guess of 24-21.  The Statesmen finally came out on the plus side of a back and forth game. I am happy for the seniors to get that signature win for the season.  The LL continues to play great football week after week.

+k to Oline for this awesome prediction and keeping the faith . Let's finish strong and see if we get a bowl bid . Last year's bowl was very satisfying over a good Westminster team. Good luck to the Union and IC squads next week in what is essentially a championship game(well at least for the Bombers as Union will still need to knock off the Slide-rulers) .

First they will have to declare that they want a bid. At least as of Friday, no Liberty League program has.

Got a chuckle out of the very abrupt sign off from the Hobart announcers. Something like "that's all from here, now it's on to the cooler".

Thanks Tony for the bowl bid observation, it will be interesting if Hobart or RPI have interest for consideration. As far as Ted Baker he does triple announcer duty for football, hockey and lacrosse(There was a 4pm hockey game against Potsdam he had to rush to.....I'd rather have him than the annoying students we used to have), he is very popular with Hobart listeners and while he leans to the Statesmen he is pretty objective(yesterday calling out the Statesmen on penalty killing drives and the LL refs on the "no measurement necessary" first down calls that seemed to favor Hobart yesterday).

Nothing wrong with leaning Statesmen on some FM station that starts with the number 8 or 9. Often those are non commercial and/or non profit stations that don't go very far anyway. With the possible exception of webcasts, Ted has probably never addressed people that live in Buffalo, Rochester, Ithaca, Canton, Schenectady or Troy. With the limited range of some of these stations, even people that live in Penn Yan, Canandaigua or Waterloo may not even know who Ted is!!!

Ted is talking to Geneva people who want the Statesmen point of view. Give it to them!!!

Leave the down the middle stuff to the Joe Bucks and Al Michaels of the world.

[Machiavelli]

RPI had two late hit penalties that I thought were questionable.  One where Wingfield was gunning for the first down out of bounds and got hit at the marker. 

This hit can be seen here

https://twitter.com/JaydenBeckerTV/status/1586475968473989121

I loathe these hits. I have no idea in Wingfield was out of bounds or not, but what I do know is he was heading out of bounds and they shoved him through the kicking net along the IC sideline. That's going to look awful, from an optics standpoint, even if it's really a borderline call. These refs are human, and you've got to know the risk/reward for a play like that is way out of line if you're the defense.

Ithaca also started to play conservative at times when I don't think they needed too.  It was like both teams were scared to run a trick play or take a chance.

I thought it was very clear in this game that both teams recognized their Ds were stronger, and they were going to play conservatively to not make a mistake, and see who pulled it out at the end. It worked for Ithaca here, thankfully.

While I don't think the shove out of bounds was necessarily needed or smart even, that was a football play, it wasn't dirty, and based on the angle there, it was not late. Both of their momentum made it look worse than it was. The kicking net made it look worse than it was. Laundry shoulda stayed in the pocket.

[Caz Bombers]

RPI had two late hit penalties that I thought were questionable.  One where Wingfield was gunning for the first down out of bounds and got hit at the marker. 

This hit can be seen here

https://twitter.com/JaydenBeckerTV/status/1586475968473989121

I loathe these hits. I have no idea in Wingfield was out of bounds or not, but what I do know is he was heading out of bounds and they shoved him through the kicking net along the IC sideline. That's going to look awful, from an optics standpoint, even if it's really a borderline call. These refs are human, and you've got to know the risk/reward for a play like that is way out of line if you're the defense.

Ithaca also started to play conservative at times when I don't think they needed too.  It was like both teams were scared to run a trick play or take a chance.

I thought it was very clear in this game that both teams recognized their Ds were stronger, and they were going to play conservatively to not make a mistake, and see who pulled it out at the end. It worked for Ithaca here, thankfully.

While I don't think the shove out of bounds was necessarily needed or smart even, that was a football play, it wasn't dirty, and based on the angle there, it was not late. Both of their momentum made it look worse than it was. The kicking net made it look worse than it was. Laundry shoulda stayed in the pocket.

the QB was way OB when he was shoved, not a malicious hit by any means but that's a 15 yard penalty all day every day.

[Jonny Utah]

RPI had two late hit penalties that I thought were questionable.  One where Wingfield was gunning for the first down out of bounds and got hit at the marker. 

This hit can be seen here

https://twitter.com/JaydenBeckerTV/status/1586475968473989121

I loathe these hits. I have no idea in Wingfield was out of bounds or not, but what I do know is he was heading out of bounds and they shoved him through the kicking net along the IC sideline. That's going to look awful, from an optics standpoint, even if it's really a borderline call. These refs are human, and you've got to know the risk/reward for a play like that is way out of line if you're the defense.

Ithaca also started to play conservative at times when I don't think they needed too.  It was like both teams were scared to run a trick play or take a chance.

I thought it was very clear in this game that both teams recognized their Ds were stronger, and they were going to play conservatively to not make a mistake, and see who pulled it out at the end. It worked for Ithaca here, thankfully.

While I don't think the shove out of bounds was necessarily needed or smart even, that was a football play, it wasn't dirty, and based on the angle there, it was not late. Both of their momentum made it look worse than it was. The kicking net made it look worse than it was. Laundry shoulda stayed in the pocket.

the QB was way OB when he was shoved, not a malicious hit by any means but that's a 15 yard penalty all day every day.

I couldn't tell from the video how far he was.  But it was a big play where Wingfield was going for a first down (sideline away from the stakes).