FB: Liberty League

[Tlm]

So either Union is: 1)  a sleeping giant who, if it wakes up and starts playing 60 minutes of football, can make a strong run into the playoffs or 2) a consistently inconsistent football team that will be vulnerable in each of their next 3 games vs StL, Bart and RPI.

Me thinks the giant has awoken.

A couple of other thoughts on Union this year vs last year:

Early on in the season with both WR's hurt and the passing game struggling, TA had to carry the load for the offense so Union became much more committed to the running game then they have been in the past few years.  Now that the WR's are back, Union can not only throw the ball again but they have developed a dominant running game with not only TA, but a bunch of guys that can carry the ball.  As for TA's injury, sources on the team are saying that it was a "minor tweak" and that everyone expects him to be back next week although I would not be surprised if Coach Audino limits his duty depending on how the game is going.

The young O-Line has really developed to the point where they are very solid now and still getting better each and every game.

I felt from the start of the season that Union had a big-time defense this season, although they didn't always show it early on.  Over the last couple games Union's defense has really stepped up.  Much is said about Union's offensive stars, but DT Waldon-Yedlin and LB Pellerito are among the best in the country.

Finally, as most people who followed Union over the past two years can attest, Union's kicking game and special teams have been awful.  That is no longer true as Ben Rapple has become a solid place-kicker and punter and Union also has a couple of freshmen that can get a kickoff high enough and deep enough that the coverage team has a reasonable opportunity to hold the other team inside their own 30 yard line.

Having said all that, if Union takes RPI lightly next weekend, they will be in for a rude awakening.

[zachattack22]

TLM, great points...ZA has been saying allyear the defense had the talent....It was schemes of the 3-4 with little creativity that had ZA discouraged.  Perhaps coaches had to wait until the talent developed more in order to work more schemes in, because they have mixed things up and also rotated some personnel better. 

ZA still feels that it's a total team effort, but the surprise of the year has been the recruiting and coaching of the offensive line.  Teams are coming after Marotti, but failing to get to him.  They are controlling the line of scrimmage most of the time and that's big for a relatively new O-line.

Speaking of T.A., he picked up a big blitzing backer coming in at full speed and literally wiped that guy out and that was better than any hit of the game....He doesn't just run and catch well....He's a complete player and sometimes that goes unnoticed. 

Looks like you were right about the "sleeping giant" analogy.  Hope that continues deep into the playoffs...But you're right....next week IS a big game Union should look no further.

['gro]

Secondly, who wants a well rounded engineer running around...I mean seriously, don't you guys work with engineers?.........just work guys....and don't come out of your cube or room until you figure it out. (no offense engineers reading this)

You might want to tell Mrs Reg to take a picture of your pretty little face before this well rounded engineer drops an atomic elbow on it from the top of your van at the shoe tailgate.  OHHH YEEEEAAAH!!!

[Jonny Utah]

NFL........

wow.  I was 3-11 last week.  Picks to come in an hour......

['gro]

1/2 of the GROTAH.com picks of the week
Atlanta @ Detroit +5.5
Cincinnati +3 @ Baltimore
Dallas @ Washington +3
Green Bay +3 @ Buffalo
Houston +13 @ NY Giants
Kansas City +2.5 @ St. Louis
Miami +13.5 @ Chicago
New Orleans @ Tampa Bay +1
Tennessee +9.5 @ Jacksonville
Minnesota @ San Francisco +5
Cleveland +12.5 @ San Diego
Denver +2.5 @ Pittsburgh
Indianapolis +2.5 @ New England
Oakland +7.5 @ Seattle

note: Gro used the "Costanza" method for most of this weeks pics, basically... go against your gut feelings.

[Jonny Utah]

Now the latter half of Grotah.com picks.............
41-36-1 for the season

Atlanta -5.5
Baltimore -3
Dallas -3
Buffalo -3
Houston +13
St louis -2.5
Miami +14
Tampa +1.5
Tenn +9.5
Minn -5
Cle +12.5
Pitt -3
Pats -3
Seattle -7

Minnesota and Miami are the picks of the day.....(I think Im 0-12 on those though!)

[lewdogg11]

Now the other half(Yes, that's 3 halfs, othe the Grotahdog.com picks...

Atlanta -5.5
Cincinnati +3
Dallas -3 (Line of the week)
Green Bay +3 (2nd Line of the week)
NY Giants -13 (Can't believe I am picking this one)
Kansas City +2.5 (3rd Line of the week)
Chicago -13.5
Tampa Bay +1
Tennessee +9.5
Minnesota -5
San Diego -12.5
Denver +2.5 (seriously?)
New England -2.5
Oakland +7.5

Today we play Bingville!  Today, we beat Bingville!

[lewdogg11]

LD11's actual bets for todays 1oclock games are:

2-Team Parlay
Dallas-3 vs. WAS
Tampa -1 vs. New Orleans

2-Team Parlay
KC ML vs. STL
GB ML vs. BUF

['gro]

GROTAHDOGG's BEST BETS!!!

for those keeping score at home... here are the 4 teams endorsed by all members of Grotahdogg, LLC.

Dallas -3
Tampa +1
Minnesota -5
New England -2.5

[Senor RedTackle]

After hitting the Waterloo Outlets (nice outfit from the Calvin Klein store will come in useful for the new "business casual" job) and driving to my parents' home in Saratoga County for three hours, I thought I'd give ten observations from today's Union/Hobart game:

1) First, my own crow I need to eat.  I know there were webcast issues.  I received a text from a fraternity brother who tried the webcast at 10:30am for me and found out that things looked bad.  SID Eric McDowell helped get us a quick backup plan when I got to Boswell, and Amanda at WABY, who wasn't scheduled to be at the station, ran over to put the backup plan into motion.  Thus, that is how we ended up on Teamline (www.teamline.cc).  I heard various stories that the webcast worked on saratogamoon.com, so I'd love some ideas as to whether anyone was able to listen using either Union feed (Saratogamoon.com or Teamline).  Drop me a private if you can.  However, we will keep the redundancy plan in motion for the remainder of the games -- meaning we will have two online presences.  Again, I apologize to the listeners and to the team for this unacceptable last-minute issue on the broadcasters' part.

2) Now that that part is out of the way, WOW!  This year, Union games seem to follow a disconcerting pattern -- mediocre or mediocre-to-strong first half, followed by a quick second-half pop and then a disintegration.  The Muhlenburg and St. Lawrence games were the only two games where this didn't seem to happen -- until today.  This was, for me, the best 60 minutes of football Union has played all season.  You waited for the shoe to drop after Union successes, and it just never seemed to happen.  Hobart has Union to thank for a couple boneheaded 15-yard penalties that kept the Statesmen with opportunities.  I really didn't expect that strong of a Union performance on both sides of the ball.  Kudos to the U.

3) It seems like over the last two years, since Hobart has come to more prominence, Coach Cragg has become much more conservative in his play calls.  It's almost like in 2004 and before, Cragg and his staff had this belief that "we got nothin' to lose and nobody but ourselves to impress" -- but now there is much more stress and weight on the shoulders of the staff and players with the spotlight squarely on them.  We saw only one trick play from Hobart, and their lack of blitzing in the first half confounded a lot of people.  Not to mention, there were some interesting field goal choices in the game.  I'm not saying Hobart coaching cost them the game -- but it didn't do anything to really help the team.  You could kind of feel the tension from the Hobart sideline all the way up in the press box.  This may also explain the abundance of close calls that Hobart experienced this season.

4) Union's coaching is doing much better in terms of just plain strategy during game situations than they did earlier in the season.  I saw this at two different points.  First, when Union had fourth and goal from the one-yard line, Union's coaches fought the temptation to ram the ball down Hobart's throat, and instead chose to take a three-possession lead with about a quarter of play with a 19-yard field goal.  That was a huge and correct decision.  Also, Union's use of the 25-second clock after changes of possession was MUCH more effective today than, let's say, against MMA and RCH.  So, it wasn't just play-calling today, but strategizing that got Union a big win.

5) There seemed to be a somewhat smaller-than-expected crowd rooting on Hobart today.  I think the multitude of events may have sort of backfired on the Statesmen in terms of promoting the crowd to show up to the football field.  It's not to say that the crowd wasn't large on the home side of the field, but it just didn't seem to be up to potential.

6) I had the pleasure of interviewing the new President of Union College, who made the three-hour trip to Geneva today.  I have to say President Ainlay is very well-spoken and has the right ideas about Union (especially that its strength is in its Liberal Arts roots whereby engineers leave with skills well outside engineering, etc.).  That should make many alumni comfortable that there will not be huge changes under the new administration that would shake the underpinnings of the school.  He also seems to be very down-to-Earth.  We will hopefully see him at next week's Union tailgate at RPI.  Special thanks again to President Ainlay for his time.

7) It's a tough call as to if and when to play Tom Arcidiacono for Union in next week's RPI game.  A loss for Union would play the Dutchmen on the road in the first round of the NCAA Playoffs, and a win virtually guarantees a home game in at least the first round.  So, the game means a fair amount...not to mention the obvious rivalry meaning and the "Shoes."  However, what appeared to be a high ankle sprain may not be enough to sideline Arcidiacono.  As I said in the postgame, telling the senior not to play would be like telling the wall to lay down -- it's just not something that would happen without a lot of force.  His recovery will likely dictate this one.

8) The referees in today's game did an EXCELLENT job, since we barely mentioned them today.  The ECAC may have taken great care in avoiding the debacles on both sides of the ball from the 2004 visit to Boswell by naming very adept officials.  My hat's off to them.

9) The field was in impeccable shape -- well-groomed and not saturated.  Hat's off to the Hobart groundkeepers for this.

10) With Union winning and Alfred upsetting Ithaca, there is a real potential mess forthcoming in Upstate New York football.  Consider the following next week:  Ithaca beats Cortland; Rochester beats Hobart; Alfred beats SJF.  If this happened, we would have Rochester, Ithaca, SJF, Alfred, Hobart and Cortland all with two losses.  In the East, Rowan (NJAC), Union (LL), Springfield (E8), Curry/Coast Guard (NEFC), Wilkes (MAC) would be in. Is it possible that NONE of the six two-loss teams would make the playoffs?  Yes.  Is it probable?  No.  But it will take an interesting decision by the NCAA Committee as to which one, two or three teams to choose.  Yet, I would guarantee that a team or two teams will ship from the North to the East bracket if this doomsday scenario occurred.

Have a good night all.

Tank,

Please remember our pregame conversation and RT's predictions on the U/Hobart game

[Senor RedTackle]

It's RPI v.UNION week!!!

[Jonny Utah]

Man I got a Dophin moneyline game goin too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lewdogg11]

This is about the way my entire season has gone.  I am the grim reaper for any team I bet on.  Moooooooosh!

Loss - Atlanta -5.5 DET 30-14(2 minutes left)
Loss - Cincinnati +3 BAL 26-20
Loss - Dallas -3 22-19
Loss - Green Bay +3 BUF 24-10
Loss - NY Giants -13 NYG 14-10
WIN - Kansas City +2.5 KC 31-17
Loss - Chicago -13.5 MIA 28-13(2 minutes left)
Loss - Tampa Bay +1 NO 31-14
Loss - Tennessee +9.5 JAX 37-7

[lewdogg11]

I need an afternoon miracle...

2-Team parlay
SF ML over MIN (Min -4)
DEN ML over PIT (Pit -3)

['gro]

LD, you should use the costanza method...

Atlanta @ Detroit +5.5   
Cincinnati +3 @ Baltimore   
Dallas @ Washington +3   
Green Bay +3 @ Buffalo   
Houston +13 @ NY Giants   
Kansas City +2.5 @ St. Louis   
Miami +13.5 @ Chicago   
New Orleans @ Tampa Bay +1   
Tennessee +9.5 @ Jacksonville