FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[Birddawg79]

Painful right now. 2 huge gains called back by holding penalties and a turnover deep in their own end. W&L needs to do better.

Game like this you have to take your points when you can. smh

[jknezek]

Painful right now. 2 huge gains called back by holding penalties and a turnover deep in their own end. W&L needs to do better.

Game like this you have to take your points when you can. smh

Yeah. We've had mental errors, a fumble, and a suspect coaching call. That's a lot of issues against a good team. Give Macon credit. That defense is what I expected. The offense is proving better than I thought as well. They really are built to beat the Generals. An excellent run defense and a huge offensive line. The Generals were always going to struggle against those two factors. Need to pick it up next half if we are going to have a chance in this one.

[jknezek]

You have to give credit to Macon. That defense is smothering. W&L just can't crack it open.

[Birddawg79]

You have to give credit to Macon. That defense is smothering. W&L just can't crack it open.

Indeed. They are taking us behind the woodshed and wearing us out. Beside JH this is one of the best teams we've seen all year. Very disciplined and physical.

[Birddawg79]

You have to give credit to Macon. That defense is smothering. W&L just can't crack it open.

Indeed. They are taking us behind the woodshed and wearing us out. Beside JH this is one of the best teams we've seen all year. Very disciplined and physical.

Pick 6 by W&L Will Dyson!

[jknezek]

You have to give credit to Macon. That defense is smothering. W&L just can't crack it open.

Indeed. They are taking us behind the woodshed and wearing us out. Beside JH this is one of the best teams we've seen all year. Very disciplined and physical.

Defensively they are the best we've seen all year. Offensively I don't really think they are close. I do think our defense is pretty much worn down right now and we need a big stop.

[jknezek]

Ouch. How did that not get called. RMC gets a deserved win, but that was an awful bit of officiating.

[CMR]

Frederivk sits out CU game and rushes for 212 yards today.  OL does its job and the key to this game was the time of possession stat, which surprisingly RMC won. 

[algernon]

Randolph-Macon (4-1, 7-1) only needs to win the next two games to earn the ODAC Championship.  They play Guilford (1-4, 4-4) at home next week, but then they have to go on the road to Hampden-Sydney (2-3, 2-6), and the Tigers would like nothing more than to finish a difficult season with a win over Macon at home!

[CMR]

Randolph-Macon (4-1, 7-1) only needs to win the next two games to earn the ODAC Championship.  They play Guilford (1-4, 4-4) at home next week, but then they have to go on the road to Hampden-Sydney (2-3, 2-6), and the Tigers would like nothing more than to finish a difficult season with a win over Macon at home!

The ODAC is tight, four teams are still in the hunt (RMC, WLU, SU, and EHC).  RMC could lose both of those remaining games.

[CMR]

RMC defense is for real, only giving up 3 points and holds WLU over 200 rushing yards under average!

[tigerFanAlso2]

Jk

tough loss. RMC is obviously for real. defense does win championships, just one more example.

CMR

Great win vs. W&L. Not sure how a defense goes about totally shutting down a very good W&L offense but hats off to a great team effort.

Last two weeks of odac play could be interesting. Can HSC play one really good game and pull the upset on Nov. 12th.
Probably not but they have absolutely nothing else to play for so what the hell, get exited, play mistake free ball, get physical and see what happens.

[jknezek]

Interesting game Saturday. Strength on strength and RMC was simply a lot better. I went back and re-watched the game. If you are interested in seeing a very special performance, I'd encourage you to go to:

https://portal.stretchinternet.com/wandl/  and choose the on demand option.

If I was a W&L opponent, I'd watch that tape over and over. There aren't going to be many teams with ODAC talent that can do what RMC did, but even taking parts of it would be an improvement over how most teams play the option. While the original game was disheartening, watching it again, especially being able to fast forward through RMC's offensive sequences, was very, very entertaining.

The other thing you can do is, if you have the bandwidth and dual monitors, run the H-SC game next to the RMC game. The difference is immediately obvious and absolutely critical. W&L's offensive line was constantly on H-SC's linebackers. I'm not sure I saw them lay a hand on one of RMC's linebackers much past the line of scrimmage. Further, watch the RMC linebackers attack the option and sweep plays. Watch how many times W&L's lead blocker or tackle/guard is blown back into the path of the runners disrupting the play. It is hard not to appreciate how strong, fast, and good the RMC defense was against the run.

Truly as a W&L fan it was disheartening, but as a football fan, it was really, really excellent to watch. Congratulations to RMC. That is a heck of a defense.

As for the other side of the ball, RMC's offense is about what I expected. Did they get 368 yards of total offense? Yes they did. But most of the yards occurred until they hit W&L's 30 yard line. At that point, W&L goes from prevent the big play to defend the remaining field and RMC was only slightly less helpless than W&L. The difference in the game was that the Jackets did move the ball between the 30s, something W&L couldn't do.

Now W&L's defense is good for W&L. They give lots of yards, but RMC's offense simply isn't impressive. On the other hand, they don't have to be. They can, and should, win the ODAC. Their chances of winning a playoff game depend on the opponent.  I think a team like JHU puts up 20-30 on them, and there is no way RMC scores more than one offensive TD in my opinion.

Can RMC be beaten in the ODAC again this season? Absolutely. I think both Guilford and H-SC present tougher match ups for RMC than W&L, who simply play into RMC's strength. W&L went 6-12 for 100+ yards passing and I think had they passed more the game might have shifted, even only hitting on 50% or less of passes. I don't think RMC defended more than one or two passes. The 6 incompletions were mostly off target throws or drops. The big exception being the end of game interception which a blind referee with earmuffs on could and should have called pass interference. The W&L receiver was horse collar tackled while the ball was 5 yards away allowing the safety? to take position for the pick. No idea how those two zebras managed to screw that up.

But, you can't rely on the refs, and I'm doubtful W&L could have scored, let alone made the 2pt conversion, even if they had gotten the penalty and sat first and 10 at the RMC 20. RMC's defense was just that good against W&L's offense.

[CMR]

Thanks for the analysis!!!

[CMR]

JK, you said " The big exception being the end of game interception which a blind referee with earmuffs on could and should have called pass interference. The W&L receiver was horse collar tackled while the ball was 5 yards away allowing the safety? to take position for the pick. No idea how those two zebras managed to screw that up."

Is that the same play as the Play of the Week on the ODAC site?  I've watched it several times, and I simply don't see it the way you did.  Doesn't seem that the receiver was even touched.