After this weekend, another one of the big four has fallen, and unfortunately for Tufts, their chances for a league title are much slimmer after facing Trinity. Now, there are just two big dawgs left at the top—Middlebury and Trinity, and heading into week five, it doesn’t look as if one of them will get knocked off of the pedestal. While Middlebury is gunning for the ‘CAC ring, Trinity hasn’t faltered at all this season, posing the biggest threat to the rest of the conference. Week 4 saw little else significant happen, other than a strong performance out of Williams – the Ephs showed me that they can play ball after I questioned them last week. Amherst regained their elite status as they blanked and embarrassed Colby 41-0, Hamilton and Bowdoin each finally played a solid game of football, a good matchup between the lower tier of the NESCAC, and Wesleyan showed Bates why they should be considered in the top tier of the league, finding themselves in second place at the halfway point of the year.
At the halfway point of the year, as pointed out in a previous piece, the tiers of the conference are nearly clear, leaving little up to the imagination as to which teams are still contenders in the title race. I like to think that there are four solid squads that are duking it out—Midd, Tufts, Trinity, and Amherst. Wesleyan is dragging their team into the conversation, although I think that they have had the weakest strength of schedule so far out of the previously mentioned teams. As far as the lower tier goes, Bates seems to be the best of the rest as they have had a number of close games against good teams, but I digress as we go more into detail in this week’s power rankings:
1.) Trinity (4-0)
As a Panther fan, how could I possibly drop Middlebury down a spot in a week that they won? Well, Trinity simply has played better so far this year, and has been pretty much flawless every week. While the final score indicated that Tufts played them closely, Trinity completely controlled the game on their way to their fourth win, and the Bantams haven’t really been challenged thus far, especially impressive due to the way Tufts looked before this past weekend. Trinity scores points and lots of them. While QB Sonny Puzzo ‘18 had a solid game with 273 yards, 2 TDs, and 1 INT, it definitely wasn’t his strongest game. But the Bantams had plenty left behind their signal caller to pick up the little slack he left as Eric Sachse ’20 went a perfect 5/5 on field goals, and Max Chipouras did what he does and ran for nearly 100 yards and another TD. Trinity doesn’t really need a good defense since they score so many points, but they just happen to have a terrifying secondary as Archi Jerome ‘17 picked up his second pick of the year and Tufts went just 9-23 in the air on Saturday. Yes, I do think Midd’s win against Amherst is more impressive than Trinity’s against Tufts, but Trinity did so with more conviction, and lacks weakness in all facets of the game. I wouldn’t want to be a visitor in the Coop; they are the team to beat.
2.) Middlebury (4-0)
As the second ranked team in the ‘CAC, there is little parity here between the top two spots as each squad is deserving of the throne due to their near perfection thus far. While the Panthers did just finish their fourth win in as many chances, they didn’t coast to the finish line nearly as easily as I had expected. Williams looked really bad in their first three games, and for all I know they weren’t as bad as the box scores showed—I haven’t seen them play, but nonetheless, at the end of the third quarter a 28-23 score is not what I predicted. Jared Lebowitz had another great day from the pocket—not as good as his first two games—but still, 290 yards, four passing TD’s, and one rushing TD is something to feel good about. Through 4 games he now has 17 TD’s and just 3 INT’s. Not bad. Diego Meritus also showed us what he is capable of on the ground, rushing for 122 yards and a TD. Conrado Banky and Ryan Rizzo keep finding the end zone as they each had two scores, showing how dangerous this offense is too. Three interceptions on Williams is an impressive statistic too, but I couldn’t shake how close the game was so late. Yeah, they fell to #2, big deal. Lebowitz might break Peyton Manning’s TD record in just 8 games.
3.) Amherst (3-1)
Well what could’ve been a moment for panic from Amherst turned out to be one of resilience as they rallied back to shut Colby out 41-0. Colby isn’t very good, but a shutout in football is noteworthy. They allowed 112 yards of total offense, 87 passing yards, two INT’s, forced a fumble, and had seven sacks. This makes a statement about their defensen- they are scary good. Who cares if Nick Morales is a third string QB, he is clearly good enough to start in this league. 323 yards, 3 TD’s, and no picks is a great performance for anybody at any level, and he shows that guys like Alex Moran really can play if they find the starting lineup. The Purple and White have a real shot at taking a share of the league crown if they win when they need to, and put it all together for their Trinity game. They still might party at the Goathouse after week eight.
4.) Tufts (3-1)
After their loss against Trinity, I think the Jumbos have a much slimmer chance at getting back up to the top. They managed to make it a close game at the end, but after four weeks, it seems that they might not be able to trade blows with the heavyweights just yet. They are still solid, but at this point if Vegas cared about the NESCAC, Tufts wouldn’t be favored in their remaining tougher games against Middlebury and Amherst, especially considering those games are on the road. The biggest knock on Tufts is that since the ‘CAC is generally a QB dominated league, their lack a dominant QB puts them at a disadvantage. Alex Snyder ‘17 and Ryan McDonald ‘19 have only thrown for 4 total touchdowns this year, less than Lebowitz’s average total per game. They can run the ball well, but against Amherst, running the ball isn’t going to be the winning formula as the former Lord Jeffs own the ground. Tufts will need to make great strides to leap up the ladder back into the company of the top dawgs.
5.) Wesleyan (3-1)
Similar to Tufts, I’m simply just not sure if Wesleyan will be able to compete against the top NESCAC teams, seeing as they also lost to Tufts earlier in the season. They still have a lot of season left and could potentially make their season with upset wins, but their loss week one is going to come back to bite them. Mark Piccirillo ‘19 didn’t have a big game at all in what seemed to be a convincing win against Bates after the Cardinals got out to a 21-0 lead. Piccirillo threw for just 168 yards and if not for receiver Andrew Mehr, he might not have gotten anything going in the air. The Cardinals’ defense played well, stopping the Bobcat sparkplug Sandy Plashkes, but didn’t have any turnovers to show for it. Wesleyan is a better team than Bates, but I’m not convinced that they can beat any team left on their schedule besides Bowdoin.
6.) Williams (0-4)
The remaining five teams are ranked solely off of momentum. None of the remaining five teams have more than one win and are essentially battling it out to not get the ‘Sacko’ of the NESCAC. Still, how can a winless team be ranked sixth on my rankings? Well, seeing as Williams is the only team that has put up a solid game against one of the top teams in the league, they have earned the honors. They still certainly have a long way to go, as they once again are obviously winless, but they were down only five points going into the fourth quarter (it would’ve been only three if they converted a two point conversion) against Middlebury, thanks to a huge resurgent performance from Tyler Patterson, going for 176 yards receiving and two scores. They did lose to Bates and Colby earlier in the season, two teams that I ranked lower than the Ephs, but this improvement shows what their A+ football can look like, and they still have some easy games left on their schedule. If Jansen Durham faces up against a weaker defense, he should be able to avoid turning the ball over (3 INTs) and could easily lead his team to a couple wins after showing big playmaking ability with the 79 yard TD pass he threw to start the game. I expect them to start racking up some wins in the final half of the season, .
7.) Hamilton (1-3)
Hamilton finally got their first win, but isn’t ranked higher because it was against Bowdoin. Hamilton looked really weak in their first three games, but they are coming off of a big win, which must be a relief to the Continentals. The 25 points they allowed to Bowdoin were the least they allowed all year, but they showed that their offense can at least put up some numbers. Freshman QB Kenny Gray took over for the struggling Cole Hamilton after he threw two INT’s, and once the door opened, the young gun burst onto the scene as a potential weapon. He went 19-32 for 303 yards and a TD pass, and also rushed for a score, equalling Hamilton’s cumulative season points all by himself. Gray gives Hamilton a glimmer of hope for the future.
8.) Bates (1-3)
This is a tough spot for Bates to be in, as it seems that they have regressed from the progress that they made early on in the season. We’ve talked plenty about how Bates relies on QB Sandy Plashkes, and how if he plays well, the Bobcats are capable of playing up to some of the better teams. However, in Week 4 we saw the signal caller perform poorly against Wesleyan, throwing for a TD but only 71 yards in the air. 132 yards of total offense isn’t going to cut it. The Bates linebackers are solid, led by Mark Upton who has three sacks, 30 total tackles, and a forced fumble on the year, but aren’t quite strong enough to carry the team. I may have set Bates’ ceiling a little too high earlier this season, although I still think they are the best of the Maine teams.
9.) Colby (1-3)
I know that Colby has won a game, and might feel slighted that they are a few spots behind Williams, but their inability to get on the scoreboard against Amherst isn’t helping their case. They put up pretty much no offensive numbers this past weekend. Amherst has one of the best defenses in the league, but a shutout in football is not something to be overlooked, no matter who it is against. QB Christian Sparacio threw for just 65 yards and they rushed for just 0.9 yards per carry (including sacks). They seem to have slowly crept towards the bottom of these rankings week by week as their best game of the year was in their Week 1 win against Williams, followed by a not so horrible loss to Middlebury, an ugly loss to Wesleyan, and this 41-0 blowout. Their next two games are against weak opponents—Hamilton and Bates—so if they deserve to jump up in the rankings, it will become obvious.
10.) Bowdoin (0-4)
Ouch. Tenth out of ten in the power rankings is not where any team wants to be, and Bowdoin keeps getting closer to a win, but to no avail. They continue to lower their margin of defeat week by week, but aren’t getting any luck with their early strength of schedule. They have already faced 3/4 of the top ranked teams in the league and aren’t getting any bones thrown their way with their week five matchup against Trinity. Their second half of the year could be much easier after this coming week, but there still aren’t a whole lot of positives coming from
Brunswick, Maine. Cameron Rondeau ’19 had a huge day against the Continentals with 9 tackles and a pick 6, but even on the offensive side, Bowdoin never really put it together. QB Noah Nelson hasn’t been bad, but hasn’t had any great games either as he is averaging 161 yards passing per game and has a 4:3 TD:INT ratio. Bowdoin has some work to do, but if they keep playing close games, one will roll their way eventually.
This is one terrifically reasearched, written and informative piece of writing. Thank you, and keep up the good work.