After one week of football we decided to rank every NESCAC team based solely on their performance from last week. Preseason expectations were not included in our calculations so don’t get upset if you find these rankings surprising.
1. Williams- There is no shock here if the rankings are based only last week. They blew out Bowdoin 36-0 looking absolutely dominant. Granted Bowdoin is probably one of the weaker teams in the league, but you cannot overlook such a lop-sided performance last Saturday. Williams defense looked in complete control holding Bowdoin to 220 yards of total offense, while forcing three turnovers and scoring a defensive touchdown.
2. Trinity- If football games were only played for one half, Trinity might be dropped to fourth, but the Bantams looked “vintage” Trinity in the second half. They controlled both sides of the ball. They ran Colby into the ground with 289 rushing yards, while the defense put constant pressure on Colby’s line sacking the quarterback three times, one of which leading to a defensive touchdown.
3. Wesleyan- Wesleyan probably had the toughest opponent, Middlebury, of the top four teams yet they did not put a dominant performance forward like Williams and Trinity. Middlebury outplayed Wesleyan on the offense side of the ball, but the Wesleyan defense managed to intercept two passes, and ran one back for a touchdown. Wesleyan was also the most disciplined team only committing three penalties for 45 yards. Wesleyan will move up in the power rankings if they can maintain a mistake free approach.
4. Amherst- Amherst surprisingly finds themselves 4th in the power rankings. They squeaked out a win against Bates, but by no means did they look good. They threw away two interceptions and lost two of their five fumbles. Amherst looks to get on track and avoid turnovers against Bowdoin this weekend.
5. Middlebury- They are not the same team they were last year; they lost a ton of players yet a lot of talent still remains. Mistakes killed Middlebury in a battle against Wesleyan. New QB Matt Milano ’16 aired the ball out for 204 yards butthrew two significant interceptions that, in a low scoring game, were very costly.
6. Bates- Bates lost to an Amherst team that looked shaky all game. In a turnover laden game, Bates contributed three interceptions and only threw for 113 yards. Not a recipe for success. Bates had good field position for the majority of the game and was only able to muster 6 points. Bates heads to Tufts next week to face a Jumbo team that also struggled against a sub par Hamilton team.
7. Colby- The Mules played a close first half against Trinity before the Bants pulled away and dominated the second half. Colby gave up a whopping 455 yards against Trinity, 289 on the ground, by far the most in week one. If Colby wants to turn things around against Middlebury , they have to play defense like they did in the first half in week one.
8. Tufts- Tufts beat a Hamilton team by 7 who will most likely finish in the bottom 2 of the NESCAC. Tufts also threw for 113 yards which was good for last in the conference and earned only 12 first downs. Their matchup against Colby should be interesting to see which of the two teams takes charge and plays better.
9. Hamilton- The Continentals lost 24-17 to Tufts despite outgaining the Jumbos by 199 yards. They will have to find ways to correct all the mistakes made in week one (or sign Voodoo Tatum) if they want to get to .500 this year.
10. Bowdoin- Bowdoin got shut out in a bad way to start the season and there isn’t much reason to believe things will get much better. The Bears pushed across only 11 first downs and managed only 212 total yards. Bowdoin will play Amherst next week and hope not to become a practice game for the Lord Jeffs.