There are no moral victories in NESCAC fantasy football. That’s what I learned this week after an excruciatingly close loss to Jeff, which ends any hopes I had of winning our season matchup outright. I’m not quite playing for pride yet as I can tie Jeff 4-4 by running the table the next three weeks. Thus far, however, there’s little reason to believe that will be the case. This week I was doomed by our midweek moves last week, which turned out to be the difference. Less than a week ago I was championing essentially a Mallock-for-Nwosu swap that, in the long run, may be the right decision, but was incredibly costly this week. In a week that was decided by two points, our swap of kickers represented an 18-point swing. Further, Jeff’s week-by-week approach to defenses paid off, as Colby and Williams combined for 26 points. In contrast, I rode the Middlebury defense one week too many. While Doug Mandigo’s unit had a great performance on the field, their bend-but-don’t-break style did not translate well to my box score. Ultimately, kickers and defenses accounted for the difference in the Week 5 matchup as Jeff’s tandem outscored mine 36-11. In fantasy this week, like in real football every week, it’s hard to make up for that kind of difference in defense and special teams.

	Jeff			Damon
QB	Warren	9.3	QB	Foote	22.2
QB	Lippe	11.8	QB	Marske	17.58
RB	Drew	14.4	RB	Zelkowitz	12
RB	Donnarumma	2.6	RB	Curit	0
RB	Bunker	20.3	RB	Scyocurka	20.9
RB	Gibson	3	RB	Crick	18.2
WR	Rankowitz	9.6	WR	O’Malley	12.4
WR	Jensen	11.6	WR	Minno	7.5
WR	Jones	0	WR	Hurwitz	3.6
WR	Duncklee	15.8	WR	Gonzalez	1.4
WR	Davis	4.8	WR	Fabien	1.7
WR	Payton	0	WR	Wheeler	0
TE	Hughes	14.1	TE	Way	11
TE	Budness	0	TE	Sadik-Khan	11.6
D/ST	Colby	14	D/ST	Trinity	7
D/ST	Williams	12	D/ST	Middlebury	3
K	Mallock	10	K	Nwosu	1
		153.3			151.08
Bench	Ciero	34.28	Bench	Stannell	19.3
Bench	Doherty	1	Bench	Trause	11.2

So where to go from there? I could adopt the timeworn attitude of teams with their backs are up against the wall—“WE ALL WE GOT, WE ALL WE NEED”—but so often that logic, if you can call it that, turns out to be false. Similarly, I could have blown up my roster, gone for broke and added high-risk, high-reward guys, but in spite of my struggles I split the middle, attempting to improve my roster as I have each week. Outside of the running back position I believe I have an advantage at just about every position but running back and with a healthy James Stannell, I think I can compete there as well. The one place I looked for upside was at the wide receiver position where I added Greg Lanzillo and Grant Luna, who both have a chance to be breakout players over the second half of the season. That is especially true of Lanzillo who demonstrated a strong rapport with freshman quarterback Alex Synder, who I seriously considered adding. However, Marske’s matchup against Hamilton is far more favorable than Snyder’s (Amherst). The Lord Jeffs defense has recorded 12 sacks—second most in the NESCAC—and will have ample opportunities to take down Synder, who was sacked 8 times against Williams. Though Snyder looked immensely talented in Saturday’s loss against Williams, his internal clock needs to improve. If I scrape out a victory this week and Snyder performs well against Amherst, I may make the move next week instead.  For now, however, this is how the midweek moves shaped out:

DAMON	Add GREG LANZILLO Drop TREVOR WHEELER	JEFF	Add AMHERST D/ST Drop COLBY D/ST
DAMON	Add WESLEYAN D/ST Drop MIDDLEBURY D/ST	JEFF	Add GENE GARAY D/ST Drop GREG PAYTON
DAMON	Add GRANT LUNA Drop JAY FABIEN

 

This post was written by Adam Lamont, a sophomore at Bowdoin. Lamont is a former member of the Bowdoin football team. 

Offensive MVP: McCallum Foote (Middlebury)

Foote has not managed to repeat last year’s gaudy numbers in terms of efficiency, but he is averaging over 340 yards per game, which is 120 yards more than Jake Doll, the second highest passer in the league. Middlebury’s win over Bates, Saturday, was Foote’s best performance of the year, earning him NESAC Player of the Week honors. The senior threw for 305 yards and two touchdowns while completing 35 of 61 passes, but his biggest plays came with his legs—an underrated aspect of his game. Even when he played terribly in the Amherst game, throwing five interceptions, his value was underscored as his 450-plus yards of passing kept the game close until late. No other player in the NESCAC requires the game planning that Foote does because of his arm. Even without a very consistent running game, the Middlebury offense moves up and down the field because Foote can make every throw consistently. To be sure his 9 interceptions so far this year show he is not perfect, but he is working with a revamped receiver core and young offensive line. He will go do down as one of the all time great quarterbacks in NESCAC history.

Defensive MVP: Landrus Lewis (Amherst)

The senior cornerback for Amherst has been the leader of a defense that has been the key to Amherst’s 4-1 record, ranking second in the NESCAC in points allowed and total defense and first in takeaways with an astounding 15 interceptions. Lewis has accounted for three of those picks, including two in Amherst’s big win over Middlebury and has amassed 129 return yards, tops in the NESCAC. He does not make too many tackles from his corner position, but at 5’11 193 he is stout and has even recorded a sack this year. His ability to cover so much space on the back end frees up the Amherst safeties to take chances in the box. The defense for the Lord Jeffs has been great all around and you make an argument that a number of players from that unit deserve this award.

The Panthers are 3-1 at the halfway mark of the 2013 season. Given the their play, however the Panthers appear as likely to go 1-3 down the stretch as they are to finish the season 6-2. Mac Foote has not regained his 2012 NESCAC Player of the Year form and likely wouldn’t be a First Team All-NESCAC selection through four games. While individual awards don’t matter if the team continues to win, it’s hard to envision Middlebury competing for a NESCAC title without Foote morphing back into an all-conference, let alone All-American, caliber player. How much of Foote’s struggles should be placed squarely on his shoulders is debatable, but even acknowleding stretches inconsistent play on the edge, Foote needs to be improved going forward.

His play—and especially his negative play—will be of particular importance today. If Bates is able to take advantage of Middlebury turnovers with short fields, their gravity-bound offense will appear more phalanx than picket fence. Short fields is the Bobcats’ best chance to eclipse their 14.5 point per game average and their deliberate pace will keep Foote and the offense off the field for long stretches of time.

For the first time this season, the Middlebury offense must help its defense by sustaining drives and converting in key situations. If Middlebury can limit Bates to 50 plays today, instead of their season average 75, Middlebury will win the game, even if the offense continues to struggle in the red zone. While the Panthers won’t be able to settle for field goals against certain teams, long drives that result in three points will be enough today, if Foote and the offense can remain mistake free.

Middlebury needs to improve offensively over the second half in positive ways, by creating more big plays and scoring touchdowns in the red zone. Today, however, they simply need to eliminate the negative plays.

 

Editors’ Note: A group of writers from around the NESCAC, led by Joe MacDonald (Middlebury) and Adam Lamont (Bowdoin), will be contributing to the blog for the remainder of the football season and hopefully beyond. This post was written by MacDonald, a sophomore at Middlebury and a sports editor of The Middlebury Campus.

A season ago, Amherst crushed the Cardinals’ hopes of an undefeated season, traveling to Middletown, Conn. then-unbeaten Wesleyan and emerging with 17-9 victory. This time around the stakes are even higher as two-thirds of the Little Three boast 4-0 records and NESCAC title hopes.

On paper, this appears to be a matchup of the conference’s two best teams. Wesleyan has the top scoring defense and offense this year, while Amherst is second and third in those categories, respectively.  They are first and third in turnover differential, with Amherst’s league-best +9 differential holding the edge to Wesleyan’s +5. And most directly, Wesleyan’s top-ranked rushing offense (266.0 yards per game) will be trying to break through the wall that is Amherst’s first-ranked rush defense (71.2 yards per game allowed).

Editors’ Note: A group of writers from around the NESCAC, led by Joe MacDonald (Middlebury) and Adam Lamont (Bowdoin), will be contributing to the blog for the remainder of the football season and hopefully beyond. This post was written by Lamont, a sophomore at Bowdoin and a former member of the Polar Bears’ football team.

Death Valley at LSU or Camp Randall at Wisconsin are usually mentioned first when college football fans list the most fearsome stadiums to play in. Miami owns the longest Division I home winning streak in the history of college football with 57 straight wins from 1985 to 1994. The Trinity Bantams are approaching that same level of success as they attempt to win their 50th (50th!) consecutive home game against Bowdoin today. The last Bantam loss was on September 29, 2001 against Williams. Most of the players in today’s game were in elementary school and the freshman class was in first grade the last time Trinity lost at home. Today’s game will undoubtedly have plenty of recent football alumni who contributed to the streak along the way to ensure the current group maintains the streak.

Like a season ago, Trinity has gotten off to a perfect 4-0 start. Over the first two weeks of the season, however, this team did not look like the typical Trinity team of recent years that has steamrolled over much of the NESCAC. Close wins over Bates and a still-winless Williams team did not suggest another run at an undefeated season for the Bantams. In the last two weeks the status quo has returned as—playing against lesser competition—Trinity won consecutive games against Hamilton and Tufts by 35-plus points.