The Statesmen are now up to #9 in the D3football.com national polls and have the opportunity to officially clinch the “Pool A” (aka automatic playoff qualifier) with a win at Saint Lawrence (0-8, 0-5) Saturday in Canton, NY. I’ll have a preview of the Saints match up later this week.
Saturday’s show down between Hobart and Union started off being all Hobart in the first half. The Statesmen jumped out to a 21-0 lead off of big plays by JR RB Steven Webb (59 yard rushing touchdown) and SR WR Junior Woodard (62 yard receiving TD). Even SO TE Mike Berkowitz got into the mix with an eight yard TD reception early in the second quarter. Berkowitz would go on to have a career best and game high 89 receiving yards and two TDs.
Union would get on the board on a broken play that found SO WR Kyle Reynolds for 31 yard receiving TD. Webb would add another rushing TD and the Statesmen took a 28-7 lead into halftime. The second half the Statesmen came out flat and the Dutchmen took to the air. Union SO QB Connor Eck completed passes of 25, 11 and 14 yards on a drive that culimanted on a SO RB Darnell Thomas one yard TD run. SR QB Nick Strang would be intercepted on a 4th and 10 from the Union 22 yard line (more on this in a few) on Hobart's first possession of the second half. Thomas would rip off a 62 yard run and eventually Eck would fool the Statesmen on a naked bootleg and easily walk into the end zone to pull Union within eight points with 5:46 to play in the third quarter.
The rival teams would trade TDs the remainder of the game with Hobart coming out with a hard fought 42-34 decision. The Statesmen looked dominant at the line of scrimmage and did amass 537 total yards including a season high 355 rushing yards (199 of those by Webb which was a career high). Strang was a very efficient nine of 15 and three TDs. He also appeared on ITH last night (check www.inthehuddlle.com if you missed it). Still, the 34 points was a season high for what was until then the second ranked total defense in the nation.
A few other opportunities for improvement are listed below:
1. One slow quarter – The Statesmen once fell into the old habit of having “that quarter”, in this case getting burned in coverage, turning over the ball, etc to start the second half. This same issue hurt them against Utica and allowed Union to build momentum and get back in the game. Fortunately Hobart recovered and got a score with 55 seconds to go in the third to push their lead back to two possessions.
2. Third and fourth down conversions – Hobart was held to a surprising four of 12 on third down in Saturday’s game and decided to attempt five fourth down conversions (several of which could have been 35-40+ yard FG attempts), converting only two. I remember a few third down calls where Strang would run (what appeared to be called) QB draw plays which had limited chance for success given the yardage needed. It was almost as if the idea was to get a few yards on third and long to set up a fourth and 1 (or 2) and go for it.
3. Over pursuit / poor (deep) pass coverage – The Union OL struggled against the Hobart DL for most of the first half. Where the game changed was the Dutchmen’s using the Statesmen’s aggressive rush to run counter to where Hobart was crashing. Thomas isn’t particularly big (5’ 10” 190 lbs) but he was quick and did a nice job finding holes vacated by the Statesmen blitzes. Thomas’ 141 rushing yards on 16 carries (62 of which came on a big run in the third quarter) was the second best individual rushing performance by any Statesmen opposing RB all season. The Dutchmen also picked on SO CB Fajri Jackson and JR FS Jolyon Davis, who were beaten on several long pass plays, including both TD receptions. To be fair, the first Union passing TD was on a broken play and was (sort of) a lucky catch.
I don’t want the above to take away from what was truly a historic win for Hobart in many respects. Union is their toughest league rival year in and out so a win over the Dutchmen is always big. The game was closer than I predicted but the Statesmen could have won more handily if not for a handful of breakdowns and turnover to start the third quarter. Webb and Strang had great offensive outings and SO DE Tyre Coleman was unstoppable racking up a team high eight tackles, including a Hobart single game record of five TFL and three sacks. That said the game ball goes to the OL. They are helping Hobart achieve new heights including being the 19th best rushing offense (258.63 YPG), 27th in passing efficiency (157.96) and first in the nation in sacks allowed (.38 SPG).
A winless Saint Lawrence team awaits the Statesmen. A win by Hobart would tie the program record for wins in a season (nine, last achieved in 2008) and put the Statesmen at 9-0 outright for the first time in program history (Hobart finished the 1896 season 9-0-3).
More on Saturday’s game later this week.
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