It was the tale of two halves as the once 22nd ranked Hobart College Statesmen saw a 13-0 halftime lead crash and burn in a 35-13 loss to the Springfield College Pride. The win was #201 for HC Mike Delong and it was mostly due to halftime adjustments and long drives that wore down the Hobart defense.
The Pride (3-2, 2-1) racked up 367 rushing yards and held onto the football for 36 minutes. The Statesmen offense, who had SO QB Shane Sweeney back from injury to start the game, never really looked ready. The offense struggled to move the ball (24 yards on 20 carries) in the run game to an average Pride DL. The pass game was effective at first, but too many dropped passes ultimately caught up to the Statesmen.
The Hobart defense did a bad job playing assignment football which is critical against triple option offenses. While some may blame the absence of SR LB Jake Stanley (ACL) and JR DT Jake Russell (MCL) as a reason for the Statesmen's defensive struggles, ultimately the inexperienced Hobart DE unit and lack of assignment play disallowed the LBs to scrape and outside run support misplaying their gaps really did in the defense.
Making things worse was the offense could only muster two JR PK Sean Kirshe FGs. The other and only Hobart TD of the game was on a 72 yard fumble recovery and return by SO DB Tommy D'Antonio. I'm going to need some time to figure out the last time the offense was shut out from scoring a TD save for losing to Dickinson 26-3 during the 2009 season.
The tide started to turn on the Statesmen starting in the second half after Sweeney was intercepted by Springfield SR DB Anthony West. The Pride would score to cut the lead to 13-7 then take the lead after they stopped the Hobart offense then went on a long drive that ate up nearly 10 minutes. A fumble recovery in the Statesmen end zone would bounce their way and the Pride suddenly had a 14-13 lead.
Springfield never looked back and, I hate to say it, Hobart basically quit in the fourth quarter to give away a 35-13 loss, breaking a 24 game LL win streak and cement the Statesmen's worse regular season defeat since the 2010 season.
While Hobart's season isn't over, it's the first time in five they don't control their own destiny in the LL title race. I guess to be fair, defending National Champions UWW lost today, but Springfield (a team that lost to a NEFC squad, 34-14) is no UW-Oshkosh.
While it's hard to say whether or not Hobart is on its way to a season like 2010 that saw multiple conference losses exacerbated by multiple off the field issues remains to be seen. Actions like throwing helmets, penalties and other non-Statesmen like behavior before and during the game points to a team that desperately needs to regroup and re-establish what made them a great program.
The long bus ride home and ensuing bye week gives them plenty of time to decide what kind of team they will be against four squads that now probably feel more confident than ever they can and will defeat the once bulletproof Hobart.
Hopefully the next two weeks will make a difference, in my opinion the team lacks identity. Compare the stats of the WPI game and that of Springfield. What direction are you taking the team? One week you mix run and pass, and the next week you completely abandon the run and fail. Again compare the two games look at the stats ... the players can only execute the plays they're given from the sideline and that's where you need start because the Springfield game did not represent Hobart Football...
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