c/o Wesleyan Athletics
When the rest of the school left for fall break, the football team travelled to Vermont to play the team’s biggest remaining competitor for the NESCAC Championship: Middlebury. Before this past weekend’s matchup, both the Cardinals and the Panthers were undefeated at 5–0, and stood tied for first place in the conference.
Even after much anticipation of the tough matchup, the Red and Black failed to preserve their record and fell at the hands of Middlebury, 45–21.
It was not that the Cardinals’ offensive performance was lackluster; they put up 350 yards, and they scored consistently throughout the game. Middlebury, however, outplayed Wesleyan on both sides of the ball.
Ashton Scott ’22 threw for over 250 yards and three touchdowns on 30 attempts. This was more than Scott had thrown in any other game this season, also matching a season-high for touchdown passes. Yet Scott was sacked four times; before last weekend’s game, he had only been sacked four times the entire season.
Once again, the passing attack was evenly spread out between the Red and Black receivers. Delando Clarke ’21, Matthew Simco ’22, and Glenn Smith ’21 all gained at least 50 yards and a touchdown during the game.
While the passing attack was mostly successful, the team struggled with an up-and-down ground game, failing to gain more than 80 rushing yards combined during the match. Although David Estevez ’22 put together an efficient stat line, gaining 89 rushing yards, due to sacks, the Cardinals were unable to put up big numbers between the tackles.
Defensively, Wesleyan struggled. There was not a quarter where Middlebury failed to score, and the Panthers managed to put up 45 points against what had been the second-stingiest defense in the league. No team had managed to pass for more than 230 yards against the Red and Black defense until Middlebury passed for 360 yards.
This was Wesleyan’s first game without a takeaway, as Middlebury was able to convert third-downs 40 percent of the time and completed all the fourth down conversions they attempted.
However, there were some bright spots. Chase Pratt ’20 and Nick Helbig ’23 both sacked the Panthers’ quarterback for a dozen yards each. While Middlebury was able to gain 170 yards thanks to their potent rushing attack—they have the conference leading rusher and two players have rushed for five touchdowns apiece—it took them 50 carries to reach that gaudy number. It’s a testament to Wesleyan’s strong run defense that they were able to hold Middlebury to a pedestrian 3.4 yards per carry. Furthermore, they managed to force Middlebury to punt seven times during the game, which was no easy feat.
Wesleyan outgained Middlebury in one aspect of the game: return yards. This is slightly more impressive if you consider Wesleyan had to punt nine times throughout the match and scored another three times.
Nevertheless, the Red and Black were the less disciplined team on the day, losing five penalties for 43 yards. In the end, the Cardinals could not sustain drives long enough to find themselves in scoring positions. Wesleyan’s failure to string together many successful drives left the defense on the field for over 32 mins. Facing a potent offense for an extended period of time, any defense would tire out.
Unfortunately, this week’s result puts the NESCAC Championship almost out of reach for Wesleyan, unless Middlebury falls unexpectedly before the end of the season.
The next few games will definitely be the toughest stretch of the season. This Saturday, the Cards play Amherst at home, who are currently fourth in the conference; then Williams, whose single loss to Middlebury puts them in third; then the season is finished at the always-competitive Trinity. All of these teams are in the top half of the NESCAC with both potent offenses and strong defenses.
On the whole, last Saturday wasn’t the best result, but the Cardinals need to find the positives in the match to get back to the high quality of play that led to such strong victories during the beginning of the season. Wesleyan will no doubt work to recover from this tough defeat and bounce back, hopefully returning to their excellent form from the beginning of the season when they steamrolled opponents.
If they do just that, they’ll be ready for Amherst next week in the return of the Little Three rivalry in 2019.
Jacques Slaughter can be reached at jslaughter@wesleyan.edu.