Week 4 for the football season saw a few more teams becoming involved in conference play while others were left scratching their heads over some disappointing performances.
Campbell quarterback Kamden Sixkiller passed for 334 yards and five touchdowns, including a 7-yarder to Dawson Adams-Grenier in the second overtime, and the Camels’ defense broke up a 2-point conversion pass to secure a wild 50-48 win over Bryant.
Stony Brook nearly erased a 24-halftime deficit but suffered a 30-27 setback at Lindenwood.
Landen Clark threw for 223 yards and two touchdowns and added a team-high 47 yards rushing, but Elon fell 26-16 at ETSU.
Howard limited Hampton to 219 total yards and kept the Pirates scoreless until the game’s final seven minutes as the Bison claimed a 34-7 victory in the Battle of the Real HU.
North Carolina A&T fell behind by 24 in the first half and could never recover, losing 62-20 to North Carolina Central in the Aggie-Eagle Classic.
Youngstown State rallied from an 11-point fourth quarter deficit and kicked a 42-yard field goal on the final play of the game to stun Towson, 31-28.
William & Mary broke open a tie game with 27 straight points over the final 30 minutes and rolled past Charleston Southern, 34-7. Tribe quarterback Tyler Hughes threw for 296 yards and four touchdowns, with two going to tight end Jackson Blee.
Really there is no good reason to rehash last week’s A&T’s 62-20 bludgeoning at the hands of North Carolina Central. This was pretty much done at nauseum earlier in the week on “Inside the Family” YouTube podcast.
The big question this week as A&T heads to New England to take on Maine is how this A&T team will react to what happened last week. It’s not very often that you see a football team facing a real gut check in the first third of an entire season but that is where the Aggies are right now.
After letting one slip away against Tennessee State and losing big, as expected, against a very good FBS squad in Central Florida, A&T got its first CAA conference win ever against budding rival Hampton with some dramatic late game heroics. Getting more than royally embarrassed for a second straight year against the Eagles was a wakeup call for everyone that the Aggies have a long way to go in the daily preparation aspect in becoming a just consistent team let alone a competitive one.
A&T has an opportunity to bounce this week against a Maine team that yet to win in its first four tries although they have been very competitive in three of those games. Both teams are looking to establish some consistency. For Maine it’s about learning how to finish out close ball games and for A&T it’s about proper execution and keeping focus for 60 minutes.
The Black Bears are primarily an offensive team that prefers to run the football and considering how the Aggies have struggled defensively in defending that one aspect of the game, A&T can expect an exceptionally heavy dose of run all afternoon. Running back Sincere Barnes (5-10,180, Sr.) and graduate quarterback Carter Preevy (6-2,215) are speedy and very athletic runners.
The Aggies had a disturbing number of defensive breakdowns in its lopsided loss last week giving up 373 yards on the ground and another 400 through the air for a combined 745 yards net total offense. A&T has got to find way to stop its penchant for giving up big splash plays and figure out how to slow down the Maine run oriented attack that is averaging nearly 200 yards per contest.
Defensively, the Bears haven’t been bad against the run but like A&T they have been suspectable to the big play but through the passing game. A&T’s offensive line didn’t show well against NCCU and they will need to much better against a Maine defense that excels in flying to the football and will bring a lot of pressure from various sets as often as possible.
It should help to have quarterback KJ White starting his second straight game of the year after recovering from a broken leg over the summer. White was clearly rusty against Central coming out of the box but warmed up and settled down going 10-16 for 232 yards and a touchdown while running for a second. He should be much sharper this week and that could give A&T an added advantage if his line can keep him upright and generate some running lanes for the backs to help slow down the Bears pass rush. In any event this will be the first time that A&T will have the same starting quarterback for two successive weeks this season.
This is a long road trip, the furthest that the Aggies will ever have travel in the CAA. The weather for Orono, Maine is expected to clear and a cool 71 degrees for the 3:30 pm kickoff. In recent years it seems the Aggies tend to play more focused football when on the road than they do at home. Perhaps there are far less distractions and more time to concentrate and focus on the task at hand while on the plane or bus. Let’s hope so.
A road win at Maine would go a long way to erase a lot of the bad memories from last week. If A&T possesses the mental toughness necessary it takes to come back after a bad loss and play good football, then this will be the week that we find out.
N.C. A&T – 23
Maine – 21
