North Carolina A&T is about to enter a four game stretch of conference road games that I don’t believe that any football team in the nation has to play and no one at the MEAC office including Commissioner Dennis Thomas can even explain.
A&T is the only team in the league that has such a rotten deal but The Aggies will do as they have down to getting out to a 4-2 record and a 3-0 conference mark at the mid-way point of the season.
We’ll just play the cards that have been dealt to us and take it one game at a time.
A&T pretty much played one of its better games in dispatching Delaware State 42-24 for homecoming last week and the Aggies will play the role of spoiler when they travel to Washington, DC to take on a Howard team that has some highs and lows of their own under new Head Coach Greg Harrell, a one-time standout wide receiver for the Bison in the early 90’s.
Howard’s biggest accomplishment to date has been their last minute 21-point comeback win over FAMU at the Rattler’s homecoming three weeks ago. Now granted Howard took advantage of all the big plays but let’s be fair about it.
If you feed a Ferrell cat free food then they are going to eat it and that is what happened in that 29-28 upset. FAMU and Joe Taylor gave away a sure 21-point lead in less than seven minutes with four turnovers, kicking game mistakes, extremely bad clock management, and some just plain stupid sideline coaching that gave up the final 15 points in less than 2 minutes. There I said it.
Howard came back with a one sided win over Savannah State which isn’t a big feat in itself considering where SSU is at this point in the season.
When they returned to earth against a fledging Georgetown program who for the first year is giving scholarships in their first year of D-II and their first out of D-III, they were controlled at the line of scrimmage by a much lighter team and were pretty much stampeded in the fourth quarter with a power running game by the Hoyas in a game that Howard was an expected favorite.
They are now 1-4 against Georgetown over the last five years.
Harrell and Howard were a lot like A&T and Broadway at the season’s beginning in that they are a bit undersized, not particular deep, and had no recent tradition of winning to speak of.
But these two teams have gone in completely different directions since then and a lot has to do with more experienced coaching, team focus on improvement, an underrated talent level, strong worth ethic and an accepting player attitude to listen and retain what they were being taught.
It will be homecoming at Howard and home teams usually play well on their homecoming. The Bison do have a promising young QB in Greg McGhee and senior wide out Willie Carter to stir the pot offensively but that’s about the extent of the Bison offense when you really examine the stat sheets closely and look at film.
The Bison despite their line size barely average 3.8 yards per rush and defensively they give up a healthy 4.1 yards per carry.
Howard has been a team that plays an excellent second half but has virtually given away every game they have lost away in the first half with the exception of last week with Georgetown being outscored nearly two to one and losing the turnover margin by putting the ball on the ground with extreme regularity with 18 fumbles and another eight interceptions too boot in 2011.
My feeling is A&T is beginning to focus on getting to where they want to be rather than looking ahead to any particular match up and thus the continued focus on a single game at a time.
There is not only some coaching leadership being shown but some senior leadership as well from guys who have not won much in the past but now feel they have the coaching and the attention of their teammates and they see this as their one big chance to go out on top as winners and to start a new tradition.
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Last week the Aggies passed the homecoming trap game and now they must get past the hurdle of being a Howard homecoming victim by sneaking a peek toward Norfolk State.
My instincts tell me that Rod Broadway and his Aggies would like to send a statement this week that this team is not a one hit wonder but it will have to withstand an early aerial assault before Howard will settle down and attempt to nickel and dime its way offensively to control the clock.
Because defensively, if the Bison don’t score, they are at this point too young and not physical or deep enough to do battle toe to toe with a strong power running game coupled with a good vertical passing game.
That’s going to be tough for Howard because A&T doesn’t give you much to work with on defense and asking a pure freshman quarterback to deliver in this situation without a running game for support is maybe too much to ask if this defense knows what is coming in advance.
A&T is getting close to putting together the complete game and they do play well on the road without the home distractions.
After a little back and forth, look for the Aggies take control and grind out a workmanlike performance win which may not be pretty by extremely efficient.
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PREDICTION:
N.C. A&T – 31
Howard – 10
