It was a dog-fight between the Terriers and Tribe this past Saturday!
BY: Pietro Marino (📸: Insta @its.lulus.lens)
Inhale…exhale…deep breaths everyone! Some meditation was necessary after Saturday’s win in Spartanburg which truly came down to the wire. After an impressive opening drive for the Tribe and some early offensive struggles for the Terriers, this seemed like the type of game that would be over by the end of the half.
It was not.
The Terriers tied the game three separate times and were a slightly underthrown pass away from tying it in the waning seconds of the 4th quarter. Nevertheless, the bend-don’t-break Tribe defense won the day, aided by a monstrous performance from senior running back Bronson Yoder.
There was quite a bit to take away from this contest, so let’s get into it!
5. Statement Opening Drive Highlights Veteran Offense
Although it’s early in the season, the Tribe’s 16-play, 79 yard opening drive of this game might just be Offensive Coordinator Mario Acitelli’s signature moment of the season. A masterclass in getting one’s playmakers the ball early and often, running backs Malachi Imoh and Bronson Yoder combined for 7 carries, with the senior receiver trio of Hollis Mathis, JT Mayo and Damian Harris adding five catches.
Every player that recorded a touch on that drive is a current senior, and it just goes to show how this veteran group who has been together for years has truly turned into a well-oiled machine. And boy when it clicks, it clicks. Savor drives like these Tribe faithful, because it won’t be long before we’ll have to say goodbye to these dynamic playmakers as they graduate and go off into the world!
4. Tribe Overcomes Questionable 4th Down Decision Making
In the second quarter, the Tribe faced two nearly identical fourth-down situations, I’ll list them below.
4th and 3 from the Wofford 17 yard line.
4th and 4 from the Wofford 20 yard line.
The Tribe went for it on 4th and 3 and attempted a 37 yard FG on 4th and 4 and converted neither.
I’m here to tell you they got both decisions wrong.
Why, you might ask?
Tribe kicker Eric Bernstein has a career long field-goal of 30 yards. Given this, I have a hard time understanding why W&M decided to attempt the longer field goal on 4th and 4 when earlier in the game they kept the offense out there on 4th and 3.
Obviously the team had no idea that they would be facing this situation twice in the same quarter, but the logic to me regardless is pretty simple.
“If our kicker has a career long of 30 yards, then we should attempt a FG on 4th down the closer we are to the 30 yard line.”
I think this bothered me more since we didn’t end up converting in either situation, but I feel like the Tribe kicked and attempted to go for it in the wrong situations. Would love to hear others thoughts on this!
3. Tribe Run Defense Needs To Tighten Up
At the start of the second quarter with just 9 total yards of offense, Wofford needed some sort of offensive spark. That spark would come from the ground game, as chunk runs from J.T. Smith and Ryan Ingram opened up the play action game for QB Amari Odom.
While the ground game for Wofford (27 attempts for 124 yards) was nowhere near as effective as W&M’s (50 attempts for 243 yards), I think that second quarter scoring drive from the Terriers forced the defense to respect the run game just enough to where Odom was able to take some deep shots throughout the game (which seemingly were always caught).
Either way, the Tribe’s run-defense in non-conference play this year has left a lot to be desired. Through 3 weeks, the Tribe has given up 145 yards to VMI, 277 to Coastal, and 124 to Wofford for an average of 182 yards per game. To start off 2023, the Tribe gave up 84 yards to Campbell, 103 to Wofford, and 40 to Charleston Southern.
You might object and say “Well Coastal is FBS and so they are an outlier”, and I would agree, but against the Tribe’s only FBS opponent last year in UVA, the team gave up 221. Plug them in instead of Charleston Southern and you get a 3-week average of 136 yards on the ground from the Tribe defense in 2023 (not an exact science but you get the idea).
Any way you slice it, this defense is giving up more yards on the ground than they were a year ago. Maybe that’s just the nature of non-conference play and the numbers will eventually average down once they begin their CAA schedule after Furman, but it’s something to keep an eye on as the season continues.
2. Tribe Avoids Multiple Injury Scares
The turf monster was lurking about on Gibbs field, with both Imoh and Yoder heading to the sidelines for some time. Charles Grant also appeared to go down but thankfully returned to action after a TV timeout. Credit backup running back Josh Miller for stepping in and running hard on his four carries for the game, although it was great to see both #9 and #1 return to the field (in a big way might I add).
This team dealt with the injury bug enough last season, so it was encouraging to see the Tribe come out of this game relatively unscathed.
1. Jonathan Hammond has arrived for the Tribe
In my 3 Players, 2 Matchups, 1 Prediction for the season-opener for VMI, I highlighted Davidson-transfer Jonathan Hammond as a player I was really excited about to see in the Green & Gold for the season.
The statline below is a big reason why.
Hammond looked every bit of the part on Saturday and it seems he’s getting more comfortable in this defense with every passing week (and the stats reflect this too).
Thanks for reading everyone, and as always Go Tribe!
The William & Mary Sports Blog 