NEC Football Power Rankings Week 5: Playing Darts Blindfolded

I think I quote it like twice a week. In my first conversation ever with an NEC head coach, he told me: “Well, the NEC is a funny thing.”

And it is. There’s a reason I always point to this as the most fun you’ll ever have watching football. You never really know what will happen. The unpredictable nature of football lives in the NEC, even when it’s sometimes hard to find at other levels of competition. I think I know what’s coming. I’m as well-studied as anyone out there to know what’s coming. And even then, I’m looking forward to my well-educated spectacular misses. It never stops being fun here.

I hardly know where to move things, or if I should even move things at all, after this week. But after some deliberation, this is what I’ve come up with:

1. Central Connecticut State

   The loss to Merrimack was a heartbreaker and marked by a lack of points from the Blue Devils until the final frame. They took the lead with two touchdowns but lost on a last second field goal to the Warriors to drop to 2-2 overall. Elijah Howard ran for 91 and got involved in the passing game, but the Donovan Wadley revenge game was not to be and perhaps having this one in New Britain would have changed the outcome. Nevertheless, it was a fine defensive performance from CCSU and they remain the leader at 1-0 in conference play.

2. Duquesne

   Even though CCSU lost and you can mostly write off FBS losses (especially after no one was going to let the NEC sneak up on them following Long Island’s win over Eastern Michigan), you can’t really reward the Dukes after the Akron game. Again, write it off. We have something far more interesting on Saturday when New Haven comes to the Bluff. You hate to rely too heavily on the transitive property, but this will give us a chance to see how Duquesne stacks up compared to their in-state competition up in Erie. New Haven is on such a roll, though, that any conclusions will have to wait until the Dukes and Lakers meet.

3. Long Island

   It’s been two games since LIU was able to knock off FBS opponent Eastern Michigan, and in that time we’ve had two no-shows for Ethan Greenwood at quarterback and this past week Luca Stanzani did not participate. Chris Howell did what he could, but he ended up with a 0 TD to 2 INT ratio and the Sharks were able to score just 7 points on the #6 Rhode Island Rams. I would have loved to see what Long Island could have done if healthy- I think they could have absolutely hung with the Rams for the second straight season- but this is who they are for the time being and I’m not sure I can put them up any higher with the uncertainty at the most important position in football. A bright spot was here, though, with O.J. Ross running for 130 yards at the running back slot. That’s LIU. There’s 100 yard rushers all the way down.

4. Stonehill

   We’ll bump Stonehill up to fourth here as they were able to mount a furious comeback against Penn of the Ivy League that just fell short. Stonehill is 1-3 and yet are probably just a handful of plays from 3-1. Fascinatingly, they’re also one play from 0-4. You expect this is a bit of growing pains from a team that’s just gained some experience from the year prior, has improved, but maybe hasn’t really learned how to win yet. The game against Maine was a big start, but they’ll have to grow up in a hurry now with conference play ahead of them. LIU heads to Easton next and while we’re just not sure what quarterback we’ll see from the Skyhawks, how they’re able to contain whomever it is we’ll see- and if they can find the end zone just a little more often- will probably determine how this one goes.

5. Mercyhurst

   A virtual tie with Stonehill. I gave the Skyhawks the nod just because the offense was able to do a little more than Mercyhurst was, even against an absolute monster Montana State team that the Lakers had to go up against. They acquitted themselves well- incredibly well, actually- on defense, but the 3 red zone drives without points will probably go down as the missed opportunity for Urena and Co. The road trip goes on to South Dakota State this weekend before we get to see what the Lakers are really made of in conference play, and if they really are as good as the team that punched out New Haven just a few weeks ago.

6. New Haven

   Speaking of New Haven, the Chargers are on a 2 game win streak but have had fast starts with furious comebacks against them in the past two weeks. They’ve been able to hold on, but a 4 quarter performance is still missing from their repertoire. A.J. Duffy remains a dark horse for the first team QB conversation in the NEC, and if they can give Duquesne a fast start this week they’ll have a chance to really shock the league and shake up the Northeast. Everyone in the league saw the performance against Mercyhurst, but you can be sure everyone is aware of what the Chargers were able to do against Albany, too. Really looking forward to this one on the Bluff.

7. Robert Morris

   Bobby Mo had Dayton on the ropes in Moon Township but let the game slip away. A particularly troubling aspect was that quarterback Zach Tanner left the game and did not return. Quarterback was probably the one place with RMU where we really knew what they had and were excited about it, but now there’s a little more uncertainty for the Colonials. Ethan Shine is looking like a fine addition to their running back room, but after Tanner left the game the passing suffered a little and the offense had some of the trouble it’s shown earlier in the season.

8. Wagner

   Wagner took on FBS Central Michigan this Saturday. You can flush it and forget it. Wagner gave significant attempts to Jordan Barton in this one, and my suspicion is that we may not be completely done with the quarterback competition on Staten Island. Freshman Benjamin Newton also saw some time. It’s a fine idea to use the FBS game to see what you’ve got across the board as the Seahawks prepare to welcome Michael Vick’s Norfolk State team to Staten Island before a bye week will recover them from NEC play. This is the time to work out the kinks.

9. Saint Francis

   Against a team the Red Flash beat last season in a spectacular comeback victory, the offense yet again sputtered while posting its highest point total of the season, hitting double digits for the first time with 10 points. The bigger problem? Delaware State was able to score on Saint Francis early in the game, which we haven’t really seen much of to this point. We had wondered if the defense was finally getting tired late in contests and surrendering points. Now, you have to wonder if the frequent low scoring performances are becoming a problem, or if DeSean Jackson was just able to turn around the Hornets that fast. They’re not famous for winning performances at Delaware State, but unfortunately they were able to put together a convincing one in Loretto. With the Red Flash at 0-1 in conference, there’s just nowhere else to put them until they’re able to muster an offensive performance.