Jumbos left thinking

It seemed like they had everything under control. They had their second highest point total of the season. They didn't let the wind shut them down. They had the longest field goal in school history. They picked off the NESCAC's most accurate quarterback four times. They even had the lead with only 3:28 left in the game.

So what happened to let Williams walk off the field with its tenth straight victory over the Jumbos? How is it that for the 16th straight year, Tufts could not find that extra something to finally put it over the top?

Maybe it was senior quarterback Scott Treacy, who was nothing short of brilliant for 59 minutes and 31 seconds, until he threw up his first pick of the game with the Jumbos on the Williams 12 yard line, seemingly seconds away from scoring a potential game tying touchdown.

But the Jumbos would never have been in a situation where they needed a game tying touchdown if, just minutes earlier, Williams' sophomore running back Tim Crawley hadn't broken through several Tufts missed tackles to bust out a 65 yard touchdown run that put the Ephs up by eight points instead of just one.

"We weren't wrapping them up," senior tri-captain Evan Zupancic said. "There

were times when we hit one of them in the backfield or a yard or two after the line of scrimmage, and he broke free for big gains. That's not winning football."

Of course, Crawley would never have had the opportunity to break free for that run if a missed block hadn't allowed Ephs' junior linebacker Graham Goldwasser to pound through Tufts offensive line and take down senior running back Chuck McGraw in the end zone for a safety that put Williams up by one point.

"They got a really lucky bounce on the punt that pinned us deep in the zone," said junior Mark Tilki, who had two interceptions on the day. "We were working toward taking control of the game and that just killed all of our momentum."

But maybe the safety wouldn't have mattered if the Jumbos had managed to score on four tries from the Williams seven yard line earlier in the fourth quarter. Tilki picked off Williams' junior quarterback Joe Reardon just seconds into the quarter, and returned the ball to the seven for a first and goal situation. A McGraw rush attempt to get into the end zone failed, as did two Treacy pass attempts. And on fourth down, junior place kicker Marcellus Rolles' 24-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right. This after he had connected on a 49 yarder earlier in the game.

That missed field goal might not have been a big deal, however, if the Jumbos had converted any of their three failed two point conversions, or had even chosen to kick the extra points on those touchdowns. Three converted two point tries would have translated to six more points for the Jumbos, a significant number for a team that lost by eight.

"The kicking game is always big when two teams like Williams and Tufts get together," junior wide receiver Tim Mack said. "You can't blame one thing for a loss like this, but who knows what would have happened if we had made those two point conversions."

Maybe there were just so many little things that went wrong that they outweighed all of the big things the Jumbos did right. They didn't turn the ball over. They found a way to deal with Reardon. They had a good offensive showing. None of these was enough to overcome the mental miscues.

"The wind was definitely a factor, but it was really the mental lapses that cost us the game," Zupancic said. "Anytime you allow 21 points in a quarter you're not going to have an easy day."

In a game like this there are always things to look back on and say "What if?" But unfortunately for the Jumbos, there is no way to go back and change these things. And Williams' unbeaten streak against Tufts continues for another year, and will continue until the Jumbos are able to emerge from the game without any "What ifs?" to mull over.

"It was a tough loss and it didn't turn out like we wanted," Rolle said. "But that's football. Someone loses and someone wins. We played some amazing football and have some things to be proud of, but in the end it didn't go our way. We'll be back."

Williams may be the Purple Cows, but to the Tufts football team they're starting to look like the white whales.