In what had the makings of a tight match-up at the start, Wesleyan proved to be too much for Tufts to handle as the visitors romped 37-7 on Saturday at Zimman Field.
With Patriots coach and Wesleyan alumni/fan Bill Belichick on hand, the Cardinals appeared to be using pages from straight out of Bill's playbook as they passed for 339 yards and ran for another 127 en route to the victory.
In the first quarter, after Wesleyan had chewed up the clock and collected a field goal, Tufts got the ball back and suggested it would make the game an offensive free-for-all. Senior running back Steve Cincotta ran the ball five times for 44 of his 68 yards and was rewarded with a score off the right side to give the Jumbos a 7-3 lead.
"We thought it was going to be a battle after those first drives of the game," senior offensive lineman and quad-captain Dave Hatch said.
Such was not the case for the remainder of the day, though, as tiny flashes of Jumbo prowess were overshadowed by Wesleyan's brilliance on both sides of the ball. Sophomore quarterback Zach Canter was 26 for 38 with two touchdown strikes and only one interception in his first game replacing the graduated Brennan Carney. Canter's classmate, Phil Banks, also had quite the showing to the tune of 95 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
"We got hurt by their pass game and their run game," senior defensive tackle and quad-captain Chris Lawrence said. "Our defensive line could have played a lot better, especially on third down."
The aforementioned third downs were the Jumbos' Achilles heel all day, both on offense and defense. The Cardinals were able to convert nine of their 17 opportunities, while Tufts was just two for 11.
"They found the right ways to choke our offense when they had to, like putting eight men in the box, and we couldn't respond," Hatch said. "Mental mistakes also hurt us."
Although Wesleyan had eight penalties compared to Tufts' five, the home team's mistakes proved to be more costly. One in particular came near the end of the first quarter, after senior cornerback and quad-captain Donavan Brown had returned an interception 78 yards to the Wesleyan one yard line. On second down, the Jumbos incurred a false start penalty, which pushed them back to the six. A three-yard loss on the next play and incomplete pass after that forced the Jumbos to kick a field goal, which junior Phil Scialdoni missed.
The mistakes were not limited to penalties though. Turnovers haunted the Jumbos as well. With 1:17 remaining in the first half, a fumble by sophomore punt returner Brett Holm near midfield resulted in another Cardinals touchdown just before the half.
Down 23-7 at the midway point, the Jumbos were unable to make adjustments to stop the high-powered Wesleyan attack. The balance of their offense shone through in the fact that they had the exact same amount of passes as runs on the day (41).
The Jumbos, on the other hand, were not able to find any offensive rhythm after their first drive. Senior quarterback and quad-captain Jason Casey was held to 47 yards passing to go along with three interceptions.
"We just didn't play well on either side of the ball," Lawrence said. "But we have to move on. We can't roll over. This was just one game of eight, but we still have to make some big strides to make sure this doesn't happen again."
Hatch echoed those sentiments.
"We're a better football team than what we showed on Saturday," he said. "We just have to go out and prove it."
With better execution as its focus, the football team will prepare this week to face Bates on Homecoming Saturday.
