Football | Jumbos look to rebound against Ephs on Saturday

    After having its two-game winning streak snapped in a 10-3 defensive battle last weekend at home versus Trinity, the Tufts football team will now turn its attention to breaking a different streak at Williams.
    The Ephs enter Saturday's contest with a 14-game win streak at home against Tufts on the line, having gone 12-0-2 since 1981 at Weston Field against the Jumbos. In taking on a Tufts squad that ranks last in the conference in scoring offense, the pressure should be on Williams, owners of a 3-1 record and winners of two straight games, to keep the run alive.
    As they have done all season, the Jumbos will rely on their lockdown defense — which held the high-scoring Bantams to just 10 points and forced eight punts — to help carry them throughout the afternoon. Though Tufts has scored the fewest points in the NESCAC, it has also allowed the fewest at 46.
    But the Ephs counter with the top rushing offense in the league, led by junior running back Ryan Lupo, who posted a 37-carry, 136-yard performance against Middlebury last week that earned him the NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week award. The first-year starter averages 106.2 yards per game and has a league-leading five touchdowns.
    "Williams always has a talented back, a north-south guy rather than an east-west one," senior tri-captain defensive back Alex Perry said. "If you let him get in the open field, he'll kill you, so we just need to step it up in the front. We played great last week, so we just need to carry over our toughness and physicality."
    Though the final stat line might not show it, the Jumbos were their usual selves at stopping the run last week against Trinity. Despite heading into the contest with the conference's best run defense, Tufts allowed Bantams senior back Oliver Starnes to accumulate 141 yards, but 41 of those came on a single run in fourth-quarter garbage time. Still, the Ephs will present an entirely different challenge for Tufts' defensive 11.
    "They're a multi-dimensional offense," Perry said. "They'll throw a lot at you, a lot of different packages. We've tried to emulate that during practice, to see what personnel matches up against theirs. They have a very good offense, but I think our game plan is ready to go."
    Though Tufts boasts the third-best rushing offense in the NESCAC, its ground game stalled versus the Bantams, as it accounted for just 16 yards on 29 carries for a paltry 0.6 yards-per-carry average.
    So far, the biggest offensive spark for the Jumbos has been junior running back Pat Bailey, who ranks second in the NESCAC in all-purpose yards, averaging 160 per game. In order to get the ball moving versus the Ephs, senior quarterback Tom McManama and company will turn to Bailey for that down-the-field big gain that has for the most part eluded the Jumbos' offense thus far.
    "I'm sure they're going to have someone keyed on Pat and will do something in their defense to focus on him," McManama said. "He's definitely proven himself to be our biggest playmaker; he's leading our team in rushing and receiving yards. I think we should just keep giving him the ball until they can prove they can stop him." 
    Additionally, the Jumbos will get back junior wide receiver Steve Cusano, described by McManama as "one of the fastest guys we have on offense." Having Cusano should bolster a passing game that averages just 132.5 yards per game this weekend.
    "Getting Steve back is definitely going to be huge for us," McManama said. "He's definitely a playmaker, has great hands and should help us a lot."
    Bailey and McManama showed flashes that seemed indicative of the Jumbos big-play ability in the final drive against the Bantams, hooking up for a 65-yard pass play into Trinity territory. They will have to replicate such efforts against the Ephs defense on Saturday.
    "We just need to make big plays in crucial situations … instead of just settling for a five-yard gain," McManama said. "Initially, we just need to get the small yards and move the chains, but when the opportunity presents itself we need to capitalize. We want to be aggressive, want to try to get as many yards as we can and make the job on our offensive coordinator a lot easier."
    The Jumbos and Ephs have a history of low-scoring games — last year playing to a 17-7 Tufts victory at the Ellis Oval — and this year, with two of the NESCAC's best defenses at play, should be no exception. Yet, it will ultimately come down to fixing mental mistakes, according to the Jumbos.
    "We took a look at the film of the Trinity game, and we made a lot of mental mistakes," McManama said. "Our big goal for this game is to have as few of those as possible. If we're in the right spot, if everyone's doing their job, then we're going to put up a lot more points."
    But coming off a tough loss to the Bantams, the Jumbos are focused on not slipping below .500.
    "Last year we had a tough loss against Trinity and then rebounded with a huge win against Williams," Perry said. "We've been put in a similar situation this year but just have to find a way to rebound, not let that loss linger in our mind, and totally move on.
    "If we just play our style, winning should take care of itself," he continued. "We have a little chip on our shoulder. I think people just want to go out and win and finish the season with a great record, and it all starts with Williams."