Things are starting to become a bit repetitive for the football team.
The Jumbos were held to a single field goal offensively for the third time this season on Saturday, spoiling a solid defensive effort and falling to undefeated NESCAC rival Amherst 13-3 at Zimman Field.
Amherst, which moved to 6-0 for the first time since 2001, limited Tufts' stagnant offense to 93 total offensive yards, including holding the Jumbos' rushing game to negative 15 yards — the second time in as many years that the Lord Jeffs have held Tufts to negative ground yards.
"Tufts is a good football team — defensively especially, they are very good," Amherst coach E.J. Mills said. "With the wind I knew it wasn't going to be a high-scoring game, and early on they got some good field positions, so I was pretty nervous. But we have a good defense who played extremely well. It was simply a great football game."
Tufts senior quarterback Tom McManama felt the Amherst pressure throughout the game, taking eight sacks for a total loss of 60 yards. The depleted Jumbo offensive line currently has just two of five Week 1 starters healthy.
"We're struggling," Tufts coach Bill Samko said. "We need to score some more points somehow, some way. We have to play better, but they're good. That's why their record is what it is. It's even-steven at the half, but they played better in the second half. I can make a bazillion excuses, but we were playing against a very good defensive team."
Tufts was unable to start anything productive offensively, going three-and-out six times and recording drives of negative yardage on four occasions, entering the second half knotted at 3-3. The Jumbos' lone score — a 44-yard field goal by sophomore Adam Auerbach, the longest of his career — came early in the first quarter after an Amherst punt gave Tufts the ball on the Lord Jeffs' 48. Still, despite the optimal field position, the Jumbos only managed 22 yards on nine plays in the drive, settling for Auerbach's booming, wind-aided kick.
Tufts' only other opportunity to score came on its first drive of the game. On the opening play from scrimmage, junior linebacker Matt Murray recovered a fumble set up by sophomore end Donnie Simmons, who penetrated the line on a draw play, giving Tufts the ball 14 seconds into the contest at the Amherst 32-yard line. After a gutsy fourth-down pass from McManama to senior fullback Noah Hatfield-Biondo set up first down at the Amherst 20, Auerbach's 31-yard field goal was blocked.
From there, a dominating Amherst defense took over, led by senior linebacker Mike Taylor, who forced two fumbles, recovered one, sacked McManama twice and recorded 16 tackles, three of which went for a loss. On Sunday, Taylor was named the NESCAC Defensive Co-Player of the Week for his efforts, his second such award of the year.
The Lord Jeffs, who are ranked first in Div. III for rushing defense and sacks per game, got the Jumbos 15 times behind the line of scrimmage, thanks to an all-around team effort that Mills praised.
"Last year, they did a really nice job [running the] play-action … so I felt that was what they wanted to do again," he said. "We're tough to block — that was obviously real important to pressure those guys, and we were able to do that."
Amherst used two short field goals from sophomore kicker Matt Rawson to win the game, both of which came on the heels of short drives directed by sophomore backup quarterback Brian McMahon.
McMahon, who Mills said normally plays at the beginning of the second and fourth quarters as a run-and-gun change of pace to pocket-poised junior Alex Vetras, led the Lord Jeffs with 39 rushing yards, only erring on Amherst's final drive of the fourth quarter when senior quad-captain Alex Perry forced a fumble.
"[Vetras] is our quarterback, but [McMahon] is a very good backup," Mills said. "He has great quickness, giving us a different dimension. Typically, we haven't been as consistent offensively, but we take advantage of field position, just put together a couple of good drives. That was really the difference today."
Yet the Jumbos' defense held Vetras, the conference's most efficient passer, to his lowest offensive output of the year. Amherst's signal-caller threw for only 74 yards and was intercepted once by senior Andrew Elfman.
"Defensively, we need to get some more turnovers," Perry said. "We got three, but we need to get more to give the offense good field position. We played our heart out, but unfortunately the scoreboard didn't come out the way we wanted it to."
Vetras' lone touchdown came midway through the fourth quarter when, under heavy pressure from a Jumbo blitz, he rifled a pass to the back of the end zone to senior receiver Brandon Bullock. The play was bad news for the Jumbos in more way than one, as senior safety and quad-captain Tom Tassinari injured his left knee. Tassinari, Tufts' leading tackler, sat out the rest of the game. The extent of his injury is uncertain. Altogether, Tufts forced three turnovers, three times as many as it had in its first five games. But even with optimal field position — Rawson averaged just 29 yards per punt — the Jumbo offense was unable to find the elusive end zone.
"There's no magic. If there was magic, we'd do it," Samko said. We're trying to be creative in some way, just manage the game better. Our defense is pretty good, so as long as we stay in the game and create a big play in the second half, we'll be fine."
"We definitely made some strides today and were able to move it a little bit more effectively," junior Pat Bailey added. "But in the end, we just had problems punching it into the end zone."
McManama finished with 82 yards through the air and was the team's leading receiver after hauling in a 26-yard pass on a trick play from senior wideout Tim Puopolo. Yet after the long gain — Tufts' longest play of the afternoon — a 15-yard penalty knocked the Jumbos back to first and 25, pushing them out of field goal range. Additionally, Bailey, who entered the game ranked third in the conference in all-purpose yardage, had just 17 yards rushing and 15 yards through the air on four receptions.
With Trinity falling to Middlebury on the road 31-24, Amherst moved into sole possession of first place in the NESCAC. At 2-4, with three losses coming by 10 points or fewer, the Jumbos sit in a tie for seventh place with Bowdoin. But with a road matchup versus 3-3 Colby looming next Saturday, Tufts has little time to dwell on the loss to the Lord Jeffs.
"You have to put confidence in these guys; we can't give up on the season," Perry said. "We have to keep battling. You really find out what you're made of when you're 2-4, just trying to get back to .500 with two games left. It's a big test for us."
