Football Outclassed by Lord Jeffs

Trailing by 13 and driving into Lord Jeff territory to begin the fourth quarter at Amherst, the Middlebury football team had an opportunity to draw within striking distance and recover from their worst half of football of the 2013 season. But on a first-and-10 from the Lord Jeffs’ 22-yard line quarterback McCallum Foote ’14 was sacked by Amherst linebacker Chris Tamasi. Then, on the ensuing play, with pressure in his face from a blitzing defender, Foote overthrew his intended target, Brendan Rankowitz ’15, sailing his pass into the waiting arms of Christopher Gow. It was Foote’s fourth of five interceptions on the afternoon, in what was a turnover-laden loss for the Panthers.

Foote’s final stat line was one-part ugly, one-part historic, as the record-breaking passer set a new career high with five interceptions, but also entered the NESCAC record books with 84 attempts and 54 completions. All totaled the Newton, Mass. native threw for 459 yards and two touchdowns as the Panthers racked up 484 yards of total offense on 100 offensive plays, while possessing the ball for 36:01—12:02 more than Amherst. However, that could not atone for a litany of mistakes.

Early on it appeared Middlebury might take a commanding lead as the Panthers hummed down the field, appearing totally in sync offensively for the first time this season. On the game’s first drive, the visiting Panthers moved the ball seamlessly to the Amherst 11-yard line on 13 plays, converting three third downs along the way, before stalling, setting up a Mike Dola ’15 28-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead.

The Lord Jeffs struggled on their first possession, digging themselves into a third-and-20 situation after a holding penalty. Amherst running back Kenny Adinkra turned a conservative draw into a solid gain, but was stripped of the football at the end of the play by Panthers’ linebacker Jake Clapp ’16. Middle linebacker Tim Patricia ’16 recovered at the Amherst 30-yard line.

Foote then found first-year running back Joey Zelkowitz ’17 on back-to-back plays out of the backfield, the second of which Zelkowitz turned into a long, twisting 17-yard gain down to the Amherst nine-yard line. Middlebury’s red zone offense was once again an issue, however, as the Lord Jeffs stymied them at the two-yard line. Normally an area of the field Middlebury would approach as four-down territory, head coach Bob Ritter elected to attempt a field goal, a decision he would soon regret.

“What was going through my mind was I didn’t have a great play,” Ritter said. “Most of the time on fourth down if you feel good about a play, you go with it, and I didn’t have a great one because we had been stalled there last time. [Amherst] had turned the ball over and I wanted to get points off of that turnover.”

A 20-yard field goal away from taking a 6-0 lead, the Panthers made their first blunder of the game, allowing an unbalanced Amherst kick blocking unit to break through the protection and deny Dola’s attempt.

“In retrospect I wish I had gone for it, and most of the time we do go for it there,” Ritter said. “If we didn’t [score a touchdown] we would have pinned them and maybe gotten good field position. The blocked field goal just makes it sting a bit more.”

Lord Jeffs quarterback Max Lippe exorcized many of the demons that plagued him in last year’s 24-3 Middlebury victory, demonstrating a mastery of the Amherst offense, completing eight of 11 passes for 80 yards and a touchdown to senior wide receiver Jake O’Malley.

The miscues continued for the Panthers as Foote threw his first interception on the subsequent offensive possession. After picking up a pair of first downs, Foote threw a fastball over the middle under pressure that glanced off the hands of Matt Minno ’16. Trailing on the play, Amherst defensive back Landrus Lewis made an acrobatic interception and proceeded to weave his way inside the Middlebury five-yard line where Foote stopped him short of the end zone.

On the first play from center, Lippe kept the football on a read option and waltzed into the end zone. The Lord Jeffs scored 13 points in 1:42 and never led by fewer than 10 points from that point.

The Panthers went into hibernation in the second quarter, gaining just five first downs while turning the ball over twice more and producing another special teams gaffe—this time, a blocked punt. The defense, however, scrapped to contain the Lord Jeffs, forcing consecutive three-and-outs to begin the second quarter.

The offense never achieved the same level of consistent execution, the Panthers were forced to punt on each of their first two possessions, followed by Foote interceptions on consecutive possessions. First Lewis victimized number 10 with a diving catch — his second interception of the game — and then free safety Max Dietz caught, for all intents and purposes, a first-down punt from Foote who vastly overthrew his intended receiver on his third interception of the game.

Sandwiched between interceptions, Amherst found the end zone for the third time in the half — eclipsing the number of touchdowns the Panthers had allowed in the previous two games — as Lippe, normally a threat with his legs rather than his arm, deftly baited the Middlebury defense underneath and lofted a perfectly thrown ball to a wide open receiver for a touchdown and a 20-3 halftime lead.

The defense continued its strong play out of the break, forcing a three-and-out on the first possession of the third quarter and limiting the Lord Jeffs to a field goal on the second.

In a 20-point hole, Foote and the offense finally found their first quarter groove, marching 64 yards in 2:47 on just seven plays as Foote found Minno in the end zone from six yards out on fourth-and-three.
Defensive coordinator Doug Mandigo’s unit stood tall again, forcing the Lord Jeffs offense into its sixth three-and-out of the game as Nate Leedy ’17 made one of his game-high three pass breakups. The first-year cornerback leads the team in both total tackles and passes defended.

“Leedy is getting better week by week,” Ritter said. “He’s dialed in as a corner, really works hard at understanding the game, practices really hard — he’s very intense.”

With a chance to pull within one score, however, Foote threw his fourth interception, effectively ending Middlebury’s fleeting comeback bid as Amherst took the ball and, in just 1:32, found paydirt to take a 30-10 lead.

While the early fourth quarter interception broke Middlebury’s will, the defeat wasn’t sealed until the subsequent Panthers possession when a Foote pass to first-year Ryan Rizzo ’17 slipped from the wide receiver’s hands and was returned 74 yards in the opposite direction by Jaymie Spears for a Lord Jeffs’ touchdown.

Foote mounted one final drive, capped by a seven-yard touchdown pass to Billy Sadik-Kahn ’14 to reach the final 21-point deficit.

Despite the turnovers and mistakes on special teams, Ritter saw some positive signs from his team.

“We moved the ball on offense and the defense did some nice things,” he said. “With a passing offense it is going to be a little hot or cold sometimes. We just didn’t finish our drives off. The interceptions were killers and they were all kind of different shapes and sizes. They weren’t all one thing; a couple of different things conspired to it.”

Middlebury hosts Williams (0-3) on Saturday, Oct. 11. The Ephs have not started a season 0-4 since 1987. Williams dropped last week’s contest to Bates 14-10.