Inside the MEAC · recap
Rough Saturday around the beat
The Breakdown Media Team
Published
Two weeks ago the beat opened a combined 5-0 and we wrote that it wouldn't last. It didn't. Norfolk State's Friday night in Charlottesville got its own piece yesterday, and Saturday didn't treat the rest of the neighborhood much better.
Lehigh 44, William & Mary 20
The Patriot League sorted itself out fast. William & Mary beat Villanova, the team the league's poll picked first. Lehigh, the two-time defending champion the poll picked second, just made the counterargument: 44-20, and it wasn't that close.
A top-ten team in both FCS polls doing that to the Tribe isn't shame, but it is information. The offensive line that gave up seven sacks against Delaware State had no answers again, and William & Mary's season now looks like what it probably is: a good team with a real quarterback and a front that decides the ceiling. They're 2-1, and the Villanova win still counts. The road to the title now visibly runs through Bethlehem.
Bryant 31, Hampton 3
The week before the Battle of the Bay is the wrong time to score three points. Bryant beat the Pirates 31-3, one week after Maryland beat them 62-0 in Hampton's first game ever against a Power Four program. Add it up and the team that hung 45 on Virginia-Lynchburg in the opener has been outscored 93-3 by Division I competition since.
First-year coach Van Malone brings a team to Dick Price on Saturday that nobody can read. The opener says one thing, the last two weeks say another, and rivalry games have a long history of ignoring both.
Delaware State 21, Bowie State 6
The Hornets did what you're supposed to do with a Division II opponent. Shaun Boykins Jr. ran for 90 yards and both touchdowns on ten carries, the defense allowed six points, and Delaware State is 2-1 through the nonconference schedule.
Quietly, the team that turned it over six times in Williamsburg has put together two steady wins since. DeSean Jackson's group gets a real test soon enough, but steadiness was the thing missing at Zable, and they've had it since.
Saturday, everything points at Dick Price
Norfolk State at 1-2 off two hard FBS losses. Hampton at 1-2, outscored 93-3 since the opener. The Battle of the Bay, Saturday at Dick Price Stadium, with both teams needing it more than either would admit in August. Preview midweek.