Sunday Morning Quarterback: W&M Edition

Playing close games is something Rob Ambrose hasn't had to deal with often as a Towson's head coach in his first three-plus years. In fact, last season, the Tigers were involved in just two games where the final spread was three points or less.

In 2011, the Tigers defeated Richmond, 31-28 and lost in the playoffs to Lehigh at home, 40-38. In 2010, the only real nail-biter came in the second game of the season against Coastal Carolina, when Towson defeated the Chanticleers in five overtimes, 47-45. In 2009, the Tigers lost in a driving rainstorm at Morgan State, 12-9 in Ambrose's third game as head coach.

Towson's 20-17 victory on Saturday over William & Mary wasn't pretty, but it put the Tigers at the top of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) at 1-0, tied with Villanova.

"It's good to beat anybody in the CAA," said Ambrose. "It was ugly and it wasn't nearly as sharp as I would like and I know the kids feel the same way. But 30 years from now nobody is going to know about that. They will know it was a win. Those have been hard to come by in the last decade or so. I'm proud of our kids, how they fought and how they finished. We competed for 60 minutes."

When you look at the stats, Towson actually dominated this game in terms of time of possession (35:52 to 24:08), total yards (422 to 258), total plays (71 to 52) and rushing yards (247 to 157). They also led in another category: penalties (9 to 4).

But considering they turned the ball over six times over two weeks ago at Kent State, the fact that they turned it over zero times yesterday was a nice accomplishment.

So why was this game so close?

On the first drive of the game, Towson took the ball from its own 20 and drove 70 yards to the Tribe 10-yard line but were forced to kick a field goal. On 2nd and 2 from the William & Mary 18, senior wide receiver Alex Blake took the handoff from senior quarterback Grant Enders and ran around the right side for a touchdown. But Towson was called for a holding penalty, and the touchdown was called back, so they ended up settling for D.J. Soven's field goal.

After the Tribe answered with a touchdown, Towson put together another long drive that started out late in the first quarter at the Towson 15 and moved to the William & Mary nine-yard line early in the second quarter. But sophomore Terrance West, who had five carries on that drive, was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-one. Towson had just three points in two drives that took a combined 27 plays and about 12:30 off the clock.

Towson's red zone offense had one major option missing and that was junior tight end James Oboh, who sat out with an injury. Oboh is a big target at 6-foot-4, 235-pounds; he caught 16 passes for 297 yards and three touchdowns last year. He also caught three passes in the opener against Kent State, including a four-yard touchdown pass.

There also could have been some rust involved for a team that hasn't played in over two weeks. Towson played a little more efficiently in the second half, scoring 10 points again, but also controlling the ball and running it when necessary. The defense allowed just seven points in the second half, even though it got a little scary at the end. The Tribe drove down to the TU 28, before failing to convert on fourth-and-10 with 17 seconds left.

"It feels great right now," said Enders, who threw for 175 yards and ran for 59. "It was a long 2 1/2 weeks. [The time off] felt like forever. We know we had a lot of work to do. We had to put up a good game plan against a very good defense. The coaches reminded us that we haven't won a game since November of last year. It's been eight months of work to get a win."

One person who was impressed with the way Towson was able to control the football was William & Mary head coach Jimmye Laycock, who is in his 33rd year at the helm.

"We had two series in the first half," said Laycock. "They didn't get a whole lot of points but took a whole lot of time off the clock. Give them credit. They are a good football team. That's the reason why they were the preseason pick to be the number one team in the league."

Speaking of three-point games, William & Mary has now lost three games by a total of seven points. One of them was a 7-6 loss at the University of Maryland, who Laycock compared with Towson.

"I think they are very similar teams," said Laycock. "I think Towson may be a little better. We've gotten better offensively. We just didn't have many plays. It's tough. It's a couple of plays here or there. We'll get better."

*****
Let's move to the rest of the CAA where there were was just one other conference game on Saturday, featuring Rhode Island at Villanova. The Wildcats defeated the Rams at home, 31-10 though URI had a 10-7 halftime lead. Villanova opened it up in the second half, scoring 24 unanswered points.

The toughest FBS matchup for any CAA team this year, outside of Towson playing at LSU, was on Saturday when James Madison traveled to FedEx Field in Landover, to face No. 9 West Virginia. The Dukes played respectably, actually holding the ball for 35:31 but allowed Heisman candidate QB Geno Smith to throw for 411 yards and five touchdowns.

Georgia State, a future FBS team, who is moving to the Sun Belt next season, played UTSA (Texas-San Antonio) of the WAC, falling in Atlanta, 38-14.

In other CAA action, Old Dominion routed Campbell, 70-14, at Norfolk to go 3-0 on the season. Maine was a big winner on the road over Bryant, 51-7, and Richmond defeated VMI, 47-6. New Hampshire also had no problem with Central Connecticut State at home, winning 43-10. Delaware's defense held Bucknell to just 70 yards rushing, leading the way to a 19-3 win from Delaware Stadium in Newark.

Towson's next opponent is St. Francis (Pa), when the Tigers take on the Red Flash for Homecoming on Saturday, Sept. 22 at 7 pm at Unitas Stadium. St. Francis (Pa.) beat Moorehead State, 57-23, last week to go 2-1 on the season. The Red Flash now have scored 96 points in their last two games, though they did fall in their first game to James Madison, 55-7.

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Sunday Morning Quarterback: W&M Edition