Ferrum Falls in LexingtonW&L 30 Ferrum 10

Ferrum hit the road to Lexington Va., hoping to try to get a conference win against a strong Washington and Lee team. The Generals came into the contest fresh off of a solid win against Hampden-Sydney, and kept their momentum rolling against Ferrum. After a scoreless first quarter, Ferrum would give up three touchdowns in the second quarter to the Generals, and go into the break down 21-0.
Unfortunately, things did not improve greatly for Ferrum as the offense continued to struggle. With 10:32 left in the third quarter, Ferrum got on the board with a 37 yard field goal by Brad Green. This made the score 21-3, and gave some hope to Ferrum…...the hope was short lived as Washington and Lee, on their next possession, scored on a 32 yards pass play. With a missed extra point, the Panthers trailed 27-3. The Generals would close their scoring out on their next possession with a 31 yard field goal to make it a 30 to 3 game with 32 seconds left in the 3rd quarter.
Ferrum would tack on a touchdown at the 3:38 mark of the 4th quarter as Joe Burris III ran for 13 yards to find the endzone and with the extra point, cut the lead to 30-10. That unfortunately would be the final score.

Things to take a look at...….

Ferrum, since Greensboro,  has played some pretty darn good teams. In the game Saturday, Ferrum lost the time of possession battle by about nine minutes. The Panthers punted 7 times. I had to check to see if that was a record....it was not. The record for most punts in a  game for Ferrum is 12.
Ferrum's third down efficiency was 0 for 11. This is a problem. Ferrum's quarterback, Zach Clifford, who was back under center Saturday completed 50% of his passes for 127 yards. Those are decent numbers, but they have to be stronger against a team like W&L. The running game took a blow as Brian Mann went out with an injury. I am not sure of the extent, but a reliable source indicated that he may be out 2-4 weeks. Look for Joe Burris III to continue to carry the load in Mann's absence.

Defensively, Ferrum is giving up 160 yards per game on the ground, and 192 through the air. If you remove the Greensboro game from these stats, Ferrum is giving up 205 yards per game on the ground, and 201 yards through the air.

So where do we go from here? This week is homecoming, and Guilford comes to Ferrum. The Quakers are 1-4 also, so that, on the surface would indicate that the game could be more evenly matched. Last year, Ferrum lost by the score of 28-27. In this game, 2 extra points were blocked by the Quakers.
It has been a rough start, but with the homecoming crowd, Ferrum could be in a good position to get a win. Before I close, it is important to point out that Ferrum is putting up strong numbers in their kicking game....in fact, perfect numbers. Brad Green is 8 of 8 on field Goals, and 9 of 9 with extra points! Way to go Brad!

Fan support will help Saturday, so try to be there.....I will be there!

Go Panthers!

Ferrum 24

Guilford 21