Ship/ Shep Matchup

[jrshooter]

Biggest problem I see as a Ship fan is we're awfully young in the secondary and overall on defense, which isn't unusual in the PSAC after last year. I just don't see how we can contain Bagent and his excellent receiving corps. We'll have to hope Mussina is hot and that we can get a turnover or two as Kutztown was able to do this past Saturday. It's a good rivalry game and was a pretty good contest even in 2019, when Ship was a mediocre team. A couple of our receivers have looked decent, but I really wish Winston Eubanks hadn't decided to go up to Penn State. It's the type of game that could be a nail-biter, or one in which everything goes wrong for us and Bagent puts up 50 points or more. Given the difference in the level of competition each team has played so far, it's almost impossible to figure. Bloomsburg, which has big issues on offense this season, was not a good warmup game for Ship before facing Shepherd.

I think the thing that's being missed a bit here is that we had no idea how good Ship's receivers would be, or at least have been so far. Mussina's been putting up these numbers without much at all from the preseason first-team A-A tight end in Balint.

The freshman, Ian Sheehan, is a rising star in the conference. And the two transfers in are great additions. Kyle Evans (Clarion) has separation speed and has been using it. And Evan Morrill, a second-team all-conference pick at Millersville, is getting raves for his veteran leadership and ball-control receiving.

The receivers won't be a problem. I want to see if they can move the ball on the ground against a quality ballclub.

[Ship69]

I think the thing that's being missed a bit here is that we had no idea how good Ship's receivers would be, or at least have been so far. Mussina's been putting up these numbers without much at all from the preseason first-team A-A tight end in Balint.

The freshman, Ian Sheehan, is a rising star in the conference. And the two transfers in are great additions. Kyle Evans (Clarion) has separation speed and has been using it. And Evan Morrill, a second-team all-conference pick at Millersville, is getting raves for his veteran leadership and ball-control receiving.

The receivers won't be a problem. I want to see if they can move the ball on the ground against a quality ballclub.

Receivers have been OK, but Ship has faced bad defenses in Clarion and Bloomsburg.

[Monte's Catering Co.]

The receivers won't be a problem. I want to see if they can move the ball on the ground against a quality ballclub.

My guess by looking at Ship's ground production is no. Shepherd has done a good job in the run game with the exception of the backend of the Kutztown game. Now with that being said, Shepherd may change things up a little to pressure Mussina to help those DB's.

The key in this game will be Ship's defense. If Shepherd gets the early lead and forces Shippensburg to become one dimensional, it will go Shepherd's way. If Shippensburg can slow down Shepherd, this could go either way. I do believe after watching last week's game film, the Shepherd coaches will run opposing defenses out of two deep safeties.

Valley Classic!

[shipfbfan1]

I dearly love my Red Raiders however I won't kid myself we are not ready to compete with Shepherd. We beat a solid WV State team, a injury filled Clarion team, and a young and still finding it's way Bloomsburg team. With Bloomsburg we did what we should do to a team that's young and inexperienced and not that good we pummeled them. Against Clarion it was a competitive game for the first quarter and half before we put them away but still we gave up over 30 points. Shepherd has an experienced team and 2 former Ship players looking to get payback against their former teammates and coaches. Josh G will probably have a field day running past our CBs and I'm sure John Chaney 3rd will be itching for a interception off Musina. They both probably can tell the DC of Mussina's tendancies. I think Ship loses by 14-20 points if they are competitive otherwise Shepherd can win by 30+ lol.

[CALUPA69]

I dearly love my Red Raiders however I won't kid myself we are not ready to compete with Shepherd. We beat a solid WV State team, a injury filled Clarion team, and a young and still finding it's way Bloomsburg team. With Bloomsburg we did what we should do to a team that's young and inexperienced and not that good we pummeled them. Against Clarion it was a competitive game for the first quarter and half before we put them away but still we gave up over 30 points. Shepherd has an experienced team and 2 former Ship players looking to get payback against their former teammates and coaches. Josh G will probably have a field day running past our CBs and I'm sure John Chaney 3rd will be itching for a interception off Musina. They both probably can tell the DC of Mussina's tendancies. I think Ship loses by 14-20 points if they are competitive otherwise Shepherd can win by 30+ lol.

Is it me or is it getting smokey in here !?!?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I'll give the Rams -14.5 all day long.

Reasons:

* Kutztown gave the wake up call after Shepherd was perhaps starting to read too many press clippings

* Shepherd has already played (3) tough games

* Shippensburg has played an awful schedule (opponents' combined record is 2-13)

* Timing: It's never good to get a top program coming off a loss

* Bagent is in a different stratosphere compared to the other QBs the Raiders have faced this year.

[Ship69]

I'll give the Rams -14.5 all day long.

Reasons:

* Kutztown gave the wake up call after Shepherd was perhaps starting to read too many press clippings

* Shepherd has already played (3) tough games

* Shippensburg has played an awful schedule (opponents' combined record is 2-13)

* Timing: It's never good to get a top program coming off a loss

* Bagent is in a different stratosphere compared to the other QBs the Raiders have faced this year.

I will agree Shepherd is the favorite and Ship has played a bad schedule so far, but if Edinboro is awful, West Chester and Cal might be in trouble since the Scots gave both of them a competitive game.

[Ship69]

I dearly love my Red Raiders however I won't kid myself we are not ready to compete with Shepherd. We beat a solid WV State team, a injury filled Clarion team, and a young and still finding it's way Bloomsburg team. With Bloomsburg we did what we should do to a team that's young and inexperienced and not that good we pummeled them. Against Clarion it was a competitive game for the first quarter and half before we put them away but still we gave up over 30 points. Shepherd has an experienced team and 2 former Ship players looking to get payback against their former teammates and coaches. Josh G will probably have a field day running past our CBs and I'm sure John Chaney 3rd will be itching for a interception off Musina. They both probably can tell the DC of Mussina's tendancies. I think Ship loses by 14-20 points if they are competitive otherwise Shepherd can win by 30+ lol.

I agree Josh G and Chaney will want to show well against their former team, but looking for "payback?" Has someone that you know of at Ship wronged either player?

[shipfbfan1]

I'll give the Rams -14.5 all day long.

Reasons:

* Kutztown gave the wake up call after Shepherd was perhaps starting to read too many press clippings

* Shepherd has already played (3) tough games

* Shippensburg has played an awful schedule (opponents' combined record is 2-13)

* Timing: It's never good to get a top program coming off a loss

* Bagent is in a different stratosphere compared to the other QBs the Raiders have faced this year.

I agree Shepherd is battle tested. Ship since their comeback over WVSU has pretty much coasted along. The telling sign will be when they are down can they fight back and keep scoring against a high power offense and can their defense create turnovers. The one edge Ship has is they have a great kicker.

[CALUPA69]

I agree Shepherd is battle tested. Ship since their comeback over WVSU has pretty much coasted along. The telling sign will be when they are down can they fight back and keep scoring against a high power offense and can their defense create turnovers. The one edge Ship has is they have a great kicker.

And are much closer to equivalent at QB than any team SHEP has faced.

[shipfbfan1]

I agree Josh G and Chaney will want to show well against their former team, but looking for "payback?" Has someone that you know of at Ship wronged either player?

Josh had issues at Ship academically and I'm sure Shepherd offers more $$ than Ship. It may not be bad blood but I'm sure they want to show their old coaches they were worthy of more $$ lol. You know the saying money talks and well you know the rest lol. Chaney wouldn't have made the jump to Shepherd and be paying out of state tuition without some $$ being thrown his way to make it worth his while. Josh missed 2019 due to academic issues at Ship I believe I don't believe he had any other issues with the staff unless it was about $$...

[Ram040506]

Good crowd, great result for the home team. That opening kickoff was a hell of a way to start, but it appeared the rest of the team was ready to roll as soon as they got on the field.

Great bounce back week against a rival after that Kutztown embarrassment for the defense. You could definitely tell that Ship hadn't been in real battles yet, I don't think they ever got used to the speed and physicality during the game. The Rams appear to be through the real heavy part of their schedule and just need to stay healthy/focused on trying to secure one home playoff game if they can. Kutztown at this point has to lose twice for the Rams to overtake them for the conference championship, which might work out well for the Rams if it's Slippery Rock that is meeting them there.

Good luck the rest of the way Ship.

[Ship69]

Good crowd, great result for the home team. That opening kickoff was a hell of a way to start, but it appeared the rest of the team was ready to roll as soon as they got on the field.

Great bounce back week against a rival after that Kutztown embarrassment for the defense. You could definitely tell that Ship hadn't been in real battles yet, I don't think they ever got used to the speed and physicality during the game. The Rams appear to be through the real heavy part of their schedule and just need to stay healthy/focused on trying to secure one home playoff game if they can. Kutztown at this point has to lose twice for the Rams to overtake them for the conference championship, which might work out well for the Rams if it's Slippery Rock that is meeting them there.

Good luck the rest of the way Ship.

This is what I wrote prior to the game:

"Biggest problem I see as a Ship fan is we're awfully young in the secondary and overall on defense, which isn't unusual in the PSAC after last year. I just don't see how we can contain Bagent and his excellent receiving corps. We'll have to hope Mussina is hot and that we can get a turnover or two as Kutztown was able to do this past Saturday. It's a good rivalry game and was a pretty good contest even in 2019, when Ship was a mediocre team. A couple of our receivers have looked decent, but I really wish Winston Eubanks hadn't decided to go up to Penn State. It's the type of game that could be a nail-biter, or one in which everything goes wrong for us and Bagent puts up 50 points or more."

Obviously my worst fears came true and Bagent put up his 50 or more. It was a tough one to figure coming off a zero-sum year in 2020. In 2019 we had taken some lumps from a couple of the top Western squads early, but it probably left Ship better prepared for the Shepherd game, which was 32-30 that year. Bagent was probably the worst possibly matchup for Ship at this point. They really didn't stop the running game, either, and Shepherd winning the turnover battle sealed the deal. It's been several seasons since Ship has had a defense that can hold up against top-echelon teams, and they really need to get better on that side of the ball if they have any pretensions of contending in the East in future years. We'll see if Coach Mac can pull it off. The competitive imbalance in the conference is starting to worry me. It's not a healthy 16-team league when 3-4 teams are head and shoulders above the rest each season. Then again, that seems to be the case at most levels of college football.

Good luck to Shepherd as well. I still think the Rams are probably the best team in the division, but the loss to Kutztown has put them behind the eight-ball as Kutztown has to lose twice for Shepherd to win the division. I can't see them losing twice in the division, especially since they've already beaten Shepherd and what looks to be an improved East Stroud. I hope Ship can get its act together the next two weeks.

[Ram Tough]

This is what I wrote prior to the game:

"Biggest problem I see as a Ship fan is we're awfully young in the secondary and overall on defense, which isn't unusual in the PSAC after last year. I just don't see how we can contain Bagent and his excellent receiving corps. We'll have to hope Mussina is hot and that we can get a turnover or two as Kutztown was able to do this past Saturday. It's a good rivalry game and was a pretty good contest even in 2019, when Ship was a mediocre team. A couple of our receivers have looked decent, but I really wish Winston Eubanks hadn't decided to go up to Penn State. It's the type of game that could be a nail-biter, or one in which everything goes wrong for us and Bagent puts up 50 points or more."

Obviously my worst fears came true and Bagent put up his 50 or more. It was a tough one to figure coming off a zero-sum year in 2020. In 2019 we had taken some lumps from a couple of the top Western squads early, but it probably left Ship better prepared for the Shepherd game, which was 32-30 that year. Bagent was probably the worst possibly matchup for Ship at this point. They really didn't stop the running game, either, and Shepherd winning the turnover battle sealed the deal. It's been several seasons since Ship has had a defense that can hold up against top-echelon teams, and they really need to get better on that side of the ball if they have any pretensions of contending in the East in future years. We'll see if Coach Mac can pull it off. The competitive imbalance in the conference is starting to worry me. It's not a healthy 16-team league when 3-4 teams are head and shoulders above the rest each season. Then again, that seems to be the case at most levels of college football.

Good luck to Shepherd as well. I still think the Rams are probably the best team in the division, but the loss to Kutztown has put them behind the eight-ball as Kutztown has to lose twice for Shepherd to win the division. I can't see them losing twice in the division, especially since they've already beaten Shepherd and what looks to be an improved East Stroud. I hope Ship can get its act together the next two weeks.

As a Shepherd fan, I am pretty much putting the East out of my mind right now. We're currently fighting for a potential playoff spot. I just don't see Kutztown losing twice.

[nova2wv]

As a Shepherd fan, I am pretty much putting the East out of my mind right now. We're currently fighting for a potential playoff spot. I just don't see Kutztown losing twice.

Totally agree - I guess I'd be pulling for Kutztown and Shepherd to run the table through the rest of their regular season games and Kutztown winning the PSAC title. Shepherd having only one loss to the PSAC champ should - and I say 'should' get them a playoff spot.