If Shepherd’s football team, including players like wide receiver Jeremiah Taylor pictured here, can’t tame East Stroudsburg, its 2023 season will end. Courtesy photo
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — After Shepherd University’s uncomfortable road loss to Bloomsburg University, 14-10, there were more questions than answers about where the Rams season will wind from here.
The second loss of the season does not eliminate the Rams from the NCAA Division II postseason playoffs. But it adds scads of pressure to get wins in the season’s final two games (both at home) against high-flying East Stroudsburg University and a struggling Mercyhurst University team.
Shepherd can complete a 9-2 season, if it can find the ways to tame streaking East Stroudsburg and then complete the 2023 regular season, winning against Mercyhurst.
But winning against East Stroudsburg (now 8-1 overall) will take more than soul searching. And it will take more offense and fewer 15-yards penalties than the Rams showed at Bloomsburg.
There are only two undefeated teams in Shepherd’s Super Region One — Slippery Rock and Tiffin (Ohio). Everybody else has at least one loss, and a team with two losses is likely to reach the seven-team playoffs.
Any conversations about seeing the Shepherd in the playoffs will be nothing but vacuous speculation if the hard-pressed Rams can’t defeat East Stroudsburg tomorrow in a 12 p.m. game at Ram Stadium.
In losing to an emotional Bloomsburg team, the Rams could never generate much offense and found themselves showing only 56 plays as opposed to the Huskies’ 70 plays.
Bloomsburg came in with a 1-7 record, despite falling in a number of close games.
However, the bristling home team never wavered with its ready-to-play attitude despite ceding the Rams two pass interceptions and a lost fumble. Shepherd likewise lost two pass interceptions and a fumble.
The Rams managed only 13 first downs while the Huskies had 22.
Ceding a conference team just 14 points usually means a win, but the upbeat Huskies continually relied on their effective defense to keep them viable.
Shepherd did lead once at 10-7, but a fourth quarter Bloomsburg drive aided by Rams’ penalties punctured that short-lived advantage.
More than just a few scenarios remain in Shepherd’s hopes for another postseason visit.
The NCAA listed 10 teams that were the most logical to be selected to the Super Region One playoffs. Assumption (Massachusetts) and Frostburg, like Shepherd, both lost last week. Fairmont is currently 7-2, but has yet to play Frostburg (now 6-2). The Rams defeated California (Pa.) on the road this season and the Vulcans are now 7-2 with a game remaining against East Stroudsburg.
Important questions are flying all over the Super Region One map. But if Shepherd can’t tame East Stroudsburg, its 2023 season will end in the mid-afternoon, after it plays Mercyhurst on Nov. 11.
