The Washington University football team surrendered 641 yards of total offense and had their nine-game home winning streak snapped in a 39-28 loss against Centre College Saturday at Francis Field.
The two teams traded touchdowns in the early going. After a lighting-quick opening drive by Centre that saw the Colonels march 75 yards down the field in six plays, senior quarterback J.J. Tomlin and the Bears offense responded immediately with a 67-yard drive capped by a 29-yard touchdown pass from Tomlin to junior wide receiver Harding Fears III.
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Stephen Huber | Student LifeJunior Marcus Ramspott rushes with the ball in the Bears’ loss against Centre College. The Bears lost 39-28 as quarterback J.J. Tomlin gave up four interceptions.
After a pair of stops by the Wash. U. defense, Tomlin orchestrated a 12-play, 64-yard drive capped off by a 14-yard toss to senior tight end Matt Page. Page finished the game with nine catches for 133 yards and one touchdown to lead all Wash. U. receivers.
The second quarter was all Centre. The Colonels scored 20 unanswered points to take a 27-14 lead heading into halftime. While Centre was gaining momentum on offense, the Bears passing attack sputtered. In total, the Bears mustered just 29 yards on 21 plays in the second quarter. This included two interceptions by Tomlin. Tomlin finished the game 37-71 with 401 yards, three scores and three interceptions.
In the opening drive of the third quarter, the Bears’ offense found their rhythm again. Buoyed by a timely pass interference call on an aggressive fake punk call by the Bears deep in their own territory, Tomlin hit Page over the middle again for a 49-yard catch and run to bring the Bears to the Centre 11-yard line. Tomlin hit DeAndre Wilson on an acrobatic 11-yard fade. Wilson used his entire 6’3’’ frame to leap and maneuver his hands over the tailing Centre defensive back. The touchdown brought the Bears within six with a little under two quarters left to play.
The Bears’ final score of the game came on a 34-yard run by senior running back Austin Smestad. Smestad finished the game with 66 yards and the one score on 10 attempts.
But the Bears’ defense could not deny Centre’s offense. The Colonels gained large chunks of yardage on the ground and air seemingly at will. And while a pair of interceptions served to keep the Colonels from blowing the game open, they did nothing to prevent Centre from chewing up the game clock. Straddling the third and fourth quarter, the Colonels methodically crept down the field in a 16-play 90-yard touchdown-scoring drive that took five minutes. In total, the Bears had a 16-minute advantage in time of possession.
The Bears will rarely win the possession game due to their hurry-up offense and emphasis on the pass, but the huge discrepancy is largely thanks to the Colonels’ lead running back, Nolan Coulter—who gashed the Bears’ defense for 223 yards and two touchdowns on 34 carries. After giving up 251 yards to Carnegie Mellon University’s Sam Benger in the season opener, the Bears’ defense is exhibiting a worrying weakness. It’s worth noting that Wash. U. had to defend the run against two of the premium running backs in the nation. Two weeks into the season, Coulter and Benger rank 29th and ninth in Division III, respectively, in total rushing yards. Junior defensive lineman Jared Lake takes this as indication that the Bears’ rush defense is better than the first few weeks show.
“I don’t really think we need to do anything too drastically different because all stopping the run is just wanting to stop the run,” Lake said. “The teams that we have played these past two weeks—week one we played the number one [Division III] running back in the nation, and [Centre’s] running back was still very good … not to downplay us, but these past two weeks, it would have been a very hard task.”
It is about to get even harder. Next weekend, the Bears travel to Birmingham, Ala. to take on Birmingham Southern University. Their running back, Kerrigan Pennington, ranks sixth in the nation in total rushing yards.
With additional reporting by Isaac Jacobson.