Before the season began, the Elon University football team’s Oct. 18 date with Stony Brook University looked like a potential break in a schedule filled with proven national powers.
Stony Brook is in just its second year in the Colonial Athletic Association (Elon is in its first). It’s homecoming. The Phoenix might have learned a bit from its first two CAA games.
But now that the game is days away, it seems like it may be falling at an extremely inopportune time for Elon.
The Phoenix sits at 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the CAA, which isn’t exactly shocking. But the offensive struggles have been greater than anticipated, with the team failing to score a touchdown in two of its six games.
There have been dropped passes, penalties and an offensive line that still has a lot of work to be done. Turnovers, too, have hurt at times. The defense has performed admirably, but in some cases, it just hasn’t been able to get off the field because of the offensive issues.
Elon did, though, post its highest point total of the season last week against the University of Delaware in a 34-24 loss. But 21 of those points came in the second half after a lackluster start to the game.
“All season, nobody’s stopped us,” senior receiver Kierre Brown said, “we’ve been stopping ourselves.”
And now Elon has its toughest challenge waiting — the top-ranked defensive unit in the FCS.
Stony Brook is No. 1 in the nation in total defense and tackles for loss, No. 2 in pass defense, No. 4 in scoring defense and No. 5 in rushing defense. Just judging by that, it’s going to be a tall task for an Elon offense that’s managed just 86 points.
“It’s always a challenge going based on stats,” Brown said. “We just look past the score, look past the rankings and concentrate on our matchups and what we do best.”
The Seawolves are 3-4 overall and 2-1 in the CAA. They have a pass rush that obliterates through the offensive line at the speed of light, which doesn’t exactly bode well for an Elon offensive line that’s still finding itself.
In a 19-7 victory against the University of Maine last week, Stony Brook held Maine’s Damarr Aultman (20 catches for 253 yards) without a reception. Elon relied heavily on freshman receiver Tre Lennon last week because of injuries.
“I haven’t seen as dominating of a performance as what they did against Maine,” Elon head coach Rich Skrosky said.
Last week, Elon showed significant strides offensively, mainly during the second half, for the first time all season. The reward of facing Stony Brook is about the equivalent of receiving a rock when trick-or-treating after the previous house gave you a bag of Hershey’s chocolates.
The game provides a golden opportunity for Elon to show its growth, but it’s going to take a lot more than a spirited second-half fight.
Maybe Elon will end up thanking the CAA schedulers come Saturday afternoon. But for an inconsistent offense that’s trying to settle into a groove, going up against a well-oiled machine could stunt any progress built at Delaware.