NEC Pick 'em - Week 5

[RedFlash]

Week 5

Central Connecticut at Sacred Heart (-9)
Bryant at New Hampshire (-23)
Lehigh (-7.5) at Wagner
St. Francis at Liberty (-9.5)
West Virginia Wesleyan at Duquesne (-26)

(Point spreads from https://www.sportbet.com/news/odds/Football/College-Extra/ )

· First conference games for CCSU and Sacred Heart. SHU should be able to win this one at home.

· Bryant pulled off a bit of a stunner last week over Fordham. It won’t happen two weeks in a row.

· Lehigh likely has too much offense for Wagner – who has struggled since their QB was injured in Week 2.

· A few weeks ago I thought StFU would get crushed in this game. While I still think they’ll lose, I think they may figure out a way to keep it respectable.

· Not much to say about this last one. Expecting Duquesne to win big.

Last Week - 4-1
Overall - 22-3

[Bluefish845]

Central Connecticut at Sacred Heart SHU has to stop putting itself in an early 14 pt hole, last week was a heart breaker after coming back from 17 and 14 points down. I am a bit worried about CCSU's Dolegala against SHu's banged up secondary. Should be a big crowd for homecoming after 3 weeks on the road
Bryant at New Hampshire Can Bryant's offense keep up this torrid pace?, maybe, Holy cross lit up New Hampshire's secondary, I think the Bulldogs on the road come back to earth. the Keep an eye on Bryant LB Costigan, kid is a beast
Lehigh at Wagner This is probably a pic em game, probably high scoring. It is tough to judge how good Wagner is since their Star Qb went down to injury, Lehigh's defense seems porous at best. Lehigh's Offense has more weapons.
St. Francis at Liberty Really good test for STFU if they want to lay claim to the cream of the NEC title. This road game though will be a bit too much for the Red Flash
West Virginia Wesleyan at Duquesne The Dukes will romp before heading into a key matchup with Wagner next week. Curious schedule for the Dukes though SD State, 2 PFL schools and now a D2...

[Original_RMC]

CCSU @ SHU
Bryant @ New Hampshire
SFU @ Liberty
Lehigh @ Wagner
West Virginia Wesleyan @ Duquesne

[Gangtackle11]

CCSU @ SHU
Bryant @ New Hampshire
SFU @ Liberty
Lehigh @ Wagner
West Virginia Wesleyan @ Duquesne

Last Week: 3-2 Season: 20-5

[bonarae]

Sacred Heart
UNH
Liberty
Lehigh
Duquesne

[RedFlash]

West Virginia Wesleyan at Duquesne The Dukes will romp before heading into a key matchup with Wagner next week. Curious schedule for the Dukes though SD State, 2 PFL schools and now a D2...

Not sure if this is where you're going with that statement Bluefish or not, but in terms of scheduling, it's the life of an NEC team with only 6 conference games. I can only imagine what it's like for these teams trying to find 5 non-conference opponents each year - let alone trying to get an additional 2 home games out of it. Duquesne has been playing Dayton for a while, but for most in the NEC it almost always leads to having to play one D-2 school to secure at least a 4th home games. This year you have/had:

Wagner vs. St. Anslem
StFU vs. Lock Haven
Bryant vs. Merrimack
CCSU vs. Walsh
Duquesne vs. West Va. Wesleyan

Only RMU and SHU were able to avoid the D-2 game this year, although RMU played Alderson Broaddus and Malone last year. Honestly, I'm not sure how SHU is able to avoid these games - although being in Connecticut opens a lot of doors to the Ivy, CAA and Patriot League in terms of short trips for visiting schools. StFU's closest non-conference FCS schools are probably YSU or Towson (who they've played one or both in each of the last three years.)

[Bluefish845]

Flash, totally agree, the 6 conference games is a killer and forces teams to almost accept all offers for games and be creative when seeking to fill out the schedule. In '15 SHU played St. Anselm, '14 Assumption, and in '13 Lincoln and Chowan. My point regarding Duquesne was the diversity of the schedule from a top 5 FCS team in SDSU to the D2 WV Wesleyan. Duquesne missed out on an Ivy or PL school, this year SHU has 2 Pl's and an Ivy and a PFL game. Each year the NEC OOC games are a crapshoot.

[RedFlash]

Big wins today for StFU, Wagner and CCSU.

[KnightoftheRedFlash]

NEC looked pretty good today.

[aceinthehole]

Big wins today for StFU, Wagner and CCSU.

HUGE wins for Saint Francis and Wagner!!!!

Solid win by CCSU, keeps us in the conversation, but it makes the loss to Fordham that much more upsetting. I can live with the blowout losses at 'Cuse and #5 YSU, but we really blew it at home vs. the Rams. I just can't take Central seriously this year unless they beat Penn next week.

Anyway, after watching the SFU-Liberty game it is clear to me that the Red Flash are the team to beat in the NEC.

[RedFlash]

Anyway, after watching the SFU-Liberty game it is clear to me that the Red Flash are the team to beat in the NEC.

Their defense is legit.

[Seahawks Fan]

Nice win for the Seahawks over Lehigh.

[Lehigh'98]

Nice win for the Seahawks over Lehigh.

Congrats on the victory. You guys have a physical team. Wish we could say the same.