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2024 Villanova vs Maine

CAA Football Week 8 Takeaways: Dominant Maine Throws League Into Chaos

CAA Football Week 8 Takeaways: Dominant Maine Throws League Into Chaos

Maine's impressive performance against Villanova turned the CAA championship race on its head as the 2024 season moves into the critical late stretch.

Oct 21, 2024 by Kyle Kensing
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Eight weeks into the 2024 football season with just five remaining, the Coastal Athletic Association is down to two teams with undefeated records in conference play. 

Maine's 35-7 rout of No. 5-ranked Villanova, the most surprising result of Week 8, coupled with Rhode Island and Richmond scoring wins over New Hampshire and Delaware, leaves the Rams and Spiders alone atop the CAA with just a month to go in the regular season. 

Defense ruled for many of Week 8's big winners in the CAA — though Saturday's individual standouts were on offense and special teams between Stony Brook's Tyler Knoop and Elon's Chandler Brayboy.

Black Hole Defense Returns 

Maine boasted one of the best defenses in college football a few years ago, earning the nickname the Black Hole. Saturday's performance against Villanova was every bit as any outing from the height of the Black Hole Defense days, as the Black Bears held the Wildcats to just 214 yards of total offense and 35 on the ground. 

Villanova came into Alfond Stadium averaging 205.3 rushing yards per game, good for 18th in the nation. Wildcats ball-carriers were ripping off 5.5 yards per carry, including seven per touch from freshman sensation David Avit. Avit managed just a little more than half that at 3.9 ypc on his 10 rushes on Saturday. 

An aggressive rush that resulted in nine tackles for loss powered Maine's best defensive showing of the season. Izaiah Henderson accounted for two of them, both on sacks. Xavier Holmes made things difficult on Villanova quarterback Connor Watkins all game long, making 1.5 sacks and producing five hurries. 

With the defense shutting Villanova down on one end, Carter Peevy capitalized on the other. He went 16-of-18 passing with three touchdowns to three different receivers: Joe Gillette on a 55-yarder that got the scoring started, Montigo Moss and Molayo Irefin.

Add a special-teams touchdown from Devin Vaught, who returned John Costanza's block of an Ethan Gettman field-goal attempt 70 yards for a score, and Maine's Week 8 was as thorough and as impressive of a performance as any CAA team has put forth in 2024. 

So a fair question now, with the Black Bears moving to 4-3 on the strength of beating the fifth-ranked team in the country so soundly...why not Maine for the Playoffs? The stakes for their New England-area showdown in Week 9 at Rhode Island suddenly just raised exponentially. 

Rhode Island, Richmond Rounding into Form 

Villanova's loss leaves Rhode Island not only as 1-of-2 teams still undefeated against the CAA, but also the Coastal's lone squad unbeaten against FCS competition. The Rams came into Week 8 and a visit to a solid New Hampshire side having won a series of tight contests: 28-21 at Long Island; 46-44 in double-overtime at Hampton; 31-21 thanks to a fourth-quarter comeback vs. Governor's Cup rival Brown. 

Saturday's 26-9 win wasn't exactly a romp, but it was the most lopsided victory on Rhode Island's 6-1 ledger; the first against a nationally ranked opponent; and the most complete game the Rams logged to date. 

Actually, make that the most complete half-game. 

Rhode Island didn't break through in a defensive stalemate until the third quarter — and it was fitting that, in a 5-3 game, the first touchdown didn't come from either offense. Freddie Camp's fumble-recovery score on a muffed punt seemed to revitalize the Rhody offense, though, as Devin Farrell and Malik Grant combined to power the Rams 85 yards after forcing a UNH punt to score the game's first offensive touchdown. 

Farrell's touchdown pass to Marquis Buchanan was a beauty. 

Saturday was also another great game for linebacker A.J. Pena, who continues to build an All-American resume. He made two sacks, broke up a pass and had a quarterback hurry. Pena's now up to seven sacks for the campaign, within striking distance of CAA and FCS leader Jeremian Grant at Richmond. 

Grant added another in Week 8, giving him 8.5 in 2024 — and, more importantly, helping the Spiders to a huge win. 

If Saturday marked the last meeting between longtime foes Richmond and Delaware for the foreseeable future, then the Spiders put quite a punctuation mark on the series. They sent the Fighting Blue Hens to UD's first defeat of 2024, and did so emphatically in a 28-9 decision that showed the full strength of the Richmond defense. 

UR came into Week 8 having allowed 17 points in each of its first two CAA games, but the Spiders were twice as good against a Delaware offense that was putting up more points than all but two teams in FCS. The Blue Hens averaged 42.3 points per game through their first six, and still moved the ball with some effectiveness on Saturday. 

However, Richmond's complete dominance on fourth downs — holding Delaware 0-for on four attempted fourth-down conversions — played a critical role in the Spiders win. Here was the sequence: 

Zach Marker scrambled for the first down on a fourth-and-3 into the red zone, but Jamar Hodges forced a fumble that Ric Hayes collected for the first of two Richmond takeaways on the day. 

Trailing by three scores coming out of halftime, Ryan Carty was aggressive on Delaware's first possession of the second half and went for it on fourth-and-7 near midfield. 

Tyler Knoop & Chandler Brayboy Light It Up in Week 8 

Stony Brook's surprising season added another memorable moment in Week 8, courtesy of quarterback Tyler Knoop. 

Knoop's six touchdown passes in the Seawolves' 52-24 rout at Towson broke Brock Jackolski's program record of five thrown against Gardner-Webb in November 2011. Knoop's 387 yards are the fifth-most in one game ever at Stony Brook, and the most since Lyle Negron's 395 against James Madison in 2013. 

Jasiah Williams, who was on the receiving end of three of Knoop's touchdown strikes, flirted with another program record. The Stony Brook high for touchdown receptions in a game is four. 

The offensive outburst stands out in a breakout campaign for Stony Brook under first-year coach Billy Cosh. The Seawolves thrived in the season's first half with excellent defense — and the defense wasn't slacking at Towson. Rushawn Lawrence forced a pair of fumbles and made two sacks on Saturday, Rudy Silvera picked off his third interception of 2024, and Stony Brook held Towson to 3-of-10 on third downs. 

But if the offense that showed up in Week 8 remains for the final month, look for this Cinderella story to roll right along into the Playoffs. At 5-2, the Seawolves are nicely positioned for the postseason. 

We wrap the Week 8 CAA Takeaways with one more bit of history made on Saturday — or perhaps more accurately, two more bits of history. 

Elon's star wide receiver Chandler Brayboy became the first player in Phoenix history to run back a pair of kickoff returns for touchdowns to highlight a 30-14 victory at UAlbany. 

If that wasn't enough, Brayboy also eclipsed 2,000 yards receiving for his career during Saturday's win. He's just the sixth player in Phoenix history to reach that milestone. 

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