Stopping Lincoln is easier said than done. Coventry was the latest D-III team to find out.
LINCOLN — In theory, stopping Lincoln’s Wing-T attack shouldn’t be hard. Just follow the ball.
But that's a lot easier said than done.
The masters of misdirection were at it again on Thursday night. With Tyler Durang pounding it between the tackles, speedy backfield mates who are constant big-play threats to the outside and a quarterback in John Nicoll on keepers, the Lions’ offense roared in a 27-6 win over Coventry.
“You don’t know where the ball is,” said Durang of the problems defenses deal with trying to stop Lincoln. “They don’t know where the ball is and when they know where the ball is, there’s someone there to block them.”
The win keeps Lincoln undefeated atop the Division III-A standings, but that was hardly the only thing to take away from Thursday’s game. Here’s what stood out:
Tyler Durang is that dude
Forget the stigma of Division III. Durang could start for every football team in Rhode Island. Every coach in the state would love to have him in their backfield.
Durang’s one of the few backs who possesses both size — he’s 6-foot-1, 210 pounds — and speed that puts him in an elite class. Add a Derrick Henry-esque stiff arm and a neckroll coming off his shoulder pads and he’s a nightmare to stop.
Coventry was the latest victim. Everyone in the world knows Durang is the go-to back — he had more than half of Lincoln’s carries on Thursday — but it doesn’t matter. He wears defenses down, 3-to-4 yards at a time, before he eventually pops a big one.
“I obviously like going up the middle, but it’s hard when they’re diving at your ankles,” Durang said. “You can’t get that low, so I had to learn to juke a little bit this year. It’s been good for my game, being able to get that blend in there.”
Durang finished with 24 carries for 210 yards on Thursday. His big run was Lincoln’s first score of the game, running off tackle right, breaking a few tackles, then finding a seam to take it home for a 49-yard touchdown.
The key to stopping Durang is getting him at the line of scrimmage. He might still get two or three yards, but it’s better than 10 or 15.
When he hits the second level, the fun starts. Durang dragged Oaker tacklers around like a Dad at a family birthday party. Those 5-10 yard runs keep the chains moving and wear on a defense.
If he gets through the second level, secondaries have no chance. Durang stiff-armed more than one Coventry tackler into middle earth and as the game wore on, the Oakers looked less determined to get in front of the runaway freight train while his blockers just smiled.
“It’s a lot of fun. You’re getting on your block and then you look up the field and he’s down there,” senior lineman Isaac Brown said. “You just have to not get in his way.”
Durang had himself a night, but a lot of that was due to the threat the rest of the offense provided. Jayden Rodrigues is a burner on the edges and Sean Clifford and Ryan Plante provide some pop as well. Nicoll had a bad stat day — hurt by sacks and some fumbles — but wasn’t afraid to keep the ball if that’s what the read was.
“I’m not just the offense,” Durang said. “We can run the ball outside, we can run the ball inside. When they adjust to the outside, we can run the ball back inside. We can really do it all.”
Lions’ defense roars
With all the attention on the offense, the Lincoln defense has quietly put up some solid numbers.
The Lions shut out North Smithfield, held Tolman to a single touchdown and did the same against Coventry. Lincoln held a high-powered Classical team to two scores until the final three minutes, when the outcome had long since been decided.
“Just sticking together in practice and working hard. Good coaching,” Brown said. “It’s all adding up.”
The Oakers want to play physical football, a style the Lincoln defense was more than willing to match. The Lions didn’t give an inch all night and kept Coventry outside of the red zone, minus a 55-yard second-quarter touchdown run by Yandel Sical.
Lincoln’s defense also put a stamp on the victory in the fourth quarter. Sophomore defensive end Jarett O'Hagan beat his blocker and got to Coventry quarterback Cam Jones, stripping the ball as Jones tried to escape the collapsing pocket. Brown was right there to pick it up and race 31 yards for the touchdown.
“I was more worried about the contain. I saw [Jones] rolling, he’s pretty fast,” Brown said. “The ball bounced right to me. I got lucky — I had a clear lane and was able to score.
“I’ve been waiting four years for this. When I got the ball, it was probably the fastest I’ve ever run.”
Coventry getting an education
The Oakers started the season beating Toll Gate and Chariho by a combined 72-14. The last week they’ve come back to reality a bit with a 14-6 loss to Middletown and Thursday’s result.
Losing isn’t fun, but Coventry competed against two of the best teams in Division III and, in both games, saw what happens when you’re not playing crisp.
“They executed and they had the better night than us,” Coventry captain Zane Parenteau said. “We were just shooting ourselves in the foot. We had some fumbles in the first half and we missed some tackles.
“We just have to clean it up and we’ll be fine for the rest of the season.”
Parenteau's analysis is pretty accurate. Bad snaps set the Oakers back on their first two drives. Durang’s second touchdown came on a fourth-down play from the 4 where he powered through the defensive line. Lincoln killed the clock in the second half with runs that kept drives alive and down two scores, Coventry had to abandon its run-first approach, allowing the Lincoln defense to tee off.
The Oakers are young and while the losses hurt, they could prove invaluable for what the team thinks it can do this season. Coventry will try to get back on track next Saturday night when it hosts North Smithfield.
“We still have high hopes for the season,” Parenteau said. “We’re still trying to go all the way and we’ll impress some people in the weeks to come.”
Nothing changes for Lincoln
The win secured a playoff spot for the Lions. They’ve got three games left with a matchup at winless Chariho next week and one-win Toll Gate in the finale.
Middletown is sandwiched between those two and will likely be the game that determines the No. 1 seed, but Lincoln’s brain isn’t there yet.
“You have to take it a week at a time,” Durang said. “It was tough [this week] with the Thursday game, only having three or four days to prepare. But we overcame, adapted and it turned out great.”
The Lions’ offensive approach isn’t going to change. The defense is going to continue to play hard and they hope success will continue to follow. Last year Lincoln started quickly, then struggled a bit as they faced some of D-III’s tougher teams before getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs.
Things feel different this fall and it’s not hard to see it on the field.
“We’ve all been buddies since freshman year. We’ve all hung out,” Durang said. “The chemistry is at an all-time high and everybody is friends with everybody. It’s great.”
LINCOLN 27, COVENTRY 6
Second quarter
L – Tyler Durang 49 run (Ravi Kapadia kick), 6:56
C – Yandel Sical 55 run (run fails)
L – Durang 4 run (Kapadia kick), :09
Third quarter
L – Durang 8 run (Kapadia kick), 3:35
Fourth quarter
L – Isaac Brown 31 fumble recovery (kick fails), 3:13
TEAM STATISTICS
RUSHING – Coventry 26-126, Lincoln 43-271. PASSING – Coventry 7-14-106, Lincoln 1-4-21. TOTAL OFFENSE – Coventry 232, Lincoln 292. FIRST DOWNS – Coventry 11, Lincoln 16. FUMBLES-LOST – Coventry 5-1, Lincoln 1-0. TOTAL TURNOVERS – Coventry 1, Lincoln 0. PENALTIES – Coventry 5-55, Lincoln 3-35. PUNTS-YARDS – Coventry 5-126, Lincoln 1-31. TIME OF POSSESSION – Coventry 21:24, Lincoln 26:24.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Coventry – Yandel Sical 9-84, TD; Nathan Petrarca 4-52; John Stembridge 1-9; Zane Parenteau 3-6; Max Letourneau 2-(-1); Cam Jones 7-(-26), fumble. Lincoln – Tyler Durang 24-210, 3 TDs; Jayden Rodrigues 3-24; Sean Clifford 7-22; Ryan Plante 4-20; John Nicoll 5-(-5).
PASSING: Coventry – Jones 7-14-106. Lincoln – Nicoll 1-4-21.
RECEIVING: Coventry – Stembridge 3-66; Wyatt Cardarelli 3-32; Letourneau 1-(-2). Lincoln – Jacob Harris 1-21.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Coventry Lincoln Division III football Thursday Rueb October 5
