Week 2 FCS Review

There wasn’t a lot of shakeup in the FCS Top 25 in terms of upsets this week. Only one team, Lehigh, lost to an FCS team outside the Top 25. Every other loss from an FCS Top 25 team was either to an FBS team or another ranked team. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the most important games from the weekend.

Monmouth 46, No. 19 Lehigh 27

The Patriot League is very much up for grabs this season based on how Lehigh and Fordham have fared out of conference. Monmouth went 4-7 last year, but ran the ball all over the Mountain Hawks on Saturday. Lehigh gave up 351 yards and six touchdowns on the ground and fell to 0-2 on the season.

Fordham 38, Central Connecticut State 31

The Rams nearly fell to 0-2 as well. They looked sluggish against Central Connecticut State this week and were unable to move the ball very well on the ground. Adding injury to insult, star running back Chase Edmonds left with a lower leg injury and did not play in the second half. Edmonds was on pace to set the all-time career rushing record for the FCS this season and Fordham would be in real trouble if he missed any significant amount of time.

No. 2 North Dakota State 40, No. 6 Eastern Washington 13

Talk about a statement game. The Bison ran all over the Eagles defense and made Gage Gubrud and Eastern Washington’s vaunted passing attack look bad. Gubrud only competed a third of his passes and threw two interceptions against North Dakota State at home on Saturday. Eastern Washington might actually miss the postseason this week because of a daunting schedule that calls for it to travel to Fordham and Montana over the next two weeks.

No. 9 Richmond 20, No. 25 Colgate 17

Kyle Lauletta is still learning Russ Huesman’s system. He showed why he is considered one of the best quarterbacks in the FCS though with a come-from-behind performance against Colgate. The Spiders were unable to do anything on the ground, averaging just 2.1 yards per carry against the Raiders. However, Lauletta led the team to 13 fourth-quarter points and drove the team down the field for the game-winning field goal with just two minutes left.

No. 12 New Hampshire 22, Georgia Southern 12

This game was never close. New Hampshire went to halftime with a 22-0 lead and just sat on the ball in the second half. Georgia Southern could barely muster 326 total yards of offense on the day and had zero passing game to speak of. Trevor Knight, no not that one, barely had to move this offense in the victory, with the Wildcats finishing the day with under 300 yards of offense.

South Dakota 35, Bowling Green 27

In a tradition as old as time, an FCS team again knocked off a MAC team that bit off more than it could chew. Quarterback Chris Streveler was fantastic for the Coyotes in this one. He threw for over 300 yards and ran for over 100 yards and found the end zone four times against the Falcons. Bowling Green did come back late in the game, but that was just to make the score look more respectable.