As is often the case, the Colonial Athletic Association has one of the most impactful FCS games of the week this Saturday.
The Towson Tigers will face their biggest test of the regular season with a trip to defensive stalwart Delaware on Saturday. The game should be a classic battle of offense versus defense; it'll also go a long way to settling (or further complicating) the race for the CAA championship.
After Maine's loss to William & Mary last week, Towson is now the only remaining undefeated team in conference play with four weekends remaining in the regular season. The Tigers have accumulated an unblemished 4-0 conference record against Villanova, Stony Brook, Albany and the aforementioned Tribe.
.@Towson_FB sits atop the #CAAFB standings at 4-0 followed for @StonyBrookFB at 4-1 and four teams at 3-1 pic.twitter.com/Gc3eMqF93D
— CAA Football (@CAAFootball) October 22, 2018
Saturday's game in Newark is the start of a challenging four-week stretch where Towson will play four of the conference's top teams, including a home finale against the defending conference champion Dukes of JMU.
That's all for later. For now, Towson should focus on overcoming a hefty defensive challenge from the Hens. Delaware's defense allows only 18.1 points per game — the 10th best mark in FCS Football — and should present one of the biggest challenges to date for the upstart Tigers.
Conversely, Delaware's defense will be challenged by a shockingly explosive Towson offense that few fans or analysts could have predicted prior to the season. The Tigers are the only conference team to own top-10 national marks in both scoring offense (40.3 ppg) and total offense (486.3 ypg).
Quarterback Tom Flacco, who transferred down to Maryland after two years at Western Michigan and an ineligible year at Rutgers, is averaging 282 yards through the air and another 74 on the ground, making him one of the most dangerously dynamic weapons in all of FCS Football.
The CAA won't quite be decided this weekend, but after this game, we'll have a pretty good idea of both teams' paths going forward. If Towson wins, it'll be on a collision course with JMU for a de facto CAA title game.
If Delaware scores the upset, every team in the CAA will have one loss, and more than half of the league (Towson, Stony Brook, Delaware, Elon, JMU, Maine, Rhode Island/William & Mary) could be within a game of first place, just three weeks from the end of the season.
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For more on Towson, Delaware and CAA Football, check out the HERO Sports FCS Podcast. I specifically mention CAA Football and the Delaware/Towson matchup at 51:09.
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