Keys to the game

1. Special Teams – While the Seawolves out gained Elon in total yards 354-259, there were several key mistakes in the special teams field. Elon returned a punt 81 yards late in the first half which put them up by 16 and game them 23 total points. After the initial hit on Sullivan, the rest of the coverage team got caught inside and he was able to bounce it outside. Elon played a field position game in the first half, with quick kicks, pinning SB in their own end with 4 punts in their own 20. Stony Brook didn’t start a drive outside their own 40 until 6 minutes to go in the 2nd half, and started only one drive outside the 30 once in that span.

2. Penalties – 6 for 85 yards for the Seawolves. Starting in poor field position for most of the game, losing yards does not help. With 12 to go in the game, a good punt return was negated by a holding call, it resulted in a loss of 30+ yards. Elon had 4 penalties.

3. Weather? – You hate to blame the weather, but it may actually account for a portion of this game. With the amount of rain that came down in a short time, it was obvious that the Seawolves had a difficult time. Being behind, they had to go to the air in the second half, when the weather was at its worst. The rushing game wasn’t affected, but the passing game was. Several miscues on passes themselves as well as dropped balls could probably be somewhat blamed on the slickness of the ball. Sure, a dry ball came in on every play, once it was put on the ground, however, forget it.

Stony Brook travels to Maine next Saturday for the Black Bears home opener.

Maine is 1-1, with a loss in week 1 to Division 1 Iowa, but a win this past weekend against Monmouth. The Black Bears scored with three minutes left in the game to take the lead and eventually win the game 21-17.