mat1992

Ok guys, long night. Where do I start with this one. Let's take a deep breath and remember we beat Maine on the road so this kind of cancels that out. We can still go 5-3 in the CAA and go 8-4 overall, assuming we beat Bucknell and lose to Florida. So while this was a heatbreaking loss, not really devastating. It would be devastating had we lost to Maine but if we had, I think we win this game. Maybe there was not a sense of urgency and Rob talked about that in the press conference, which I'll get to at some point tonight because it was short. Injuries. We just can't survive more. Losing Shane Simpson in the Maine game was felt in so many ways tonight. I thought D'Ago Hunter did a really nice job on punt returns and kickoff returns (with two holding calls stopping long runs). He reminds me of Derrick Joseph a bit, Not quite as fast but shifty and could be a better receiver. Though one play where Platt accidentally had his knee touch the 15-yard line was rough. But we also missed Shane as a running back. Of the 166 yards rushing, on 30 carries, 110 went to Flacco. So three running backs had just 56 yards rushing. Some of that could be contributed to the offensive line not opening up a lot of holes. Should we have run in the overtime? Sure, but the only way we're getting 3rd and 1 and 4th and 1 is Yeedee. He got some extra yardage on his own. However, you miss the dynamic running of Shane because Covington just kicked our ass all night. He had 194 yards rushing. We couldn't contain him but we'll get to the defense later. Obviously, also missed Shane as a threat out of the backfield. Platt and Yeedee are not Shane though Kobe can do some of those things. Also miss Jabari Allen (lower body injury). He can really work the middle of the field and it seemed as though Flacco almost ignored that part of the field all night. Hopefully, he'll be back after the bye, but not certain. So, we're already playing without Simpson and Allen on offense. In camp, we lost the Temple transfer Damian Bryant, who probably would have started at right tackle. Gilmore could have moved to right guard and you would have about 700 pounds on that side. On defense, we've lost DeBerry and Jamal Gay, our starting safety to knee injuries. Tonight, it doesn't look good for Ron Johnson, who also had shall we say a lower leg injury. It didn't look good and again, I don't want report things on here without knowing all the facts. But no doubt, we got outcoached on both sides of the ball and still had a chance to win at the end with all the injuries and being down by 14 in the fourth quarter. These kids are at least resilient. Yeedee gets injured, comes out of the locker room and is still out on special teams. Kickoff coverage was abysmal though in the second half. You can't get to the point where you have to squib every kickoff. It goes back to the defense. When you give up nearly 600 yards of offense and 295 on the ground, you don't deserve to win. When you can't get off the field on third downs (12 of 19) and fourth downs (2 of 2), you don't deserve to win. So combine those 3rd and 4th downs and Villanova converted 14 of 21. That's absurdly bad and something that was emphasized all offseason. Somebody has to make a play. You just can't rely on turnovers to win games and yes, Heyward nearly won the game himself. That was an incredible pick and we actually had all the momentum. The crowd went nuts, we finally stopped them on third down. Then Flacco moves the team downfield and we settle for a field goal without taking enough time on the clock. Leatherbury just missed one there but again, he's not a big guy. Putting him across the middle like he's Jabari Allen is dangerous. Kid took a major hit tonight and fortunately was ok after being down. No sacks in 43 attempts. Now we did have seven QB hurries and I think we had at least two on that last drive in regulation. But I thought we were going to be more aggressive on D this season and in some ways, we are. We are definitely forcing more turnovers and our safeties have been pretty good, but they aren't that big. Both Brown and Tippett got run over several times. Tons of missed tackles, not just by them by the entire unit. Fourth and 12. You have to get a stop there at the end of regulation. You cannot rush 3 there and play prevent. Maybe on 4th and 25 but not in that situation. You have to end the game. And again, I get it. You can't blitz. They picked it up all night with huge plays on screens. What we lack again is a strong pass rusher either at OLB or up front. Maybe Ron Johnson would have been that guy. Hopefully Jesus Gibbs if he can ever get on the field. Also think we got outmuscled and unlike last week, they were the more physical team. Their offensive line owned us at the line of scrimmage. I'll have to watch it back to see what the hell happened because I could see a lot of replays in the press box. Back to Flacco. Great in the first half. Some incredible runs and throws. Had to dimes to Caleb Smith, who just dropped them. But struggled in the third quarter. Threw for 304 yards, but completed just 21 of 42. Sure, had a few drops but the one pick was awful and had a couple that could have been picked off. He does have a lot of pressure on him with Simpson out. The line wasn't consistently blocking for him either. More later with comments...

I didn't really think of it that way but if we didn't score in the first possession, they would have won anyhow. Everybody's defense is spent at the time of the game and we certainly rotate guys up front all night. We just don't rotate our secondary or linebackers, at least not a lot.

https://247sports.com/college/villanova/Article/Villanova-FB-at-Towson-Preview-How-to-Watch-135835721/

Yes they need to re-evaluate even though Yeedee is an All-American ST player. He might be your best back and is certainly the biggest.

Love Yeedee but I’m a little worried about him going nuts on special teams on the kickoff team. I believe that’s how he got hurt right before the Duquesne game.

https://towsontigers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=11530 https://www.hudl.com/profile/8729183/Justin-Patterson Another walk-on built just like Brian Fobbs and left-handed. Just not as offensive minded.

Pat generally doesn't play walk-ons (maybe against the D3 team) but it will be good to have guys who can practice when others are banged up. Seems like when guys leave the team and then you injuries, you end up down single digits and can't go 5-on-5 late in the season. Now you have 16 players, including the two guys sitting out, who can practice. Now, I have to see the two freshmen, two transfers and two walk-ons when practice starts in late September.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/football/bs-sp-towson-football-shane-simpson-injury-20190917-unpzf6h7bbgnvdw3bvm2uogi7i-story.html

If Shane does return next season, I could see them possibly redshirting Kobe Young, who is a true junior. In that case, that would give him a chance to start the following year. I know they'll bring in at least one freshman back and hopefully a big transfer back to replace Yeedee.

Very nice pickup. Nice to see the women's 2020 roster out. Still waiting on the men's.

As long as he plays a minimum amount of games in those two seasons for a redshirt, he can get six years. DeBerry would be the same thing, though It happened to Ray Harris about 12-14 years ago. Two medical redshirts are rare but it does happen. Oh yeah remember Bryton Barr? https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/2/10/14575398/ncaa-eligibility-rules-medical-redshirt-hardship-waiver

Possibly. If he wants to get to the next level, he’s going to need to prove that knee is stable. This is a difficult but not unexpected loss. You can’t replace him, but you hope to have the other three backs step up, especially Kobe. He’s our next best receiver out of the backfield.

Informative article http://thetowerlight.com/students-in-stands/

http://thetowerlight.com/tigers-make-a-statement-in-win-over-maine/

https://towsontigers.com/news/2019/9/14/thaenrats-four-tds-sends-8-towson-football-to-huge-45-23-victory-at-7-9-maine.aspx This game started out like it was going down to the wire. Towson had a 17-13 lead at the half and had the ball in the second half. After a three-and-out, Maine had a chance to go down and tie it up but they settled for a field goal. The Tigers went on to score 28 straight points to put the game away in the fourth quarter. Tom Flacco completed 20 of 34 for 232 yards with one TD and ran for 68 yards. But the key number was in the turnover column, where had none and last season had two picks. His counterpart, Chris Ferguson, started off strong, but wound up with four interceptions even though he threw for 401 yards. Some of those yards came when the game was out of reach, but Towson's defense was opportunistic and well, balanced. They had four different players pick off balls including Robert Heyward, Keon Paye, Steven Brown and Coby Tippett (his third). On the downside, star running back Shane Simpson was injured on a kickoff return and was carted off. No news was released on his status. The Tigers were also playing without WR Jabari Allen (lower body), S Jamal Gay (undisclosed) and C Brandon Cassels. Though Cole Cheripko played center and may not move out. RG Alex Desire also played well. Towson ran for 172 yards and spread it around three backs. Yeedee Thaenrat was mainly sued in short yardage and had four touchdown runs. Adrian Platt had the most carries (12), while Kobe Young was mainly used as a third-down back.