No. 18 Villanova upends No. 5 Tigers in OT, 52-45

[mat1992 2,228]

https://towsontigers.com/news/2019/9/21/-5-towson-football-edged-in-overtime-thriller-vs-18-villanova.aspx

[mat1992 2,228]

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...

[TSU86 16]

I feel that we went for the home run far too often on offense. The result, far too often was a punt. Would’ve been nice to have a bit more of a ball control offense.  

[mat1992 2,228]

Rob Ambrose opening statement

"Hats off to Coach Ferrante and their kids. That's a very, very, very good football team. They brought their A game tonight. After last year, we knew that was coming. They were impressive on both sides of the ball and on special teams. Also, I'd like to thank the Towson faithful that filled the stands tonight, made a whole lot of noise that made a difference in the game. They enjoyed their Saturday night. This was how Saturday night football is supposed to be. I hope to see more. That was pretty high entertainment value for your dollar.

As far as the game, I put this me. I didn't call a good game. I didn't get us right. We were a little bit hungover from the Maine win. That was a very big win for the program but we didn't respond fast enough to play a quality opponent like Villanova. That's on me. We will have a better week of practice."

Keys to the loss

"We were bad on third downs. There are gaudy numbers as both sides put up crazy numbers on offense. You have to stop them. But basically in the end, you have to make the most of your opportunities. We had tons of opportunities to win this ballgame. We didn't. We gave it away. We have to get better at that."

Flacco on hangover effect

"Not at all. If anything, it's the opposite. Maybe Caleb Smith dropping the ball? He just gets too amped up. He's a worker. He just has to relax. He came back in the second half and was awesome. There were some plays I wish I had back and other plays I'm sure guys would want back. We didn't get the job done in the overtime and I wish we would have scored a TD late in the game instead of kicking a field goal."

Flacco on next man up and missing Shane and Jabari

"Those guys are talented players. There are more (injuries). We're not thinking about that at all. Just next man up. Lament on the loss. We have to cut the bleeding.

Ambrose on injuries

"Anybody have a voodoo doll and can rub it? We've had six knees (injuries) in four games. If you have a chance, give us a good juju. We can take it right now."

We had enough good football players.

Heyward on third downs

A lot of things. Some times we were out of position. They were sometimes more physical than we were. 

 

 

 

 

 

[mat1992 2,228]

14 minutes ago, TSU86 said:

I feel that we went for the home run far too often on offense. The result, far too often was a punt. Would’ve been nice to have a bit more of a ball control offense.  

Like I said, Tom didn't work the middle of the field like I normally does. That's where they miss Allen and his size and length (6-4, 200). Leatherbury isn't that guy consistently because he's smaller and Daniel Thompson (hip) was probably limited but you still have Street, Smith and Rutkowski. He did take a few too many chances downfield, which is basically like hit or miss. You might get a catch, drop, incompletion or a PI. But that's not a high percentage pass. You want to see Tom throw one to the sidelines to Street or Leatherbury. It was good to say him go back to Smith late in the game.

[mat1992 2,228]

I wonder how we approach this game. Of course, you want to win and at least compete. If you are losing big at the half, take out Shane Leatherbury, and some of the key guys on offense. Not saying that's going to happen, but if we can't stop Villanova, not sure how we're going to stop a big, physical Florida team with speed everywhere.  

[mat1992 2,228]

Now looking back to third and fourth-and-one in overtime. Even if we had it off to Yeedee and he gets the first down. Eventually we score. Do we win it in the second overtime? Probably not because we can't stop them. But I think RA probably overthought a few things or he was trying to protect Yeedee. Box was stacked and he just got injured. Maybe he didn't want to get re-injured or thought he could have their safeties or linebackers bite but they didn't. They were much more disciplined than our defense.

But yes, Rob deserves credit for the 3-0 start and blame for the loss tonight. Forget 3rd and 4th and 1. Should have squib kicked after that long return. Not sure why he didn't take the out of bounds penalty on that kickoff and had them kick it again (no more Shane Simpson to return it). Some of those long throws were on Flacco taking chances but sure, we took too many shots, especially on third down, instead of going for easier pass. Maybe that was on Tom or not having Jabari in the game.

 

 

[mat1992 2,228]

But in my last rambling post of the night, I get it. Losing in front of the biggest crowd in five years sucks. Losing in overtime but coming back, when half the crowd has left, doesn't make it any easier. Many questionable calls by Ambrose and Daniels, hell, Villanova outplayed us most of the night and barely won. Their coaches were cursing after that game running out of the press box. Banging the doors. They wanted that bad. They got a bit lucky because they nearly gave the game away but we whipped their ass last year and they remembered. That Yeedee hit on special teams was played about 100 times last year. They kind of got us back.

I'm not really concerned about the crowd in three weeks. We'll be 4-2 by then on Oct. 12. Hope we're somewhat healthy. It will be a bit cooler but that game is at 4pm. So maybe we'll get 5,000 instead of 9.000. We'll be ranked somewhere in the top 20 (14-16?). My bigger concern is making the playoffs without Shane Simpson and whether we can get very far with a defense that forces our offense to put up 45+ a game to win and now we've lost three key members due to knee injuries on that side of the ball.

[mat1992 2,228]

 

[omniland 31]

I thought Villanova was the best team we faced so far before the game and I didn't see anything that changed my mind.  They are just well balanced and but for a few costly turnovers I think they win this, not easy, but in hand in the 4th quarter.  We just cannot run the ball well enough to compete at the top of the FCS level right now.  Losing Shane is a big deal but I feel we got lucky to have Shane injury free last year.   That is not his legacy.  He is a great player but too small to take a pounding full time, let alone returning kicks, as his career has shown.  Villanova crowed the line of scrimmage all night determined to contain TF.  They took their shot to try and limit his ground yards and not allow him enough time to sustain drives with chunk completions.  TF can improvise as good as anyone, but Villanova took the chance that TF couldn't do it enough to outscore them and they were right tonight. 

 

Our pass rush concerns me.  Smith is a play maker like TF but he also had a lot more time last night than TF.  We don't seem to have that tall, lean edge rusher that you need to regularly disrupt timing.  To convert long third downs consistently you need time.  You can make a lucky play here and there, but to convert long third downs over and over you need time, and Smith had more time than TF.  We also had nothing to threaten Villanova in comparison to having Covington lining up in the backfield.  He is the type of back you want that some of us on here have been saying we need.