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mat1992

Football can't withstand rough third quarter as they fall at San Diego State 48-21

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https://towsontigers.com/news/2021/9/25/towson-football-strong-early-start-does-not-hold-at-fbs-opponent-san-diego-state.aspx

 

The good:

*Daniel Thompson gets his first TD pass.

*D'Ago Hunter nearly broke a long kickoff return for a TD.

*Great drive at the end of the first half to cut the lead to 21-14

The bad and Ugly

*Blocked punt on first drive of the second half. SD State scores TD and it's 28-14.

*Eight penalties for 56 yards.

*One fumble by Chris Ferguson after a fine snap in the first half. Falls on the ball, but doesn't corral it. Aztecs jump off to a 21-7 lead.

*Poor tackling throughout. Every time (nearly) SD State had a 2nd and 3rd and long, they ran a draw and we weren't ready for it. Linebackers have to tackle better downfield. Also need to do a better job of getting off blockers.

Bottom line is that they played much than they did against ND State, but still got blown out due to the two turnovers and blocked punt. San Diego State is no joke. They are a very good Mountain West team and are well-coached by Brady Hoke. Not a great passing game and that could be their downfall. They do have an elaborate running game and a little RPO, though they didn't need to run that very often. They lose their best back in Bell and they didn't miss a beat. Defensively, they also took away Howard, so expect every time to attempt that. Ferguson showed accuracy at times, but was not consistent.

I was on the Zoom call, so I have some comments from RA 

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Opening comment

"Great football team. Tough football team. A little bit overmatched. I knew we were going to have to do a few things different."

On third quarter

"Turnover and blocked punt. Can't give good teams extra possessions. When you have a kick blocked, the chances of winning that games goes down dramatically."

On what to take away

"It's about us. Even in against great competition, we can be very successful. After the roughness of last week, to fly out to the West Coast and be down just a score at the half. OUr kids are going to fight. There's confidence to be gained against a ranked team. A bowl team."

On FBS matchups being helpful

"A little bit. It's a challenge. YOu never know how tough, how hard when you are forced to play against a team that is supposedly bigger and faster team. Keep it about us and take care of the little things."

We try hard to schedule at least one game relatively close to where guys come from (Jeff Miller, SJ Brown).

On offensive line

"At one point, we were down to third-string center. Cole came back to help us out. We lost Brendan (Cassells) and Alex (Desire). 

On Ferguson

"Improved, but up and down. Turned the ball over twice. Can't do that. Stayed in the pocket. Got himself into a rhythm. THat's a lot to build on.

It's a confidence-builder that we can play"

 

On bye week

"Yeah, it's a good time. Has there every been a bigger grind in the month of September. Maybe LSU and Kent State (in 2012)."

 

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Also, can't get too specific on these injuries. Hopefully, the O-line situation will be better at right guard in two weeks. I assume Alex Desire will get the start. Brendan Cassells was injured tonight. It didn't look good. Jean Germain did not play due to injury. Nor did Darian Bryant. Hopefully, they will have Germain and Desire in two weeks. Cheripko was also injured but went back in the game. That's why Desire had a bad snap in our own territory. He's not used to playing center. But they will need a backup center in two weeks.

As for RB, I believe we had just three in Howard, Matthews and Hunter. D'Ago was playing a lot because Curtis Murray, Kobe Young and Sabias Folley were all injured. I would think Folley will be back in two weeks. Not sure about the other two. We certainly could use him to take some pressure off of Howard.

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I was pleasantly surprised to see that the game was on Stadium, which I magically get through YouTube TV so I tuned in once I saw we were up 7-0.  Big mistake.  What I saw was a lot of horizontal passes that gained a yard and inaccuracies when throwing downfield and a defense that, while quick, couldn't figure out how to tackle and gave up extra yards.  So at 21-7, I turned it off to go back to concentrating on the golf.  Look again and see 21-14 at halftime and I knew we were getting the ball first.  OK, I'll tune in again.  Blocked punt for a TD and I'm out.  Why is it that our special teams often finds a way to bungle something?  Though, any coach worth their salt would take one look at our punt formation (at least the one that was set up on the block) and have it figured out by the 3rd time we punted.  I'm not sure why some teams have to put these spread formations for punt safe when it all it takes is one fast guy on the other side to exploit the hole and blow it up.  They put up more points than I expected they would (Vegas expected score based on spread and o/u was 32-9) on a SDSU team that is known for the defense and running game.  But what I saw out there today doesn't give me much encouragement that the rest of the conference season is going to be anything more than mediocre.

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I thought they did better than expected. Some of the points came as a results of the punt block for a TD and the short field they had after the fumble in the first half. No doubt, the D was getting worn out. While it may not mean we're ready to pounce on the CAA, there were some positives and we'll find out in two weeks whether they are ready to start winning games. If not, it's going to be a very long season.

Seriously, we all knew that playing North Dakota State and San Diego State in back-to-back games was going to be rough. But it's still about QB1. Can't turn it over.

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Well, after the UNH game, I thought to myself that the aggregate score of the NDSU & SDSU games would be in the neighborhood of opposition 100-TU 0. So, to that extent, an aggregate score of 83-28 isn’t quite so bad.

There were a few positives yesterday; Caleb Smith & Daniel Thompson both caught TD’s. Actually, I think it was Thompson in the 2nd half who had a glorious chance at a long TD, but didn’t haul it in (I was thinking maybe he lost the ball in the sun).  Howard had a highlight reel TD in the 1st Q. We outplayed them in the 1st Q, and had more yards then them in the 1st half.

On paper, we look well positioned, down only 7 at the half, and getting the ball to start the 3rd Q, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who had a sinking feeling we would somehow figure out a way to squander things, and, sure enough, a 3 & out to start the 3rd Q, followed by the scoop and score on the blocked punt, and the game was effectively over.

I’m still not a Ferguson fan. He did throw 3 TD’s yesterday, but he also was off the mark on many throws, and offers no escapability from pressure. As for the D, poor tackling, almost nonexistent pass rush, and susceptibility to being gashed for long runs is a recipe for mediocrity, at best.

With 7 games left, I’m hard pressed to see us winning 3, at the most. We all know that we have to win the next 6 in a row to even be in playoff contention. Does any OBJECTIVE person see that as a remotely realistic possibility?

I guess it could have been worse-UNH lost a nail biter to Pitt yesterday, 77-7, which represented the most points Pitt has scored in 95 years. Of course, on the other hand, Richmond, who we play later this season, only lost to VA Tech by 11. 

Edited by TSU88

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