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mat1992

Football Edges Morgan State 29-21

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https://towsontigers.com/news/2022/9/10/towson-football-rallies-to-defeat-morgan-state-in-the-battle-for-greater-baltimore.aspx

Strange game but this team is awfully strange right now. They committed eight penalties for 75 yards but really nine for 90 thanks to RA's penalty. 

The good? Piggy was outstanding tonight with 157 yards passing and three TDs. He also had 124 rushing yards and his running in the second half allowed the Tigers to hold on. Keegan Vaughan who had a rough first game connected on three field goals for a career-high. Darian Street with two catches and two TDs. Three key blitzes in the second half. One was on a Mason blitz up the middle for his first career sack and another on a Ryan Kearney blitz on 4th and 10 that forced QB Carson Baker to throw an incomplete pass. Woods also had a strong game with a pick and a sack.

The bad? Kickoffs. Two went out of bounds. Josh Cupitt has to do better than that. That's his job along with holding on placekicks. D'Ago Hunter's fumble in the first quarter. It was his first action of the season and first touch. I'm not seeing him as the top running back. He averaged 3.1ypc while Devin Matthews averaged 4.9. Hopefully Jo Bangda will finally make his debut next week (not injury-related or behavior-related). Tackling has got to improve. Too many missed tackles, especially from the defensive linemen.

The ugly? A handful or more of dropped passes including a beautiful 50-yard pass from Piggy to Street in the first quarter that went right off of his hands. He probably would have scored. Penalties galore including Jamal Gay's defensive holding call that cost the Tigers the ball because Bryce Lauer had a rare sack.

Conclusion: Towson didn't a lot differently in the second half. They blitzed a little more and need more blitzing period. They just aren't getting enough pass rush from the outside linebackers or Jesus Gibbs, who finally got a sack tonight. This is not a really good football team right now if you struggle to beat Bucknell and Morgan State.

The positive that came out of tonight is that Piggy can will this team to a win when they have an offensive line that just seems like it was put together in the last second and it was. His running was spectacular. His passing was good not great. He threw behind a few guys, but if you give him time, which he didn't always have, he can throw from the pocket. Our receivers need to do a better job of getting open and catching the ball. Yet, Perkins, Street, and James are going to be a decent trio and Sam Reynolds had 18 yards rushing on three carries and three catches. We're trying to get the fastest guy on the field the ball and that's a wise move.

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Press conference 

RA opening statement

Nice to be 2-0, Nice to be a Towson Tigers. NIce to have about 10,000 people in the stands for your home opener. I am proud of the resilience of this football team. Don't get rattled. We get mad and upset. Find a way to win a ballgame. My hats off to Morgan State and their staff. That's not the same Morgan team I've shaken hands with. They deserve a lot of credit. 

On second half adjustements

"There were none. We just stopped getting penalties in the red zone and stopped dropping balls. Roman (Warheit) tweaked his ankle and Julian Singh took over and didn't miss a beat. We dropped more balls in one game than we dropped in the last three weeks. If we catch half of the ones we dropped, there were probably at least 14 more points on the board. We need to stop having penalties on fourth down in the first quarter or I'm going to lose my mind."

Pigrome on beginning and second half

"Us being disciplined and paying attention to small details. Everyone playing together. We got the ball moving. In the red zone, we had a flag. Same thing with last week. We're just hurting ourselves. Once we get those corrected, we'll be fine.

It's a team effort. Not (carrying the ball). It's about the line. I have belief in all of them. Dropped pass or catch, I believe in these guys. I've seen guys make plays all through camp.

Mason Woods on getting his first sack

It felt good but I wouldn't have gotten it if not for the D-line getting a push. 

Second half, it was a different drive. Offense started putting points on the board. It was our job to get the ball back to the offense. 

RA on second half

"They ran 10 plays in the second half. We had the ball most of the half. The entire time. We screwed up less on offense. It's not about them. It's about us. It's our execution that will determine our success. We are a very successful offense that controls the game when we're not dropping balls, committing penalties in the red zone. Working together as a team versus an opponent with variable parts is very challenging. We're not allowed to hit and tackle and you can see a lot of missed tackles.

 

On offensive line

Every kid that played in this game progressed. Every unit is a work-in progress. If we're going to take 55 new guys in a year and in a span of a month and two weeks to make them a finely tuned team. We're worried about us. We're going to have to grow it and get better each week and each month. 

The kid from Elon ran for 120 yards against us and couldn't run a 5.4 40. It's frustrating that the guy who has the ball in his hand is a dynamic person with the ball. He's really talented or we're really good recruiters (laughs). He's like Tom (Flacco). We don't know him that well. We're trying to do five years of work in five weeks. He's learning how to slide.

 

On defense

"We need to stop having penalties, we need to tackle better and get to the ball better.  We're doing it better than we did a year ago, but it's not good enough. We need to get better. That guy, No. 2. (Baker). He's ridiculous. He's going to be a special player on that team and in that league. Georgia Southern couldn't tackle him.

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BTW, what we saw in the second half offensively is what I had hoped for when we first got Piggy as a transfer. A dual-threat QB that could at least make some games exciting and competitive. Offensive line has a ways to go and getting Bangda back will help, but I think we saw what an offense can do without a bunch of penalties and dropped passes and an athletic QB. I'm confused at the personnel on D and why we're not using certain transfers like LB M.J. Cunningham, S Juwan Burgess, DB Dorian Davis and CB Sean Tucker. Now add the big DT from Colorado Janaz Jordan (6-4, 325). I don't know if there are injuries because CB Shafeek Smith has looked like a r-freshman. He's given up two big plays in the first two games. I think Robert Javier has been the better player, but again, if you don't get a consistent pass rush, none of this matters. And it probably won't next week when an angry West Virginia team does their thing.

 

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Recorded the game and just watched this morning.  
Defense looks as poor as ever. Thankfully Morgan can’t pass. 
Way too many penalties. Coach included. (Same as always)

offense wr got some separation and qb could run really fast. 
announced Crowd number was good to see too 

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Well, a W is a W is a W. Pigrome was the key-he’s not a great passer, but in fairness to him, he lost a huge chunk of yards (and maybe a TD) on that egregious dropped pass on the 1st drive. More importantly, Pigrome has escapability and can run on designed plays. Still flummoxed why D’Ago Hunter is getting touches at RB, and why we seem to chronically (not just this season) be short of RB’s.

Street redeemed himself from that awful drop in the 1st Q by hauling in 2 TD’s and Perkins impressed again. I suppose you could argue that we win this game something like 37-14, but for the defensive holding penalty against us on their 1st drive, which negated a turnover, and Street’s drop on the ensuing drive. 

Not impressed with the D. We finally got a sack last night, but, after 2 games, the pass rush looks lackluster (as usual). Last year we shut Morgan out, though admittedly their QB this year looks like Josh Allen compared to the guy they ran out there last year.  Too many undisciplined penalties, most notably on the head coach, which is completely unacceptable. I also am perplexed how it is these D transfers we bring in from big time FBS programs (Oregon, Colorado …) either never see the field, or aren’t very good when they do. 

It’ll be interesting to see what attendance will be like at the remaining home games. Not only did Morgan fill their visitors section, but there were some Morgan fans on the Towson side as well.

After 2 games worth of observations, I see us at 4-7, give or take a game one way or the other, at the end of the season 



 

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There’s no excuse for the lack of pass rush in the first two games. Because of the way teams practice now, it’s understandable that tackling is going to be sloppy early in the season. But we couldn’t even get to the Bucknell QB. Baker played well for Morgan State and he had five starts at San Diego State. He is legit and is 6-3 205 with a good arm and great mobility. He looked terrible early on as a.passer and then we let him get into a rhythm though he was only 10 of 24.

I think we’ll see Cunningham and Janaz Jordan next week or in the opener of the CAA. I’m flabbergasted that the others haven’t played aside from special teams.

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Not only was the pass rush bad, but we allowed 150 yards on the ground and allowed 4.8 yards per carry. If you hold them to under 4.0 yards per carry, they cruise to the win. 

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Also thought the Bears' coaching staff helped out after the Hunter fumble in the first quarter. They are gashing us with the run and Here's what they did:

 

Morgan St. at 11:00
1st and 10 at TOW24 Morgan St. drive start at 11:00.
1st and 10 at TOW24 No Huddle-Shotgun Baker,Carson pass incomplete short middle to Hamler,Daymond.
2nd and 10 at TOW24 No Huddle-Shotgun Baker,Carson pass incomplete short right to Crawley,Andre QB hurried by Gibbs,Jesus.
3rd and 10 at TOW24 No Huddle-Shotgun Baker,Carson pass incomplete short right to Wilkins,Tyler broken up by Javier,Robert.
4th and 10 at TOW24 No Huddle-Shotgun Baker,Carson rush left for 5 yards gain to the TOW19 (Kearney,Ryan; Gay,Jamal), out of bounds.

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We aren’t really short of running backs due to injuries. They just went with Hunter and Matthews. No Curtis Murray or Folley. Bangda will be the top back when he gets in there and I’d just use him sparingly next week.

To me, Hunter should play receiver and return man and be used the way they used Reynolds yesterday. He’s just too small to get over 10 carries a game

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