Football falls to Albany 24-17

[mat1992 2,235]

https://towsontigers.com/news/2023/10/7/towson-football-falls-late-to-ualbany.aspx

Another difficult loss, but I thought this was to a team that was just flat-out better. Did we have many chances to win this game? Of course. A poor call at the end from Sheppard after he had a great game last week. Devin Matthews was just not running well between the tackles. He had 25 carries for 48 yards, which averages 1.9 yards per carry. The O-line did a solid job pass protecting because Kent did not get sacked. But this team is not built to run the ball as well as they did last week without a fullback or a great blocking tight end. 

Nine penalties and Makye Smith gets thrown out of the game? Dion Crews-Harris with two 15-yard penalties? Xavier Terry getting benched in Albany's final scoring drive because he just shoves an Albany player down near the Towson sidelines. Can't blame DK James for these penalties because he has an injured toe. The injury to Hunter looked bad, but again, they are giving the ball to a 5-4, 175-pound running back up the gut. Do we have a big back that can run? With Bangda gone to Charlotte, the only big guy we have is Sabias Folley, who never plays. But with Hunter out, then Tyrell Greene gets injured. Devin Matthews was the only back to carry the ball after Hunter's injury, until Christian Watkins had a carry to get the first down. Another killer injury came as Robert Javier got nicked up and also wasn't in that final drive. Hopefully, he'll be back after the bye. Not sure about Hunter.

Only at Towson can you go through the final few minutes of a game with the fire alarm on and that was a first. 

More later after the quotes.

[mat1992 2,235]

Also, wanted to add that despite Kent's turnovers (a bad fumble and a late pick), I think he's made some strides as a passer. That game should have been tied with D. Thompson holds on to that ball in the end zone and unfortunately, also had a drop a few plays before that. In the first half, Kent struggled. But in the second half, he found Runyan and Londono as they were moving the chains. Don't know why Sheppard felt like he had to give the ball to Matthews 25 times when they were not opening up a lot of holes up front. They need to throw it, when they can't run it. But it's tough to run the ball, when you can't throw it, because teams will stack the box. Wasn't a good night for Kent, but I think he's made strides since the last home game. He was 19 of 31 for 217 yards.

[TSU88 1,073]

Either Albany is vastly better than UNH, or last week’s offensive outburst was fool’s gold. I suspect a combo of the two. 

As I see it, this one’s on our coaching staff. Despite the inherent limitations of our QB, the only signs of life we showed on offense were through the air. Despite that, the offensive coordinator was obsessed with running the ball up the gut, which generally yielded oh, a yard or two, punctuated by the horrible play call on the goal line, to seal the L. This infuriating insistence to keep doing what wasn’t working also resulted in the injury to Hunter. Memo to O-coordinator: running your 5’4 RB up the gut on the goal line not only is unlikely to succeed, but it just might result in him getting injured. 

Hand-in-hand with the dreadful play calling is the ridiculous amount of personal fouls we’re committing on a weekly basis. Where’s the discipline? Do the players not fear any consequences from the coaching staff? Whoever the spitter is, he should be booted off the team. He’s not the only player who’s gone off the rails, but he’s the most egregious.

We’re never going to build the fanbase with this unimaginative, undisciplined brand of football that we play at home. Oh well, at least we’ll always have Durham 

 

 

[mat1992 2,235]

The lack of discipline is a big problem. That's another thread. Makye Smith was the one who got thrown out for spitting. He's been around for years since the Stony Brook days. I just don't get it. I think they respected their defensive line so much that they thought something like that would get blown up in the backfield and it did on the one to Matthews sometime in the fourth quarter.

My big problem is that we had 42 rushes and 31 passes and averaged 2.4ypc. At some point, you need to give up on the run and just sling it. Only run to surprise them. 

 

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

Occasional tracked this once since it wasn’t on tv and I tried to not be a jinx haha. Albany is pretty good they are 4-0 in the fcs, with two close fbs losses. They have a good qb (from Maryland, why couldn’t we get him?!), and looks to be lots of good young players.  

We just stink.  Our qb has to be the worst in the league. Credit to him last week for playing well but he’s been bad way more than he’s been effective. Seems like we have a few young receivers and a tight end who are playing well. Well this was the east part of our schedule. Maybe luck into a win and finish 3-8. WM and Delaware games will get ugly. Might not cross midfield against the tribe D. 

We have been god awful on defense on third downs all year. Even worse than Ambrose leaving tight ends open in the middle of the field every third down, awful. Teams have to be ~65% for the season. Commit an egregious number of penalties. It’s embarrassing, and costing games. Spitting?! WTH where is the discipline. It’s one thing to be tough and rogue when you win, it’s another when you get you ass locked every week.  

4,000 and change for the game, for homecoming?! YIKES!  That’s embarrassing and makes you think ..

[mat1992 2,235]

Opening statement from Pete

"Credit to Albany for playing a complete game. We were able to create some turnovers. We were able to get some sacks and do some things. Credit us to continuing to fight. Thought we had something moving in the third quarter. Got the lead and 2-point conversion. Our two turnovers were extremely costly. That fumble going in, felt like we could have gotten points there (alarm goes off). The interception down there at the 8-yard line. That gave them 3 points right there. Sickening feeling to be that close and be that far away. We had three personal fouls that were undisciplined acts that have been extremely frustrating to watch. It's something that we talk about a lot. Still, have guys do that. Extremely irritating because it hurts the whole team."

On last play

"I felt good. We talked about where to go and what to do. Their D-line is probably the best in the conference. This is the first team that shut us down running-wise. We felt like we could get great push. That was our best option there. Great drive to get us down there. We just had two guys get beat and get tackled. Two of their D-linemen had a couple of jet moves and swam our guys. Got in the backfield. We thought that if we could get push, we could get that TD."

On Hunter

"Is at the hospital. We're waiting to see what is going to take place. He's our most dynamic player. In the second half, that was very difficult. We'll find out more once we get the results back."

On second half adjustments

"We're in there and close. Just not good enough. We had a couple of third-down opportunities on those field goal drives (in first half) that could have easily turned into first downs to give us an opportunity to get a TD. In the second half, I thought we needed to close up some gaps there and get a better push on the qb. Proud that our guys got four sacks. That was huge. We're close, but not close enough."

On Kent

"Their D-Line. I'm pleased that our O-line did not give up a sack to the leading sack team in the country. They came in with 24 sacks in five games which is a ton. We've had a true freshman KJ Brooks on one side and sophomore Dan Volpe on other side handling those guys really well. Their coverage was really good. They mixed it up a lot. We'll take a lot at it an be frustrated (Kent will). He is going to take a look at and be frustrated by a couple because he felt like he probably had a couple that he let go. They did a guys of disguising their coverage and did a good job of mugging our guys up a little bit. Saw a couple of really good catches but we need more than that."

 

On emotions

"Completely unacceptable. We talk about winning the field position battle. We did a good job early and then got three personal fouls that changed the complexion and field position of the game. We've been talking about it. Our guys need to be more disciplined."

On bye week

"Find out where D'Ago is at. We need to clean up the penalties and put ourself in a much better position."

On TE Carter Runyon

"He's been our leading target and receiver the last three weeks. Hardest working guys. Gets better every day. That 2-point conversion is about as good as you're going to see from a 6-6, 240-pound tight end. Fired about what he's doing."

On DK James

"We are week-to-week with him. He has a toe that needs to get better. Right now, he's out."

[mat1992 2,235]

Congrats to OC Jared Ambrose, who got his revenge.

[Blounge 521]

Anyone missing the Ambrose brothers right about now?

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

43 minutes ago, Blounge said:

Anyone missing the Ambrose brothers right about now?

NO!

[TSU88 1,073]

6 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

NO!

X2. More than 1 can can be true at the same time-(1) it was time for a change; (2) the jury is still out on new guy. In fact, the jury hasn’t even begun its deliberations yet. Despite my doubts, I’m fairness this season is a free pass for him. The real test is going to be what he does in the offseason in terms of recruiting and the portal