Football falls to No. 5 Villanova 14-13

[Tiger Paw]

I was there with the Towson faithful. Gave words of encouragement and condolences to Vaughan family who were about ten rows in front of me . I am proud of this team for that performance. They hung in there till the very end. Not happy but proud none the less 

[mat1992]

1 minute ago, Blounge said:

Ugh North Dakota State could be ugly. Is that one televised or flofootball?

It's not a Flo game. It's on ESPN+. 

[mat1992]

6 minutes ago, Tiger Paw said:

I was there with the Towson faithful. Gave words of encouragement and condolences to Vaughan family who were about ten rows in front of me . I am proud of this team for that performance. They hung in there till the very end. Not happy but proud none the less 

Rough for them I'm sure. 

[AtlantaTiger]

I’m not going to pin this one on the coaches. 
 

Shinnick didn’t drop WIDE open passes in the end zone that would have won the game.

The OC didn’t flinch on the goal line in a critical moment to kill a potential TD drive.

The players need to man up in critical moments. That game was ours to win and in crucial situations the players came up small. 

[mat1992]

A couple more observations:

1)Kickoff returns. I just don't see it with Doss at around 175 pounds returning kicks. He's fast but he doesn't break tackles. Put Watkins, or another RB or WR back there that is stronger. 

2)When you consistently struggle to score touchdowns inside the 10 and inside the 5, it's on the OC. Even if Jaelin Montgomery doesn't move on 4th and goal at the 1, do we score there? Chances are no. The only time we've scored in that situation was last week against Morgan State when Watkins had an 8-yard run. 

3)Last drive and we're not in 2-minute mode? Brown is looking at the sidelines for calls? WTF was going on there. Fortunately, it didn't cost them or could they have gotten a bit closer?

4)Why did Pete Shinnick not play his backup QB last year (Sean Brown)? He didn't even play him in blowouts like the Villanova game (33-10), when Kent was awful. He didn't put Brown in when Maryland was crushing us in the opener. He played him in the last game against URI when Kent got hurt late in the game. Had he played some last season, would have been a little sharper today, especially when feeling the pressure? He had thrown just 10 passes in his career coming into this game.

5)Watching Brown today and he certainly limited the mistakes with no turnovers. Should they have played Brown instead of Kent last season or at least used him when Kent was struggling?

6)What was with the Villanova players getting injured in the last two minutes? Why did the clock not start after the "injured" players got off the field? Did Shinnick argue (heard not). I would think RA might have gotten thrown out of the game if that had happened to us. Didn't really matter much in the end, but still....say something.

7)At some point, Pete needs to get more involved with the play-calling during the game.

8)The defense is playing without one of their best players in linebacker John Gioia. Probably won't be back until W&M. Nice job by Coach Dulin to adjust today, especially using a spy against Watkins more in the second half. Also played without Dion Crews-Harris on the Dline. They also played a bunch of true and redshirt freshmen. 

9)The Oline should improve next week assuming -Dab Volpe is back.

10)ND State came back down 35-23 and took the lead against ETSU with 31 seconds left. Probably better that they win this game, but nobody is unbeatable in FCS.

[mat1992]

Game story

https://towsontigers.com/news/2024/9/14/towson-football-falls-in-heartbreaker-at-no-5-4-villanova.aspx

[AtlantaTiger]

We lost by 1.

Had we lost by 27, I’m looking at the coaches for a poorly prepared team, a team lacking motivation, etc. 

We lost by 1. There are probably at least a half dozen plays where dudes just weren’t clutch enough. Make any one of those half dozen plays and win leave Philly with a W. It was there for the taking. Make..the…damn… play.

[mat1992]

1 minute ago, AtlantaTiger said:

We lost by 1.

Had we lost by 27, I’m looking at the coaches for a poorly prepared team, a team lacking motivation, etc. 

We lost by 1. There are probably at least a half dozen plays where dudes just weren’t clutch enough. Make any one of those half dozen plays and win leave Philly with a W. It was there for the taking. Make..the…damn… play.

These guys were supposedly offensive geniuses. They scored 14 points last week against Morgan State, 14 today and played better against Cincinnati. Not putting it all on the players when you can't score touchdowns inside the 10.

[AtlantaTiger]

Just now, mat1992 said:

These guys were supposedly offensive geniuses. They scored 14 points last week against Morgan State, 14 today and played better against Cincinnati. Not putting it all on the players when you can't score touchdowns inside the 10.

Londono catches the wide open pass that bounced off his face and we’re 2-1. It’s very simple. 

[mat1992]

3 minutes ago, AtlantaTiger said:

Londono catches the wide open pass that bounced off his face and we’re 2-1. It’s very simple. 

Into the sun. He never saw the ball. Was blinded by the sun. Where we probably shouldn't have run that play on that side. It was a great throw.