Each Sunday during the football season OwlAccess.com writers Chuck King, Jake Elman and Matt Wilson dissect the previous day’s FAU football game in a feature we call “Four Down Territory.” Here’s our analysis of FAU’s 38-10 loss to No. 25 Miami.
BIGGEST SURPRISE
King: Two games into the season new offensive coordinator Travis Trickett’s #NoHuddleNoMercy offense looks more like #NoHuddleNoMovement. Even with Buddy Howell’s 38-yard TD run the Owls barely averaged more than one yard per carry. The beat-up offensive line allowed seven sacks. The Owls killed themselves with penalties. So far this season the Owls have snapped the ball from inside their opponent’s 20 yard line on only two possessions – totaling nine plays. FAU’s defense played well enough to win before wearing down. Where is the high-octane offense the Owls promised? Stuck outside the red zone.
Elman: The decision to keep feeding the ball to Kerrith Whyte Jr. Even if Whyte had a great fall camp and was making progress in his development, he has done nothing in his first two games to justify him getting the ball as Howell’s 1B over Jay Warren or Motor Singletary. I go back to what I said in the recap: Howell can’t carry this team on his own to a bowl game; he needs help and Whyte just isn’t doing that. You hate to play the what-if game, but how much does a potential explosive run from Motor – which the coaches had mentioned all fall camp is always a chance to happen – affect the game if he even gets a touch?
Wilson: The biggest surprise from the Owls last night was how they were able to shut down Miami quarterback Brad Kaaya. FAU held Kaaya to 191 yards and two interceptions. Kaaya’s quarterback rating for the game was miniscule. The FAU secondary held the Hurricanes receivers to one reception for over 40 yards. With no sacks in the game, FAU’s secondary showed off that they can cover the pass. They improved from allowing 367 yards last week to SIU to only giving up 191 yards this week.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
King: Four touchdowns and 155 yards make Miami RB Mark Walton the easy choice here. FAU kept bending – Joe Yearby also rushed for 121 yards – but didn’t begin to break until after the offense kept giving the Hurricanes the ball back. From the FAU perspective, where would the Owls be without Buddy Howell? The poor offensive performance would have been even more dismal without Howell’s TD run in which he ran over and through the Miami defense. It was a one-man-band, Alfred Morris-esque run.
Elman: It’s hard not to give it to Miami’s Mark Walton after a four touchdown performance. Watching Walton tear FAU’s defense was like when you put all the important stats on a Madden running back all the way to 99 and just fed him the ball every play. Every time Walton got the ball against an FAU defense that was supposed to be so improved, he was a threat to score and for the Owls – even against a nationally-ranked team – that can’t happen anymore. As for FAU, Andrew Soroh probably would have been the most deserving player after his interception and near fumble recovery on a play that was ruled out of bounds.
Wilson: The player of the game for FAU was Kalib Woods. He was the anchor of the FAU passing attack rounding up nine receptions for 121 yards and was a big contributor for setting up FAU drives. On the FAU touchdown in the third quarter, he racked up 38 receiving yards including a huge 21 yard catch and run to set up the 38 yard touchdown run by Greg Howell. Besides that he led all players in receptions by five and had 60 more yards than every other receiver in the game.
CONTROVERSIAL CALL
King: Trailing 24-10 in a driving rainstorm in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, FAU elected to go for it on fourth-and-5 from its own 31. Kalib Woods dropped Driskel’s pass – foreseeable given the conditions – giving the ball to Miami. Three plays later, Miami was in the end zone. Game over. Trailing by only two touchdowns with nearly a full quarter remaining, there was plenty of time to punt. The fact that the play should have worked is immaterial. A first down in that situation didn’t guarantee a score – far from it. By going for the first down, FAU coach Charlie Partridge turned the play into an unnecessary do-or-die decision – one that posed an unnecessarily high risk with a low reward. Game management, especially in the fourth quarter, has not proven to be FAU coach Charlie Partridge’s strength.
Elman: It has to easily be the fumble-no-fumble when Jalen Young knocked a Mark Walton ball out and Soroh recovered it…but was ruled out of bounds. Though the Owls would have started their next drive with the ball inside their own five and with under two minutes to go in the first half, a recovery would have been enough to prevent a Miami score and could have kept the Canes’ lead at only 7-3 going into halftime. If everything went right, maybe FAU could have hit a play or two and taken the lead. Unfortunately for FAU, the officials called it Canes ball and things spiraled downhill from there.
Wilson: Facing third-and-11 with 1:37 remaining in the first half the Owls decided to call a Howell run, which only went four yards and set up a punt, rather than taking a shot. Luckily for the Owls the Hurricanes could not capitalize. FAU had all three timeouts and 1:30 left on the clock. The Owls should have tried to score on the drive – even if only a field goal. With the run, it appeared as though they were content to send the game to the half and because of that they were not able to bring in any momentum into the second half.
EXTRA POINT
King: As poorly as FAU has played at times thus far, a 1-1 record is where almost everyone figured the Owls would be at this point. The issues with the offensive line are disconcerting. Dillon DeBoer may consider himself a natural tackle, but he is a better center. Right tackle Kelly Parfitt, the only starter on the offensive line playing the same position he was at the end of fall camp, left the stadium on crutches following a right knee injury incurred in the first quarter. The defensive line dealt with its share of what appeared to be relatively minor injury blows on Saturday. Unspecified ailments have rendered running back Jay Warren nearly non-existent – and he still has performed better than Kerrith Whyte, Devin Singletary and Marcus Clark. Wide receivers Kamrin Solomon and Henry Bussey were ghosts on Saturday. It’s hard to imagine that the Owls will fix all these issues prior to heading to a vulnerable Kansas St. next week. Still, even with the loss to the Wildcats the Owls will have the opportunity to finish their pre-conference schedule at 2-2 with a win over Ball St (1-1). Do that, and FAU is on a path for bowl eligibility.
Elman: To the victor goes the spoils, but did the Hurricanes really need to run up the score at the end? I’m all for asserting that you’re the winner and doing whatever you want to show that, yet Miami scoring in the final two minutes just reeked of the high school bully beating up on some middle school kids who share the same bus ride home. If they were playing a Power 5 team or even another ACC team like Syracuse and they wanted to show off, I get that, but in a non-conference game and against a team that is still growing and developing? It makes me wonder how much of that was just anger fueled by the fact that through three quarters, this was still a relatively tight game and not the blowout that the Miami players like expected.
Wilson: The score for most for the first half was 0-0 and the FAU secondary did a great job of containing Kaaya, who people say is the second best QB in the nation. The big problem for FAU is their offense seems to go ghost during the game, not being able to get anything going even with some of the great field position they started off with. The Owls will have to fix their offense if they hope to become bowl eligible or improve on last year. The defense seems to have potential, but the offense simply doesn’t stay on the field long enough for the defense to get a break. FAU almost resembles last year’s Florida team with a strong defense but no offensive attack.
I agree with all you wrote a couple of comments.
Buddy Howell up the middle is not working despite the three long runs this season it has produced very little. Where is Jay Warren?
In two games we have not been able to defend the flare out pass behind the line of scrimmage. Is this a coaching problem for not making adjustments or do we not have the players to defend this?
I have to agree with you what was Partridge thinking going for it on fourth down on our own 31? We had just scored and held Miami to get the ball back. It was only a two score game with almost a quarter to play. He gave them the ball in field goal territory. Whatever momentum we might have had he squelched it.
After last year and so far this year I’m beginning to question Coach Partridge’s in game decisions. He may have been a good position coach and coordinator but can he make good in game decisions as a head coach. I’m not seeing it.