Citadel Game

[Thorny]

I've been critical of the offense and I'm not exactly excited by what I saw tonight BUT...

We're positioned as well as anyone in the conference and I don't know of a team that is straight up better than us. Would any of you prefer to be VMI that lost to the same Citadel team last week, Mercer who was crushed by VMI, or ETSU that lost to Chattanooga today?

We've won the last two games unlike many of our conference peers. Let's hope the team continues to improve and continues to collect W's.

[El Guapo]

Gutsy win. D played lights out in the 4th after absolutely getting dominated in the 3rd. Elijah McKoy simply made an incredible play to turn the momentum back to us which thankfully we capitalized on. Offense still has a lot of problems. I’m not one of those who thinks that it’s clearly one problem or another but we’re not good and that must change if we pretend to compete against teams with dynamic offenses.

[Paul C]

This feels familiar in an extremely negative way. Very disappointing.

Yes terribly so. Oh wait. Never mind.

[Paul C]

I hope I’m wrong but we’re doomed now that HS is in

Doomed I tell ya, DOOMED!!!

[The Jackal]

Good win.

Offensively, it wasn't a banner night, but we got the job done. Our coaching staff fortunately figured out that our best offensive strategy was just ramming the ball right at the Citadel's defense. It worked against Wofford. It worked tonight. Passing game wasn't working, but feeding the big running backs was a good plan.

Defensively, it was text book. While things got a little sideways in the third quarter, Furman largely played the option very well. There were few missed assignments and broken tackles that the option teams thrive on. The defense forced turnovers and forced the Citadel to earn every foot of grass.

It was a gutty win by the Paladins. This was a huge game for the Citadel, whose season hung in the balance. We were without several key players on both sides of the ball. Sometimes good teams need to win without their best stuff.

[tim]

I haven't seen the replays but Sisson threw two long ones that could have been caught. The last one was pretty impressive after a scramble.

[DungeonRealm]

I haven't seen the replays but Sisson threw two long ones that could have been caught. The last one was pretty impressive after a scramble.

Rather our QB's get to a point where they can find the 'wide open' receiver and get a completion

[The Jackal]

Big night too for Elijah McKoy.

Furman started him at Spur to give the defense more beef up front against the Citadel run game. He was everywhere tonight.

[AstroDin]

^^ Kudos to McKoy and the coaches for employing this strategy.
Did anyone else notice DiMaggio also played Spur last night?

>> If you told me Furman would be playing and having success with two walk-on linebackers, I would have told you—your crazy.

>> Bryce McCormick. Bash me but this is an example of the quality of Furman's recruiting. Bryce was a highly recruited two-way player for Ingle Martin. Like DiMaggio, he's long and moves really well. Bryce had his first impact game, seven tackles, and caused a fumble.

>> Micah Robinson. WTH! Micah was hidden behind Ivan Yates, but with Yates out Robinson is getting his time to shine. He's proving to be excellent in pass coverage and playing aggressively against the run.

>> Bryce Stainfield. Bryce led the defensive lineman with seven tackles. Bryce has quietly accumulated 15 tackles so far in the season. That puts him one tackle behind Coleman.

[The Jackal]

After last week's illegal procedure on a punt return team, I did not think I'd see any more rarely called penalties, but I was wrong.

I do not believe the "blocking out of bounds" penalty is one I've seen called before. It's not that a player is blocked out of bounds, it's that he's blocked while out of bounds. Once both players are out of the boundary, the blocker cannot initiate a block.

[FurmAlum]

Couldn't watch due to a family dinner/birthday party. Just kept up with the score. When I watched the replay late last night, it was a completely different game than I thought it was going to be.

It started out as a football game and turned into a rock fight. El Cid came to play and we answered the bell with a very tough win!

Seemed to me the coach's knew early in the week that Wynn wasn't going to play, but didn't publicize it, and came up with a gameplan to offset with Roberto, Abrams, and Anderson to run it and limit QB having to throw too much. Agree w AD, very physical game. Second half wasn't pretty but we got the job done.

Good coaching move to play McKoy at spur. He played a great game.

[apaladin]

Big night too for Elijah McKoy.

Furman started him at Spur to give the defense more beef up front against the Citadel run game. He was everywhere tonight.

McKoy made the play of the game obviously If he doesn’t make that play we were in jeopardy of losing. Not only did it stop the Citadel but gave us a short field for the final TD which was greatly needed since we were not driving the field at that point.

[The Jackal]

Big night too for Elijah McKoy.

Furman started him at Spur to give the defense more beef up front against the Citadel run game. He was everywhere tonight.

McKoy made the play of the game obviously If he doesn’t make that we were in jeopardy of losing. Not only did it stop the Citadel but gave us a short field for the final TD which was greatly needed since we were not driving the field at that point.

As much as I've seen Furman play against the option, there are a few truisms.

1. Play assignments, tackle well, and don't give up big plays. We avoided that most of the night. Other than a long run to the QB on the first drive, the Citadel really wasn't able to break loose on anything.

2. Get a two score lead and let their offense drain the clock for you. We did that most of the night.

3. Wait for the opportunity. The option offenses have so much going on that they are bound to eventually make a mistake. You have to keep playing assignments and wait for the door to open.

We did all of those things.

[The Jackal]

Great shot of McKoy's forced fumble.

Maybe the most impressive defensive play I've seen from a Paladin defender since Gary Wilkins intercepted App State in 2013 and ran 98 yards for a touchdown.

[The Jackal]

Also something encouraging:

This was a key play of the game late.

I count:
42 Jeremiah Jackson, freshman
14 Micah Robinson, freshman
97 Bryce Stanfield, freshman
52 Nicky Kuzemka, sophomore
6 Hugh Ryan, sophomore
31 Bryce McCormick, sophomore (forced the fumble)

Future is still bright on defense.