“Blown assignments,” the senior center from Fort Valley State said. “Execution. That was it.”
Minutes later, Leron Furr did and said the same thing.
“We had blown assignments,” the junior linebacker said. “That was really it.”
Granted, FVSU lost by 31 points last Saturday at Tuskegee, but the pair had some evidence to back up the thought that the game wasn’t quite that much of a blowout.
Tuskegee rushed for 447 yards, with 167 of them coming on three plays, touchdowns of 57, 66 and 44 yards.
Tuskegee passed for 224 yards, with 115 coming on touchdown passes of 77 and 38 yards.
“That’s the amazing part of it,” FVSU head coach Donald Pittman said. “We were just a little bit off. Offensively, we were just a little bit off.”
Of course, the Golden Tigers still rushed for 280 yards on 42 carries outside of those scores.
By the time the muggy afternoon was over, Tuskegee had outgained FVSU 671-359 on 11 more snaps.
“Tuskegee’s a really good team,” said Pittman, noting a depth advantage the Golden Tigers had, crucial on a humid day. “They were a well-oiled machine.”
The Wildcats (3-2, 1-1 in SIAC) were without safety Jabioas Glenn, a junior from Dooly County who sat out the game with a concussion suffered a week earlier against Benedict. He is doubtful for this Saturday’s visit by Kentucky State.
Redshirt freshman Sedrick Rowe took his place, and the Golden Tigers took advantage of the inexperience as well as assorted FVSU errors in judgment.
“People trying to do more than they’re supposed to do,” Furr said. “Trying to do other people’s jobs instead of their job.”
Was the postgame film review the worst of the season for the defense?
“By far,” Furr said with a smile. “We knew exactly what was going on coming into the game. It was just we had to execute. We didn’t execute the way we game-planned.”
The balance FVSU has shown at times offensively disappeared with the Wildcats throwing 34 times — and getting picked off four times — and rushing 24 times.
In the Wildcats’ two losses, they passed for three touchdowns but were intercepted nine times, and averaged 33 rushes and 37 pass attempts. read more…