In what turned out to be a totally exasperating experience, I ran into technical difficulties trying to watch the broadcast of the game online. After repeated attempts failed, I was forced to listen to the Emory and Henry online radio broadcast. While this gave me access to the game, it was like drinking vinegar to quench my thirst....It got me what I needed, but the experience was more than unpleasant.
It was not until about half way through the 4th quarter was I able to figure out that I needed to update my Adobe flash player, to view the game.......By the time I got online to watch, it was all but over.
If the futile attempts to watch the game did not dole out enough frustration, the game itself, more than made up for any that was lacking. Having to listen to the game from the perspective of what I would say are harshly biased announcers was miserable. I was not surprised at their loyalty to the Wasps, I am sure the broadcast over the Ferrum website is similarly one sided, but the fact that Ferrum was not able to make this a contest made it even tougher to hear.
In a lot of respects, the Ferrum defense looked good. They recovered a fumble, intercepted a pass, and blocked a field goal. The very first Emory and Henry series was a three and out, and the next to last drive was a three and out also, so there were bright spots on the defense....overall however, Ferrum was unable to keep up with the fast paced, no huddle offense the Wasps employed. The numbers do not lie....Ferrum gave up 329 yards and five touchdowns through the air, and 229 yards on the ground and one touchdown. If the take away from this game is that the defense had bright spots, then you may want to stop reading now, because it does not get better.
The offense was anemic to say the least. They ran the ball 46 times for 168 yards. an average of 3.7 ypc. (Yards per Carry) Tim Reynolds had 89 of those yards on 16 carries averaging 5.6 ypc. The other 30 carries covered 79 yards, averaging a little over 2 ypc. Passing, Reynolds had a rough day. He was 8 of 26 for 114 yards and 1 interception. Ferrum scored no touchdowns....running or passing.... NONE. A team that does not score touchdowns, will rarely win. I can say with confidence however that Hunter Ferguson looked good as he went 3 for 3 on field goals.
I am at a loss to explain this. It would not be realistic to say that the opposition did not have something to do with it. E&H played a solid game, but they are not all that and a bag of chips. They are predicted to finish last in the ODAC.
To summerize this, I had really been holding out hope Ferrum was going to be a better team. Believing that with time, that the Panthers will get on track, and have some wins. Remember, I picked them to finish 6th in the conference, so I was not expecting miracles, just hopeful that they could contend in some of their games. I realize that this is the first game of the season, and there are still things to do to get ready for conference play, but if Ferrum is going to be in the hunt, something has to change right away. This Saturday is a open date for Ferrum, so I am sure there will be a lot of tweaking to say the least. I am still on the bandwagon, and likely nothing will change that, but Ferrum has a lot of work to do to get ready for Shenandoah....their game yesterday was postponed until today due to weather. Tune in Ferrum, watch the game online.....couldn't hurt.
Sunday, September 7, 2014
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Ugghhhh. Where to start:
ReplyDelete1- Despite the score and the stats- the Defense looked noticeably better and prepared which is to be expected with the new Defensive coach. Last year they looked utterly clueless and unprepared.
2- Offense- looks like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. This offense looked OK 3 years ago before that coordinator left for a head coaching job. Under the new offensive coordinator in the last 2 years this offense looks horrible. Runs the same predictable 4 plays over and over again. Passing game is terribly inconsistant
3- For the love of god- go back to the wishbone attack that you ran and perfected for 40 years- one of the leading schools in the country running it- regardless of division and you go away to a gimmick offense without the skillset to run it
4- Ferrum can recruit plenty of 5' 8" to 5' 10" 180 pound players who can run a 4.7 forty- and that's about it. There's no game changing offensive or defensive linemen to be found- and this has been going on for years
5- It's clear Ferrum as a school is using sports to drive enrollment. Ferrum is offering every sport under the sun- and 90% of them are not very good
6- It took years to get the football program in this mess and it's going to take years to get it out of it. I still believe Coach Harper is the man for the challenge. Get that offensive identity straightened out, have to win the recruiting battle on some big athletic linemen- and retain the talent
I would have to agree about the offense. We have to play to our strengths, we do not have an old like Georgia Southern that averages almost 300 lbs we are not built for the triple option .we just left a high school wich used the same formation using the same sized players , if your happy with 0-10,1-9,2-8, and 2-8 so be it but you have got to play to your personnel and this ol is not big enough to block , most of the game E&H linebackers were coming unblocked #35 was in our backfield as much as our running backs
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