Good afternoon to all our 12th Monarchs out there in Monarch Nation! We are coming off a thrilling 37-34 homecoming win over Charlotte in front of our 45th consecutive sellout crowd. We are the only team in history to sellout every home game, which is something we are very proud of. I’d also like to compliment Brad Lambert, the head coach for Charlotte, for his team’s performance in just their third year. That is a good football team with good players, and they are very well-coached. I already think they’re an excellent addition to the league, and we wish them well the rest of the season.
The most important thing to address is that the quarterback plan going into this game was that Bentley would start on the first series, and we would have David Washington on the second series. That first series with Shuler we went three-and-out, and then Washington came in and threw a 55-yard touchdown pass on his first play. From that point on, it became clear that we were going to stick with David for the rest of the game.
Washington had an outstanding game for us, going 25-for-43 for 365 yards, rushed for 37 yards and caught a pass for two yards, so he had 402 total yards for us. He brought us a burst of energy and enthusiasm, which was something we really needed. We had struggled the last three games to score points on offense, and David led us to 37 points and got our offense up close to 500 yards. We were very pleased with his performance, and he will be the starting quarterback moving forward.
I thought we were a very average team overall for the first 50 minutes in this game and a great team in the last 10 minutes. We have now played 10 games in Conference USA dating back to last year, and we are now 5-5. All five of those games we have won were fourth quarter come-from-behind wins, so we need to find a way to play better in the first three quarters. We play great football at the end of games, which has a lot to do with the situational football we practice regularly, but there are just so many other areas we need to improve on right now. They ran 106 plays, which was 29 more than we did, because they were 13-for-24 on third downs. We need to focus on getting our defense off the field on third downs, so third-and-short situations will be a major focal point in practice this week.
In the final sequence when we were down 31-22 after Kirtley had just missed a field goal, TJ Ricks really picked us up and brought the momentum back by forcing a fumble that Shadow Williams recovered. We then got a third down touchdown pass to Zach Pascal to make it 31-29. After we missed the fake punt, our defense picked us back up again by forcing a field goal. Then we went nine plays and 75 yards for a touchdown to take the lead. The defense then obviously got the big stop on their last drive, so the sequence the last nine minutes was as good as it could have been.
On special teams, Kirtley went three-for-four on field goals in his first game ever attempting field goals. Coward had a big field goal block, which was a huge shift in momentum for us. Then we had two big kick returns by Zach Pascal, who totaled 69 return yards and 300 total yards for us in this game.
Defensively, TJ Ricks is now our all-time single-game leading tackler. He played 102 snaps; we have never had a guy play that many snaps. He was an ironman and ended up with 18 tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. He was phenomenal and really delivered for us.
Fellonte Misher played 90 snaps in this game and had 14 tackles. Marvin Branch had 11 tackles, and Justice Davila had nine. Aaron Young played 100 snaps for us at corner and had eight tackles. The most disappointing part of the game for us was the first three quarters, defensively. We gave up 506 yards total, but we only gave up 69 yards in the fourth quarter. That is impressive to step up like that in the fourth quarter after we were manhandled by their offense the first three. We now have three of the league’s six leading tacklers in TJ Ricks, who is the conference leader, Fellonte Misher and Justice Davila.
Offensively, we had 77 plays for 482 yards and 37 points, which is very encouraging after overcoming some struggles the past three weeks. David Washington’s performance on only three days of practice was incredibly impressive. His ability to escape in the pocket has added a dimension to our offense that we desperately needed. We have a lot of guys up front who are battling through some injuries, like Mewbourne, Butler and Fisher, but they are doing the best job they can for us.
Zach Pascal had as good a game as any wide receiver has ever had for us. I would compare it to Nick Mayers performance against New Hampshire in 2012. All of the catches he made in this game seemed like huge catches. Every ball was contested, and he just stepped up for us in a big way this game.
Overall, this was a big win for us as a program. It was a win we really needed to keep all of our goals intact. Being 3-3, we are halfway to a bowl game, and we are now 1-1 in the league, which puts us in second place. Everything is still there for us.
This week’s opponent, FIU, is a much improved team over the 4-8 team we played last season. They are 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the league. Interestingly enough, they have played five games on the road already, which is a very difficult opening schedule. At home, they have had two blowout wins.
Offensively, they are averaging 28 points per game. Their quarterback, Alex McGough, is in his second season and is much improved from last year. He is completing 64 percent of his passes for 204 yards and is fifth in the league in passing. He has made a big jump from being a guy who was in the bottom of the pack in the league last year. Ron Turner, their head coach, who has been a head coach in the NFL, has done a really great job in improving him. Alex Gardner is their leading rusher and their second-leading receiver, so he is a guy that is going to get the ball a lot.
Defensively, they are much better than last year. They are third in the league on defense. They arguably have the best defensive player in the league in Richard Leonard, who may also be the best special teams player in the league.
This will be a pivotal game for us. A win would put us at 4-3 and 2-1 in the league, but it is going to be a big challenge. I’m pretty sure we are going to be a one or two touchdown underdog in this game based on their results and our results to this point, and they are also the home team. We have a lot of excitement and energy coming off this last win, though, so we are ready for the challenge.
Q: It’s been a while since David Washington has played quarterback. How much of an upside does he have considering he hasn’t played it in so long?
A: That’s a great question. A lot of what he was doing Saturday was instinctive. He was very well-trained by Ron Whitcomb, so he already knew the offense and what to do. As I had already stated, he entered as the backup starting quarterback, so he knew he would be the next guy in the game. Since he already knows the system, there isn’t a lot more that he needs to learn. His performance backs that up. There’s no way he could have done what he did Saturday if he didn’t know what was going on. He knew all the reads and protections, got the offensive line doing what they needed to do, he checked plays and he just did what he does well, which is instinctively reacting. We will make a few adjustments coming up based on his strengths and what he likes to do.
Q: Was this a grown-up moment for such a young team, being able to come back the way they did?
A: Yeah, the best thing about this win was that it showed a lot of character to comeback from a nine-point deficit with 10 minutes left and win the game. That’s the second time we’ve done that already this season. With 33 of the 53 guys playing being first or second-year guys, I can’t stress enough how much that speaks to the development of this team. It shows we are resilient and always looking for ways to win the game as opposed to being a team who is looking not to lose. There is a big difference in sports between the two types of teams. There are important teaching moments about character and resiliency, and that was one of them Saturday.
Q: Was that go-ahead touchdown drive a Heinicke-like moment for David?
A: Yeah, I would say the most Heinicke-like moment was on the final drive to win the game when an unblocked blitzer came in and David still threw the 33-yard pass to Pascal. It looked like he just threw it up for grabs, but he knew it was man coverage and the defender had his back turned. He put the ball just where Pascal could get to it. Then another big one that may not have seemed that big to the fans was on a third-and eight on their 39 yardline when we called a pass play, but he took off for a run and kept the drive alive. That was a special moment from a special quarterback, and it helps the team because the other guys believe in him and know he can make those types of plays and still give us a shot even when it comes down to the end.
Q: There were a lot of dropped passes in the earlier games but none in this game. In fact, they made some great catches. What do you credit that too?
A: Well, the three games we didn’t catch the ball well it was raining. I don’t know if the conditions played a role in that. David did have accurate passes, and he placed the ball right where he needed to. But for anyone who has seen Zach Pascal play, I think they would agree that he’s never caught the ball like that. I mean he just made some ridiculous catches. I compared it to Nick Mayers, and it may have even been better than Mayers’ because of all the diving catches he made. I think Pascal just came into the game as focused as I’ve ever seen him. Now that we lost one of our best receivers, David Washington, we have to search for that next man in to make those catches consistently. FIU is going to put Richard Leonard all over Pascal, so we are going to have to find other guys to step up, too.
Q: Do you teach your players to watch themselves on the Jumbotron?
A: Interestingly, that is a hot topic of discussion. It isn’t a direct teaching point, but the stadiums we play in now mostly have Jumbotrons. In our stadium, it only applies when we are running towards the student section. Our running backs have used it to keep themselves from having to look back over their shoulder.