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By Brian Nowicki What is going on? The Rockets are just 2-5 overall and 0-3 in the MAC. The 0-3 conference start is the worst since 1985. Three straight losses after beating Kansas and McNeese State in consecutive weeks has the team searching for answers. Turnovers have killed this team. 18 total turnovers in 7 games! Toledo has fumbled the ball 17 times, losing it 8 times. With 17 fumbles they are lucky they have only lost the fumble 8 times. 10 interceptions thrown with just 10 touchdowns passes thrown. Of all the turnovers and fumbles that Toledo was lucky enough to recover, all 10 interceptions and 13 of the 17 fumbles were in the five losses. Of those 13 fumbles, 5 of them were recoverd by the defense. And in the three conference losses, Toledo has thrown 7 interceptions and fumbled the ball 9 times, losing 5 of those fumbles. That's 12 turnovers in three conference games. Four of those turnovers were returned for touchdowns and several others put the defense in a hole deep on their side of the field. You can't win football games with those kind of mistakes. I can live with the interceptions to a degree. In fact, I can't blame the quarterbacks for all of those interceptions. At least a few of them were deflected off of the receiver's hands and should have been caught instead of being deflected for interceptions. However, I cannot look past fumbling the ball 17 times. And with nearly four fumbles per game in the three conference games something has to change. Sure, we didn't lose all of those fumbles, but we did lose enough of them and it is purely luck that we were able to recover 9 of those fumbles. While many of the fumbles have not been by running backs, there is one thing that is a bit surprising. Our most experienced running back, Jalen Parmele, has fumbled the most of the backs. He has 3 fumbles, only losing one to the defense though. Richard Davis has fumbled twice, losing one to the defense. Scooter McDougle has fumbled once, and it was recovered by the defense. Only one running back was not named, DaJuane Collins, and that is because he has not fumbled the ball at all. A total of six fumbles by the other three running backs, but none by Collins. Oh, and by the way Mr. Collins is leading the team with a 6.5 yards per carry average. He also has the longest run from scrimmage, a 31 yard TD run. Unfortunately, he is not getting enough touches and is 3rd of the running backs on the team in rushing attempts. In two more games played, and more than double the amount of rushing attempts, Richard Davis has the same exact amount of net rushing yards that DaJuane Collins has. That number is 155 yards. Collins numbers of 24 carries for 155 yards and two touchdowns would be considered pretty darn good numbers in anyone's book. So why isn't he getting more carries? Sure, he is the youngest and most inexperienced of the four running backs. However, he is also the only one of those four to not fumble the ball. Give him the chance to carry the ball at least 15-20 times a game. In this last game against Kent State, he led the way with 45 yards rushing on just 7 carries, which comes out to a 6.4 yards per carry average. Richard Davis averaged 4.0 yards per rush on 11 carries, and Jalen Parmele averaged just 2.0 yards per rush on 9 carries. Going into the game we heard about how stingy Kent State's defense is, yet DaJuane still put up similar numbers to what he has all year while the other two running backs that played did not. Now that I talked about the running game, let's look at the other fumbles. Receivers have fumbled the ball five times afer making receptions, with three of them being lost to the defense. This is just unacceptable. When coupled with the number of dropped passes, you have to wonder what is going on. What's worse is that three of those five fumbles, and two of the fumbles that were lost to the defense, are coming from seniors. Many of the dropped passes are coming from seniors or juniors as well. Is this a lack of concentration? So now that I have vented about the frustration of turnovers it is time for a new frustration to be let out. Penalties are definitely not helping this team. Toledo has been called for 50 penalties for 467 yards in seven games this season. It was much better against Kent State, with just three penalties. However, two of those three penalties were personal fouls and that is not good. The week before against Central Michigan, Toledo had 10 penalties for 113 yards. Five were personal fouls, and one resulted in a game ejection. That's embarrassing to say the least. Against Pittsburgh the week before Toledo was called for 7 penalties. Five penalties against McNeese State, 11 penalties for 113 yards against Kansas (makes you wonder how we won that game), 8 penalties against Western Michigan, and 6 penalties against Iowa State. With just three penalties at Kent State, I am encouraged that the problems with getting flagged are behind us. Let's hope so at least. What's the answer? I really don't know. This is a young team and we have a lot of redshirt and true freshman playing and even starting on this team. However, many of the turnovers and mistakes are coming from the more experienced guys. 8 of the 17 fumbles are from juniors or seniors. 7 of the remaining 9 fumbles are from sophomores that either started or playing a decent amount last year. That leaves just two fumbles, one lost and one luckily recovered, by freshmen. And both were true freshman Aaron Opelt's fumbles on plays where he was pressured right off the snap because of a breakdown in pass blocking. Our offense is way too predictable this year. If we run the ball for a good gain of 8 or 9 yards, you can bet the next two or three plays will be pass plays? Why? Are we making ourselves too predictable by outguessing ourselves and trying to make ourselves unpredictable? We are starting a true freshman quarterback, but he has thrown the ball an awful lot. It seems we are trying to use the passing game to open the running game up. I'm not an expert, but I do have an opinion. And I say give the ball to DaJuane Collins and open up the play action pass. The play action pass has had no effect on opposing defenses this year. Probably because they know we are going to pass the ball anyway. What ever happened to spreading the field and just running the ball? I remember a couple of games last year where we were setup in the shotgun for 6 or 7 plays in a row and ran the ball each time, gaining large chunks of yardage. I'm not a coach and I really have no idea what all goes into preparing for and playing a game. However, I have an opinion and it was time to give it. You might agree with me, or you might not. Let me know what your opinion is and I will do a follow-up article with opinions from Rocket fans out there. I welcome your comments - Email Brian! Have a question or comment for Brian? Email |