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By Brian Nowicki Last week I talked about the unfortunate things that have been happening to the University of Toledo football team this year. Turnovers, penalties, dropped passes, suspect playcalling, injuries, and even bad luck. This past weekend some of those same things plagued the Rockets again as they lost 17-13 at Eastern Michigan. A touchdown with just 36 seconds left game Eastern Michigan the lead, and what looked like it would be the Rockets first MAC victory of the season turned out to be another disappointment for the Rockets. Toledo was called for 8 penalties for 77 yards. Six of those penalties, and 65 yards, were called against Toledo in the 1st half. A couple of them were on 3rd down plays where Toledo had converted the first down, but the penalty caused a replay of the down and Toledo was unabled to convert in both situations. Turnovers were much better. QB Aaron Opelt fumbled one snap, but recovered his own fumble. The big one was late in the 4th quarter. Just over three minutes to play and Toledo scored a touchdown to take a 13-9 lead. They went for two, and QB Clint Cochran got hit and fumbled the ball. It was picked up by Eastern Michigan and returned all the way for two points, making the score 13-11. That was all the momentum Eastern Michigan needed. They got a good kick return on the next play and then only took 5 plays to score the game winning touchdown with 36 seconds left. Last week I gave readers the opportunity to respond to my comments about the way the season has gone. Here are some comments I received: "it's been too many fumbles, too many dropped balls, too many penalties.....and the offense is too predictable. (if i can figure out what they're going to run, and i'm a girl, people who really know what they're doing are surely going to figure it out!)" - Beth "It is evident that the team is void of any discipline. This is evident in missed blocks, turnovers, dropped passes, missed tackles, blown coverage, and above all else – personal fouls." - Chris "The offense is so predictable...it's like the opposing team has someone in the huddle hearing the plays called. It seems when we get behind, panic sets in and the only answer is Pass, Pass, Pass." - Derek "You never really mentioned how our 3rd string QB is starting, as a freshman. Yes he has done amazing, but not many true freshman can give a team a winning record. Let's face it, they under played Cochran's injury and desperetly need him back. They also need to put some glue on the recievers hands. If we can beat BG this year, I will be satisfied. Then we take it all again next year." - Brad "Lets give Dajuane the ball at least 20 times a game and we will Win football games." - Unsigned So! We're now 2-6 overall and 0-4 in the MAC after a tough loss to Eastern Michigan, who gained their first victory of the season. Eastern Michigan came into this game with a lot of problems stopping the run. They were giving up 182.6 yards per game and 4.6 yards per rush coming into the game. Toledo had 37 rushing attempts for 175 yards, 4.7 yards per rush. However, four of those rushing attempts were either sacks or scrambling for yardage by the quarterback when no one was open. So in reality 33 rushing plays were called. 31 passing plays were called, so Toledo was pretty balanced in the final stats. However, the final stats don't paint the picture of the whole game. We had 9 rushes for 49 yards in the first quarter. However, after gaining 27 yards on four consecutive running plays on one first quarter drive, it was a bit annoying to see the QB drop back for three consecutive passes and see the drive stall at the Eastern Michigan 32 yard line. I can see mixing it up a little bit and throwing the ball, but why three times in a row when the running game was working? At the start of the 2nd quarter, DaJuane Collins comes in and gets a 10 yard gain. Then we proceed to call three straight passes and are forced to punt. Next drive we mix the run in well, but penalties kill us and we are forced to punt despite gaining 19 yards off of four running plays. Mix in a couple of incomplete passes and that drive stalled after just one first down. Eastern Michigan gets another field goal on their drive to go up 9-0, and the gameplan is thrown out the window until the 4th quarter. At this point we have 14 rushes for 78 yards in the game, 5.6 yards per rush. Next drive on offense, we have to punt after five consecutive passing plays are called in from the sideline. On to the 3rd quarter. Promising start with a 12 yard run and then a 1 yard run by Jalen Parmele. Of course a pass or two is needed to mix things up, but 6 of the next 8 plays called in from the sideline are passes. The kicker is a 4th and 5 at the EMU 41 yard line is open, but dropped by senior wide receiver Steve Odom. In his hands, but dropped......and the drive stalls. After a Tyrrell Herbert interception, Clint Cochran now comes in at quarterback for Toledo. It appears to be the spark Toledo needed, but perhaps there's more to it. Was it the playcalling? This is the start of the 4th quarter, and all of a sudden we decide to run the football on a more consistent basis. Six of nine plays called our running plays on the drive, and it is capped off by a 14 yard touchdown run by Jalen Parmele. The Rockets go 55 yards for this touchdown, 36 yards on the ground on 6 rushing plays. A quick three downs and out by the defense and here comes the running game again. DaJuane Collins carries the ball for 5, 6, and 8 yards recpetively to start the drive. After one incomplete pass, Parmele comes in for runs of 6, 2 and 9 yards. Then Richard Davis takes it 17 yards for another first down. Toledo continues to run the football down to the EMU 4 yard line. Now the running game has opened up the playaction pass, and Clint Cochran hits Josh Powell for a 4 yard TD pass after faking the handoff. Perfect drive, the way I watched Rocket football the last few years. The running game opening up the playaction pass to the tight end. That play is a lot more effective when the defense thinks you may actually run the ball, and it showed there. The last time with the football, Toledo had just 30 seconds left so it is understandable that we would throw the ball. And we got into position for a desperation pass that fell incomplete near the end zone. But one has to wonder if a gameplan like we had in the 4th quarter would have given us an easy victory if it was played out for all four quarters. On those two drives in the 4th quarter that we scored touchdowns, we ran the ball 19 times for 100 yards. We threw the ball 5 times for 23 yards. That is a pretty high ratio of runs to passes, but look at the results? Two touchdowns and 100 yards rushing. That is 100 of the 175 rushing we had in the entire game. That's 19 of the 33 actual running plays called in the game. Take away those two 4th quarter drives, the only drives in the quarter besides the last 30 second desperation drive, and we called just 14 running plays that went for 74 yards. Good amount of rushing yards for the 14 plays, but 14 running plays in three quarters against a team that was known to have trouble stopping the run is not good enough. So the question is why? Why has Toledo changed gears this year and try to open the running game by passing the ball? In the past, we have always opened the passing game, specifically the playaction pass that we like to call, with the running game. Jalen Parmele has 17 carries for 99 yards, 5.8 yards per rush. However, he had 6 rushes for 41 yards in the fourth quarter. DaJuane Collins has 5 rushes for 34 yards, 6.8 yards per rush average, yet he continues to get just a handful of carries. He has outplayed the #2 running back all season. Nothing against Richard Davis, but he has 61 rushes for 196 yards. That is just 3.2 yards per rush. He's also lost 14 yards on rushing plays that went for negative yardage. DaJuane Collins has 29 rushes for 189 yards. That's 6.5 yards per rush. He's also lost just 1 yard on rushing plays that went for negative yardage. His 6.5 yards per rush is best on the team, even ahead of Parmele's 5.1 yards per rush. He holds the longest run from scrimmage this year by Toledo, a 31 yard touchdown run he had. Yet he continues to get just 4 to 5 carries a game. I don't get it. The team is not winning........change things up and try something different? Put Parmele and Collins in the backfield at the same time sometimes. Get Parmele more carries throughout the entire game, and get Collins more carries. Let's get Parmele 15-20 rushes per game, spread out consistently throughout the game, and get Collins 10-15 rushes per game. Collins is still the only running back on the team that has not fumbled the ball this year. The Rockets will host Akron in the Glass Bowl Saturday night. Akron is just 1-2 in the MAC this year, with the lone victory coming last week against a Miami University football team that has only just win and it was against Buffalo. This is another game the Rockets can and should win. However, they have to get back to basics. Cut down on the penalties, hold on to the football, and use the running game to open up the playaction pass. Give Parmele and Collins more of a workload in the backfield. Have a question or comment for Brian? Email |