Penguins' season on ropes

Youngstown State football coach Jon Heacock and his staff aren't going to get any sympathy votes for their coaching efforts Saturday night in the 44-19 loss to Western Kentucky in the Gateway Conference opener.
The Hilltoppers are a good football team and probably deserving of their No. 6 ranking in last week's I-AA polls, but they are not 25 points better than the Penguins.
In Heacock's defense, he and the coaches are not the ones who are fumbling the football, throwing the interceptions, missing tackles and assignments out on the field.
Play selectiontoo predictable
But the play selection has been anything but good. It has become too predictable. There was a time when YSU could overcome that problem, but not now. They need to be unpredictable on offense to have a chance.
But still it doesn't matter who is calling the plays if the players can't hold onto the football, especially when they have the ball on the opponents' 1-yard line.
The Penguins had four turnovers Saturday night against the Hilltoppers. Those were turned into 20 points by Western Kentucky and when you take away the seven points they lost with the fumble on the goal line, that's 27 points. The Penguins lost by 25.
I'm not saying the Penguins are a better football team than Western Kentucky, but they are a better team than their 2-3 record would indicate.
There were times Saturday when the Penguins, the players and coaches, looked like they didn't know what was going on.
Costly decisionbefore halftime
At the end of the first half, with just over a minute to play, the Penguins had the ball at their own 20, trailing 10-7.
They ran three straight running plays and appeared to be going to run out the clock. They then called time out and came back with a draw play to Josh Cayson, who fumbled, which allowed Western Kentucky to kick a last-second field goal for a 13-7 lead. Why call a time out and why not just run out the clock?
Then early in the final quarter the Penguins drove 58 yards to score their second touchdown. They lined up to kick the extra point, but then took a deliberate delay of game penalty and came back to try a two-point conversion which failed. Wouldn't it be easier to go for two points from the 3-yard line rather than the eight?
Then there was the short kickoff following the TD -- why? The Hilltoppers hadn't broken off any long returns in the game. It set them up at the YSU 48-yard line following a fair catch interference penalty and the Hilltoppers went on to score.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Tom Zetts showed some of the things he's capable of when the offense opens up like it did in the final quarter.
Why can't the Penguins do that in the first quarter, put out four wide receivers early in the game. At one time in the final period Zetts completed 15 straight passes.
Too manymissed tackles
But even a great offense doesn't make up for the missed tackles.
On the final touchdown run by Western's Lerron Moore, a 29-yard scamper, he ran over -- yes, over -- two Penguins on the way to the end zone. He and running mate Brian Porter broke numerous tackles and the pair had five runs of over 25 yards.
The going doesn't get any easier for the Penguins from here on. They must now return home to face the nation's No. 1 ranked team in Southern Illinois, a 40-36 come-from-behind winner over Northern Iowa on Saturday.
Heacock and his staff still haven't beaten a ranked team, or a team with a winning record since back in the 2001 season.
At 2-3 the Penguins can't afford another loss and even then they may not have a chance for the playoffs if they don't win the Gateway. The season's hopes could come down to this week's outcome.
XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.