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YSU is in must-win mode now
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Now the Youngstown State football team has its back to the wall.
Saturday night Missouri State came into Stambaugh Stadium with its back to the wall after dropping its conference opener the previous week to a very good Northern Iowa team.
The Bears played the game of their lives Saturday and handed the Penguins a 17-7 Missouri Valley Football Conference defeat at the Ice Castle.
It has always been an unwritten rule that if you want to win the conference title you have to win at home, and the Penguins didn’t. Now maybe they can play like the Bears next week when Western Illinois comes to town for a 6 p.m. game.
Turnovers were the culprits Saturday. Four by the Penguins came at crucial times. Take away just two — the final interception by senior quarterback Brandon Summers at the Missouri State 4-yard line and senior tailback Kevin Smith’s fumble to open the third quarter deep in YSU territory — and it might have been a whole different ball game.
But they happened and the Penguins lost. And, while the season is definitely not over, it just makes things that much harder for YSU from here on out.
As coach Jon Heacock said after the game, “Things just don’t get any easier as the season goes on.”
The Penguins have the Leathernecks this Saturday. Western (1-3, 0-1 MVFC) suffered a 30-10 defeat to Southern Illinois on Saturday at home.
After the Leathernecks, the Penguins will have an open date (Oct. 17). This comes at a good time because after the breather, they step into the meat of the conference schedule with games against the top three teams in the conference: Southern Illinois, South Dakota State and Northern Iowa. The games against the Salukis and Panthers are on the road.
Most people figured the Penguins would be 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the conference going into the open date. But that has certainly changed. And, if things don’t get turned around quickly, the Penguins could find themselves outside looking in again before they even get to those big three.
Summers hasn’t been the saviour that everyone expected, and maybe he’s just trying to take too much on himself.
He very rarely runs the football and probably for good reason since the Penguins are very inexperienced at the backup quarterback position and neither Summers or the coaching staff needs for him to go down with an injury.
But for Summers to be successful and be the quarterback everybody expects him to be, he has to do some of it with his feet. He needs to make the defenses worry about him.
Right now he either hands off to a running back or drops back into the pocket, where he’s getting a lot of pressure. He has thrown eight interceptions in five games, six of which were in the last three games.
The Penguins rarely, if ever, run the option with him leading the way. If the worry is that he’s going to get hurt, then the team is in for more trouble than if it has to go to a backup.
The Penguins are struggling, and they haven’t even gotten to the good teams yet. While Heacock has a pretty good control of the defense, he has little or no input into the offense.
The season is far from over, but the Penguins need to start playing a whole lot better and quickly, especially on offense.
They’ve been behind in every game and not because of the defense. Saturday, the defense gave up an early touchdown on a long pass play, but came back the next series with a goal-line stand that forced Missouri State to settle for a field goal.
The offense can’t turn the football over four times and expect the defense to bail them out every time. That was obvious Saturday against a team that the Penguins were expected to beat.
With only three more home games in the final six, the Penguins are going to have to win them all and come up with a win or two on the road if they expect to make the postseason this year.
This YSU team has a lot of talent, especially in its senior class. As co-captain Mychal Savage said after Saturday’s game, “We have to regroup, go back to work tomorrow and get ready for the next game.”
XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. E-mail him at mollica@vindy.com.