Mistakes have cost Penguins

October 31, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

By STEVE WILAJ

youngstown

Bo Pelini wasn’t even sure it made sense — he double-checked with the room after he said it at Tuesday’s press conference — so hang in there if this quote isn’t clear right away.

“If somebody beats us, they beat us,” Pelini said. “But I don’t want to lose football games. Sometimes I feel like we’re just losing the football games.”

Huh? Here’s what he means:

Heading into today’s 2 p.m. matchup at Western Illinois, Youngstown State ranks seventh out of 10 Missouri Valley Football Conference teams in turnover margin at negative-one. More specifically, in the Penguins’ last three games — all loses — they’ve committed five turnovers and forced zero.

So while YSU (3-4, 1-3) had its hands full with three talented opponents in the past few weeks, it didn’t do itself any favors, either.

“We need to execute our plan and do it with more physicality, better effort, more consistent effort and the things that allow us to play good,” Pelini said. “That has to happen and we have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot.”

In a 31-29 loss to Illinois State on Oct. 10, quarterback Hunter Wells threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown on YSU’s first possession. The next week in a blowout loss to South Dakota State, Jody Webb fumbled away the game’s opening kickoff (which led to a SDSU touchdown), before Wells tossed an interception later in the game.

Then, in last week’s 38-31 overtime loss at Southern Illinois, Webb lost a fumble in SIU territory, while Wells threw another pick-six to open the second half. Surely, the Penguins are focused on eliminating the self-inflicted wounds today.

“You’re not gonna call a perfect game and you’re not gonna play a perfect game,” defensive end Derek Rivers said. “Nobody has every played a perfect game. ... But it’s just one of those things where you want to almost play a perfect game.”

No doubt, YSU will need to limit its mistakes to beat No. 23 WIU (4-3, 3-1).

Winners of three of their past four games, the Leathernecks rank third in the MVFC in turnover margin at plus-five. Also, their defense was playing well before allowing 48 points to SIU last week, while WIU boasts, arguably, the conference’s best receiver in Lance Lenoir.

Through seven games, Lenoir leads the conference in catches with 47. He also averages 92 receiving yards per game and should be a good test for YSU’s top-ranked pass defense.

“They put up points and have one of the best defenses in our conference,” said YSU receiver Andrew Williams, who finished with six catches, 150 yards and two TDs last week. “At the same time, our offense has to put up points to give ourselves a chance and we know our defense is gonna do their job.”

Playoffs?

Maybe, just maybe, the Penguins’ playoffs hopes are still alive — at least that’s what they’re thinking, anyway.

“We have to win four games,” Rivers said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Should YSU win out, it would finish with a 5-3 conference record. That mark would at least put the Penguins back into consideration for the 24-team postseason tournament.

“It’s one of those things where we have to ask ourselves, ‘What do we want to do?’” Rivers said. “‘Do we want to go to the playoffs?’ Then we have to prepare like we want to go to the playoffs.”

Added Williams: “We’re still hungry and we still want to win. We haven’t given up our faith. We know what we still need to do — and that’s win.”