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YSU sloppy in blowout
Penguins defenders shut down Robert Morris Colonials
youngsown
It wasn’t the performance Youngstown State put up against Robert Morris last year when the Penguins had to force overtime before earning the win.
However, Saturday’s victory wasn’t the dominating performance head coach Bo Pelini was looking for either.
The outcome was never in doubt as YSU won 38-6 against a team that hadn’t scored since the opening kickoff in Week One against Alderson Broaddus.
But for most of the sloppy game, the Penguins didn’t look dominant.
“At times, we did some good things and at times we didn’t play very well,” Pelini said. “I don’t think we played very well offensively.
“I thought we took a step back in some areas,” Pelini said. “We played sloppy. I wasn’t real happy with the effort. We just didn’t get into a rhythm offensively for whatever reason.”
Trent Hosick started at quarterback in place of Ricky Davis, who has been recovering from a concussion suffered against West Virginia.
Hosick completed six of 12 passes for 112 yards in an offense that ran the ball 49 of their 62 offensive plays. Hosick threw two touchdowns and one interception.
It likely wasn’t the performance that will knock Davis off the number one spot on the depth chart when YSU welcomes South Dakota on Oct. 1 to start conference play.
“[Trent] needs to run the offense and go through his progressions,” Pelini said. “He did some good things but he’s going to see some things he left out there, too.”
The defense was much more consistent. Robert Morris went into halftime with a grand total of zero yards and ended the game with -13 yards rushing. The Colonials finished with 116 passing yards.
“Today went good,” linebacker Armond Dellovade said. “We had some missed assignments that we’ll work on but overall we played pretty good.
“Our front seven took a big step tonight. Holding a team to negative rushing yards is something you don’t see every night.”
The only severe defensive lapse came on a Robert Morris halfback pass from backup running back Sam Woods who found Eldin Anu for a 52-yard touchdown.
“Just a defensive breakdown,” Dellovade said. “It was well run on their side but we’ve got to stop that.
“We didn’t see any trick plays on film and I think they had three or four of them tonight and that one worked.”
Martin Ruiz had a solid game for YSU rushing 16 times for 165 yards and two touchdowns, one of them covering 80 yards. Still, Ruiz thinks he wasn’t at his best.
“I felt like I could’ve did better,” Ruiz said. “[I’m] never satisfied.”
The two main injuries on the offense, Davis and running back Jody Webb, who hasn’t played since the Duquesne game, shouldn’t be a concern for YSU against South Dakota after a week off.
“I think we’ll be fully healthy when conference play starts,” Pelini said. “I think Jody could’ve played today if we wanted him to.”
Nathan Mays came in during the fourth quarter to relieve Hosick once the game was practically sealed, apparently providing the last bit of light on the YSU quarterback depth chart with Mays being third string and Hunter Wells fourth string.
Once practice resumes this week, Pelini said his team is going to go right back to trying to perfect their fundamentals.
“They’ll get a couple days off but we’ll practice,” Pelini said. “We’ll do a lot of good on good and fundamental work.”
Dellovade knows the competition coming up in the Missouri Valley Football Conference will be a large step up from the Colonials.
“It’s big,” Dellovade said. “The Missouri Valley is a very tough conference. The teams in there are a lot better than the team we played tonight.”