Week 7 Recap: A Frustrating Homecoming
Penalty Problems
Penalties are a problem. Nobody can afford to give up free yardage in this conference, and UWF gave up too much on Saturday. Giving up double digit penalties and over 100 yards, would be difficult to overcome against most teams. This was a matchup of top 15 teams with playoff hopes so the margin of error is even smaller. There were really three big problems with penalties on Saturday the number, the situations, and bad calls.
West Florida committed 11 penalties for 107 yards. They had at least two penalties and at least 18 yards lost in each quarter of play Saturday. The loss of two first downs per quarter is difficult to overcome, but some of the situations in which the Argos got penalized were killer. They gave away two tough red zone penalties on West Georgia’s second touchdown drive, the first a pass interference against Sharod Oliver on 2nd and 13 that took the ball down to the 9 yard line. Then an unsportsmanlike penalty that gave the Wolves a fresh set of downs instead of a 3rd down attempt from the 2.
The Argos were driving in the 2nd quarter, down 17-0, but at the UWG 31. Austin Reed scrambled for 14 yards on 3rd and 9, but it was called back for a holding penalty. Instead of 1st down from the 16, UWF got 3rd and 19 from the 41, which they couldn’t convert and eventually punted.
The 4th quarter, which was the worst for penalty yardage (35), also had two bad situational penalties. Again driving, UWF had 3rd and goal from the 4 yard line, and David Durden gained two yards on a wildcat sneak. He was popped for an unsportsmanlike after the play, setting the Argos back for a 3rd and 19. UWF took it back down for a 4th down from the 7 and just missed on a throw from Reed to Mason, rather than a 4th down attempt from the 2 yard line.
Finally, on the clock draining six and a half minute final West Georgia drive, the Argos seemed to have a chance to get off the field after forcing a 3rd and 6 at the West Georgia 35. UWF forced an incompletion but were called for too many men on the field, giving the Wolves five yards and a second chance on 3rd down. They got a 2 yard run and converted on the next play, and were able to run the clock out.
You can always look back and question whether or not certain calls were valid but there were some bad calls and a no call that stick with me as not only big but particularly bad. One of the two personal fouls against UWF was pretty weak. The first against Artis on the goal line was a fair flag, but could have easily been offsetting, with the OL pretty clearly provoking. However, the second (against David Durden) was wild. Durden somehow sent a defender flying backwards onto the ground after the play down near the goal line. There was no big shove, he didn’t run into the defender, they were both standing relatively still but somehow #20 ended up on his butt in World Cup fashion. Finally, a pretty impactful no call was when Rodney Coates clearly was interfered with and/or horse collared in the end zone. With 2:40 left in the half Reed heaved one toward the end zone where he had an open Rodney Coates, the Wolves defender did what many DBs have done against UWF this year and just tackled their deep man to save a TD. Somehow this doesn’t get called and three plays later UWF was forced to punt. At this point the game was still 17-0 and a TD would have changed the complexion of the game as the clock ticked toward halftime. However it ended up working out as UWF punted to the 1 yard line and forced a safety, then scored after the free kick before the half expired.
Flipping the Script on the Lines of Scrimmage
Through the first five games the Argonauts have won the lines of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The pass rush has been elite, leading the GSC with 23 sacks going into this weekend. The West Florida front seven had multiple sacks in every game this season. On offense, the Line had given up just one sack on Austin Reed all season and had given him a good pocket to operate out of most of the time. They were paving the way for about 140 yards per game rushing and over 5 yards per carry. Those two units had been pretty constant even when other parts of the machine didn’t work at times during the season.
But West Georgia just had the Argos’ number on both lines Saturday afternoon. The Offensive Line only gave up one sack and officially no QB hurries, but unofficially the Wolves got the most consistent pressure against Reed of anyone this season. He wasn’t necessarily hit a lot, but he was moved off his spot pretty regularly and noticeably slowed down the rhythm of the offense. When he had to climb the pocket in traffic, the movement often lead to off target throws that Reed will typically make when he is moving side to side. As was kind of a theme on the night, the sack was situationally problematic for the Argos. UWF had 1st and 10 from the 12 and it backed them up 11 yards to the 23. This on a drive where they’d eventually opt to take a 42 yard FG than on 4th and 21, three plays later. On the play itself, Nasir Currie-Sudler came off the edge untouched, with RT Roman blocking down and Shomari Mason getting too upfield on the RPO to reach the blitzing Linebacker. It was more of a scheme issue than it was a player getting beat, but the pressure got home nonetheless and affected the drive, possibly to the tune of 4 points.
On top of the pass protection problem, the Argos just couldn’t get anything going on the ground. As we have talked about in the past, this is a passing team and sometimes the passing offense is just going to dominate the game. If UWF had won this game, I’d probably be writing about how Reed was so hot they abandoned the run because they didn’t need it. But context matters when looking back at what happened, and in this instance it really seemed like West Florida just abandoned the run after they found nothing there. This was twofold problematic, first it really interferes with the RPO pass game that has been so effective for UWF this season, second it deprived the offense of about 100 yards of offense and the ball control that usually comes with the run game working. Mason was averaging about 83 yards per game coming into the contest, he left the game averaging 73 yards per game. This was his worst game by more than half finishing with just 25 yards on 8 carries, 22 of which came on one play, meaning he averaged 0.4 yards per carry excluding the one long run. The Argos ran it 16 times and finished with only 55 yards of rushing, excluding the sack, both season lows. Their best quarter was a 3 rush 18 yard effort in the 3rd.
On defense, UWF had been as good as I’ve seen them on the line in 5 years. Maybe not the star power of John Williamson in 2017, but this unit as a whole has been really good and very deep. Before I talk about what went wrong, I will give them some props. The Line, and the front in general, really shut down the West Georgia run game for 3.5 quarters of the game. UWF allowed just 90 yards on 2.6 yards per carry, culminating in the Wolves second worst rushing night of the season (18 for 51 against UWA). Unfortunately, the Argos gave up their biggest run play when it mattered most, yielding a 12 yard run on 3rd and 9 with about a minute and a half left in the game, and essentially sealing it for the Wolves. In that final frame, UWF gave up 39 yards on 14 attempts on the ground. But where UWF really struggled was getting pressure on Harrison Frost. Against this offense pressure isn’t always going to equal sacks, which was the case, but they just could not make Frost uncomfortable in the pocket. Credit the OL and the scheme, UWF didn’t get 4 or 5 seconds to get to the QB, he was making quick decisions and finding open receivers in the intermediate game, never really having to load up for a deep shot. This nickel and dime offense has been the bane of UWF’s season so far, but they hadn’t faced playmakers like Frost, Harrison, Slade, and Cole. UWF got no sacks, no hurries, didn’t tally an INT, and allowed a 66% completion rate, all key indicators that Frost was kept clean and able to run their offense as designed.
Reed to Ashley
In a game with a lot of frustrating play, that didn’t go the way anyone had hoped, this connection was still a lot of fun to watch all evening. Austin Reed and Ka’Ron Ashley finally got it going this season, producing a 12 catch 169 yard 3 TD night where Ashley seemed to do it all. Coming into the game Ashley had just 206 yards and 2 TD on 15 receptions (12.8 avg), so he nearly doubled his season’s productivity in one night, all that against a really good defense. It was the best performance against the Wolves defense by an opposing WR all season, edging out Tyriq Martin of West Alabama who had 10 receptions 166 yards 1 TD in their win over the Wolves a couple weeks back. The 3 TD ties a school record held by Quentin Randolph and Anas Hasic, and it marked Ashley’s best individual performance in his long Argonauts career. Ashley was targeted 15 times, 29% of pass attempts, and clearly the Argonauts felt they had a favorable matchup with Ashley. Reed also finished the night with one of his best performances as an Argonauts. The 410 yards is his third highest yardage of his career, behind the 2019 National Title (523 yards) and West Alabama games (443 yards), and he did it on nearly 60% passing, which was his third best performance this year, while throwing a season high 51 attempts.
The two were in sync all night. As the 2nd quarter wound down, Reed took a shot to the end zone with Ka’Ron Ashley just missing the catch, but the pair knew they had the play and went back to it immediately, scoring on a 16 throw and catch the next play. It was one of those throws we have come to see from Austin Reed to Ashley or Coates, where he is able to put it into space and trust they’ll make an athletic catch. That sequence kicked off the most productive stretch for Reed on the night, starting at that TD catch and extending to the next time Austin Reed had an incomplete pass targeting Ka’Ron Ashley there were 25 throws. On those throws Reed completed 16 passes and there was a TD pass (to Ashley) called back for a penalty, so Reed completed 16 of 24 (65%) 240 yards 3 TD and 9 1st downs. Ashley Accounted for 9 targets, 7 completions, and the aforementioned called back TD during that same stretch, racking up 130 yards 3 TD 4 1st downs and an 18.6 per catch average. Their third TD connection was a virtual repeat of their first TD, Reed hit Ashley with a great timing throw for a 16 yard TD but it was called back for an ineligible downfield, backed up five yards on the subsequent play they dialed up almost the exact same throw and catch.
I thought Ashley was ripe to takeover the WR1 role leftover by the departed Randolph and Lehito, but he has had a quiet start to the season. It was really good to see him be more involved in the offense this week, hopefully a sign of things to come.
Nowhere to Run
Neither of these teams is a “running team.” They are among the most prolific offenses in the country, but primarily because the two QBs are near the top of the passing yards leaderboard. That being said both of these teams have been pretty good at supplementing offense by running the ball this year. West Georgia had averaged 146 yards per game and 4.7 yards per carry. They rushed for 100 yards in all but one of their games before facing UWF and were giving up 3.3 TFL (non sacks) on 30.8 attempts per game. UWF’s running game was surprisingly similar averaging 143 yards per game 5.2 yards per carry. They also had just one game under 100 yards this season and were giving up only 1.2 TFL per game (non sacks) on 27.8 attempts per game. Both teams were in the top half of the conference in rushing.
Knowing that, it was kind of surprising to see how the run game unfolded for both offenses. West Florida just struggled all game as discussed above finishing with less than 3 yards per carry average on the game and tallying season lows for per carry average (2.6), yards (44), TD (0), and carries (17). This against a UWG defense who had been giving up about 140 yards per game so far this season. West Georgia faired better, although modestly, having their second worst rushing night of the year finishing with their second lowest marks for per carry average (2.7) and yards (90), and failing to beat UWF’s average for rushing yards allowed per game (98.2), they scored just 1 TD on the ground. Both teams had just one explosive run, 22 yards for UWF, 12 yards for the Wolves. UWF also struggled in the power run game, unable to punch it in from inside the 5 on two attempts in a row on the first drive, and again getting stuffed near the goal line in the 4th quarter.
Final Thoughts and Players of the Game
All good things come to an end, and the West Florida win streak was no different. It was an awesome 11 games, West Florida knocked off a bunch of ranked teams, got revenge over their only conference loss at Valdosta State, won a championship, beat an FCS team, and all the individual performances that lead to a charmed run that encompassed two seasons and a season long wait between. But we move forward now and see if the Argos can get another streak going down the line.
The good news about D2 football is one loss doesn’t sink you, especially when your one loss comes against a top tier team who also has championship aspirations. Even more good news, UWF could still win the conference this season and the path isn’t even that narrow. If VSU wins out and so do the Argos, they’ll meet for all the marbles to close out the season in Pensacola, with UWG hypothetically having two losses (UWA and VSU) as well as UWA (UWF and VSU). Even more good news is UWF (#6) is still currently 3rd in the AFCA poll when looking at Super Region II teams, currently behind just VSU (#2) and UWG (#5), and comfortably ahead of Bowie State (#14) and West Alabama (#13). This means they’re still in line to likely host a playoff game come late November. So while this loss sucks, especially because it was such a near miss for the Argos, there is literally everything still to play for this season and the Argonauts know it.
This week the Argonauts get another home contest against Shorter who is just 2-5 on the season and winless in conference (0-4). Shorter played UWF tough for a half last year before the game ended in a blowout. I don’t expect a close first half this year, with the Argos out for revenge after the West Georgia loss.
Offensive Players of the Game: Austin Reed
Austin Reed was as good as we have seen him in 2021 on Saturday. His output was awesome 31 of 52 410 yards 3 TD 1 INT, completing just shy of 60% and 7.9 yards per attempt. But he was even more impressive to the eye test against the Wolves. He threw deep, hitting throws of 32, 34, and 21. He threw to Mason out of the backfield (9 targets 6 receptions 63 yards). He spread the ball among his playmakers, Ashley 12 catches, Mason 6 catches, Coates 5 catches, Rembert 4 catches, Durden 2 catches, and 1 each for Smith and Chanelle. He really had it going with Ashley, particularly on vertical release routes, where he caught all three of his TDs and the other TD which was called back. Reed was in one of those zones where he could put it into space and know Ashley would go get it. It is a shame that his individual performance is overshadowed by the game result, because Reed was fantastic.
Defensive Player of the Game: Anthony Johnson Jr
Anthony Johnson Jr is going to be a star in the GSC, he may already be UWF’s top cover corner and he isn’t scared to mix it up with the best WRs in the conference. His stat line from Saturday was good (5 tackles 4 solo 3 PBU) but he was ever so close to making another huge defensive play as the game drug on, and Quentin Randolph let people know about it on the broadcast. Johnson Jr was picking up on the timing of the in cut/out cut/comeback routes that make up the majority of UWGs passing game, and as he started to hone in on it he got closer and closer to picking one off. It culminated in a PBU where if he had attacked the inside shoulder of the WR instead of the outside it might have had a pick six for Johnson Jr. As it played out he got a hand on the throw and the ball went just out of Trent Archie’s reach, or it might have been a pick six for Archie. Johnson Jr now leads the team with 6 PBU and 2 INT, and the way he has played later those numbers are only bound to go up.
