The Morning After: Deja Vu, Argos Cruise 35-3 Over McKendree
In an eerily similar contest to last weekend, the Argonauts topped the McKendree Bearcats on the road 35-3 expanding once again on their impressive collection of road wins. It was another dominating defensive performance and steady offensive march, leading to an easy 30 point win that felt even less close than it was.
Sack Party
Coaches Conner and Melo have to feeling pretty good about their D Line right now after a second straight dominating performance. From the first snap of the game, UWF was in the backfield and stayed there all night long. This was without a doubt one of the most dominating DL performances I’ve ever seen from the Argos, and without having the entire record book available, I think the second most sacks in a game in program history. Four defenders combined for 7 sacks, six of them coming from DL, one from OLB Ralph Ortiz who got his second straight start at the Rover position. On a number of the plays it seemed like multiple guys were going to get there in a race to the QB. Maybe the biggest takeaway from the first two weeks is multi-positional DL John McMullen is a problem. He’s too quick for IOL and too strong for Tackles, and he got busy today tallying 3 sacks Saturday afternoon. His performance brings his two game total as an Argonaut to 5 which is already more than the team lead from last year. Homegrown veteran DL Aiden Swett also had a multi-sack game, adding two (after having just 2.5 over the last two seasons combined). EDGE Byron Puryear got one as well, his second in two weeks, and looks like the pass rusher of the future for UWF. On top of getting home, the pass rush caused turnover for second straight week, with McKendree QB Caleb Fisher forcing up an errant pass for True Freshman DJ Barnes to swipe for his first career college INT. Clearly this new defensive scheme has had a lot of influence on the defense’s mentality at the LOS. As the broadcast made it clear, McKendree was down men on the OL, but this was an impressive performance nonetheless. Now the Argonauts head to Tallahassee to face the best OL they are likely to see all year.
Efficient Outing for the Offense
This offense is interesting to me through the first two games. At times it feels like not much is happening, but even excluding the big special teams play the Argos piled up 487 yards and 25 first downs. They have just been methodical in a way that can really lull a defense to sleep over time. I think another reason that the results feel a little more sleepy than the game really was is because the Argos gained 132 yards on six drives that lead to no points (two punts, two downs, one INT, end of game). Aesthetics aside, Peewee Jarrett threw for 329 yards on 70%+ completions and tossed 4 TD to 1 INT. It was his best performance for total passing yards as an Argo, his third best for completion % (75.0%), and tied four other outings for the most TD passes (4). Through two games, Peewee has an Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt (ANY/A) of 11.6 which is staggeringly high. If you aren’t familiar, ANY/A is a kind of all encompassing passing metric which accounts for yards gained, TDs scored, INT thrown, and sacks taken/yards lost, to give you some comparative numbers for full seasons in 2019 during the National Championship run Austin Reed had an ANY/A of 8.3 , in his debut season last year Peewee put up an 8.7, and finally 2022 Harlan Hill (D2 Heisman) Colorado Mines QB John Matocha winner finished with an ANY/A of 9.7. Sample size obviously matters, but Peewee is off to a blazing hot start this season while completing 80% of his passes. It wasn’t just Jarrett that was on point Saturday afternoon, the Argonauts’ running game was able to really balance the offensive attack against the Bearcats. When you take away the one sack allowed and the 42 yard special teams run from Leggett, the Argos offense still posted 162 yards on 37 attempts for a 4.4 YPC average. Jamontez Woods scored his second TD in two games, the only score on the ground for West Florida, but the group was again lead by CJ Wilson and his 12 attempts for 60 yards.
Miscues, Near Misses, and Self Inflicted Wounds
It’s a blowout victory on the road, so there isn’t a lot to be negative about, but it is hard to ignore how much was left on the field Saturday. Starting with the elephant in the room, the Argonauts were penalized 15 times for a total of 160 yards (not always justifiably, in my opinion), numbers that cannot continue into league play. The Bearcats picked up multiple 1st downs in potentially drive ending situations a due to penalties, and when the Argos start playing better teams, starting in 6 days, they’re going to make UWF pay for those kind of mistakes. In a particularly bad stretch of offense UWF went punt, INT, downs, punt on four drives between 2:22 3rd quarter and 5:18 3rd quarter, averaging just 3.2 yards per play and failing to get into plus territory on 3 of 4 drives. There was quite a bit of pressure on Peewee on Saturday, something that UWF hasn’t really had to deal with over the last two seasons. He was able to escape most of the time, but threw a couple wild balls to avoid taking a sack which could be disastrous against more capable defenders. The one turnover of the night came from Jarrett forcing a ball across his body toward the end of the half, ending a drive when UWF was moving the ball near midfield trying to go up 28-3. Early in the game there was a shot into the endzone on 4th down that was hard to see exactly, but didn’t quite connect, and another turnover on downs where UWF just couldn’t move the pile on a short run. West Florida was able to overcome these mistakes, and after all it is still early season with a new staff and new faces all over, but if the Argos want to continue to be a playoff player and championship contender, these mental errors are going to have to be significantly reduced.
