The home-opener didn’t go as planned for FAU. Army marched into town and up and down Howard Schnellenberger Field, rushing for 412 yards en-route to a 24-7 victory, which snapped a 4 game home-opener win streak for FAU.
It was an unfortunate game offensively for FAU, as following a second-half against Michigan State where the unit showed promise, in this one FAU sputtered to 235 total yards of offense and only 1 touchdown.
There were a multitude of issues, as the run game was only able to account for 42 yards, never being able to break off any big plays. Fancher found success passing at times, but was overall inconsistent and when FAU got into 3rd and long situations, the Owls struggled, to the tune of 3-10 overall on 3rd.
On the defensive side of the ball, the unit fell victim to the option game, getting gashed for over 400 yards. The defense made plays to give FAU a chance, but the offense was unable to capitalize, ultimately forcing the defense to be on the field much more than they needed to be.
When a team is on the field for a while against a well-oiled machine like Army, they’re going to find ways to make plays and that’s exactly what they did, getting a career rushing day from Noah Short, capitalizing on his speed on the outside and running up and down the field.
It is a demoralizing way to lose, as FAU was unable to generate anything on offense and their defense made a couple of plays, but ultimately they fell victim to the ground and pound game.
Tom Herman said he told his wife he felt confident this morning about the game, but after the loss his emotion has changed to anger, and Herman says the team has to get back to work and figure out how to be consistent.
“I’m Angry, I’m Angry at myself, but I do know that we’re going to get back to work tomorrow. We have a long season. The silver lining is we don’t play another one of these in our conference for a while, but we’re not not going to beat anybody if we don’t take the steps necessary to play consistently, we’re pretty damn good when everybody does exactly what they’re coached to do, the way they’re supposed to, the way they’re coached. We’ll get back to work tomorrow, and we’ve got a challenge, though, as a staff, we have to figure out how to develop some more consistency, because, like I said, when we’re at our best, we’re pretty good, we’re just not at our best consistently enough,” Herman said.
Game recap-
The game started exactly how FAU didn’t want it to go, as they started with the football and immediately started with an incompletion, they set up a 3rd and manageable, but were unable to convert and Army got the ball back quickly.
Army was able to execute their game plan early in this one, as on their first drive of the day they did what they are known for and executed the option game to perfection. Army marched down the field in just under 5 minutes, converting 2 3rd and longs on outside runs which was a problem for FAU defensively early, and bullying FAU up the middle for an 8 yard score by Kanye Udoh to go up 7-0.
The next drive for the Owls was a bit more productive, as FAU was able to get both the run with Zuberi Mobley and CJ Campbell and pass game flowing with Fancher and George Johnson finding a connection and it allowed FAU to move up-field. The drive stalled shortly passed mid-field, as FAU got a 3rd and 5, lost 4 yards on a failed touch-pass, and couldn’t create separation ultimately turning it over on downs.
Getting behind the chains was an issue all day for FAU, and when the Owls got in those situations, they oftentimes were unable to convert and that is something Tom Herman says is a recipe for a disaster.
“In order to sustain drives, you’ve got to stay on schedule, we didn’t stay on schedule, and we’re not good enough offensively right now to be in 3rd and longs, it’s a recipe for disaster,” Herman said.
Army capitalized off that positive field position, and when they went for their first pass of the day, FAU wasn’t prepared and Casey Reynolds was wide open for a 44 yard TD to put Army up 14-0, and silence FAU’s home opening crowd of 21,810.
The two squads exchanged punts over the next 4 possessions, with Army taking time off the clock but unable to get any big plays like they did in the first quarter. On their 3rd drive of the second quarter, Daly began to operate the offense how he did in the first, picking up a pair of first downs on outside runs and had the ball inside the FAU 40, but freshman safety CJ Heard punched the ball away from Udoh and recovered the fumble setting up their first scoring drive of the day.
That was a big play for Heard, and the past 2 games have showed what is possible for Heard in this defense, and it’s something that FAU Coach Tom Herman is aware of.
“I think he’s got a huge, huge future here, he fits our culture extremely well, and he’s got a lot to improve on, don’t get me wrong, but 18 years old, to play in the two games that he just played in, and hold his own, at the very least, was impressive,” Herman said, .
FAU was able to put together their only complete drive of the day following that, as they converted a 3rd and 13 on a pass over the middle to Milan Tucker and rode with momentum from there. Following a holding penalty which advanced it past midfield, getting a few solid gains on the ground with Mobley and Fancher, and a bomb to Joe Young set up first and goal. Fancher found Omari Hayes over the middle for his first career score with just under a minute left, which made it 14-7 and that was the score going into half.
The second-half Army started with the football and they took 4 minutes off of the clock, getting a huge run from Noah Short once again, and they converted on a 35 yard field goal to go up 17-7.
FAU got the ball back and looked to have momentum like they did in the second-half, getting a 15 yard completion to Milan Tucker, a 7 yarder to Zeke Moore, and another 5 yard toss to Tucker, which set up 1st and 10 at the Army 45. Fancher rolled to his left and attempted a tough throw into double coverage, looking for Jayshon Platt, and it was intercepted, which set FAU back once again.
It was a tough turn of events for the Owls, as FAU looked to find the second half momentum they did last week, but instead the drive turned sour, and Herman believes that’s a throw Fancher will want back.
“The read was the safety, if the safety took that route, then the throw was to go to the outside receiver on his post, and we had leverage on the inside throw. I don’t think he saw the underneath defender and obviously I would think if he had to do it over one, he would have seen the underneath defender, and two, with that leverage put the ball out a little bit further,” Herman said.
Army did what they do following that, as they chewed 10 minutes of clock over 15 plays into the 4th quarter and FAU was able to get them into a long yardage situation, but Army snuck a trick play on them, converting a fake field goal for a 23 yard TD, going up 24-7 and putting FAU to bed.
Drives like that are tough to swallow for a defense, and FAU Coach Tom Herman said it wasn’t fatigue that hurt his defense today but it was an inability to limit run plays.
“Oh, I don’t know about attrition, I think, army is really good. They’re going to make plays in the run game. I mean, to get them off the field three and out or four, that doesn’t happen very often but you have to keep them off schedule, and you know, they were churning out, not only big plays, but the four or five six yards, you know, those have got to be one yard gains and two yard gains. So, yeah, I thought we would have played a little bit better on that side of the ball,” Herman said
FAU marched 73 yards down to the 2 yard line on their next drive, as Fancher found a connection with Marlyn Johnson finding him multiple times including to convert a 4th down and set up 1st and goal from the 2. FAU was unable to punch it in however, going 4 and out, and giving Army the ball back, where they chewed the final 8:44 off the clock, finishing off FAU 24-7.
Final Thoughts-
The past 2 games have been a tough test for FAU, as they were able to keep it close against a power opponent in Michigan State, but were unable to capitalize on the positives from that one and limped to a 24-7 defeat against Army.
There are adjustments that need to be made on both sides of the ball, as the run game on offense has been non-existent and it’a forced FAU into longer passing situations, which are not the strength of the Unit.
The Owls are going to have to come together over the next week, find a way to gel offensively and put together a complete performance against FIU and right the ship before it gets too late.
The window is open for FAU to find their Mojo over the next couple of weeks, facing off against FIU, UCONN and Wagner, but following 2 poor performances in a row, they will need to do some soul-searching to find what works.
FAU will take on FIU at 6 pm from FAU Stadium, and the Owls are currently riding a 6 game win streak in the series.