Monday notebook: Saluki defense played “winning football” but offense had too many negative plays
CARBONDALE, Ill. — During his weekly presser on Monday, Southern Illinois head coach Nick Hill said the team’s defense played “winning football” in the 28-16 loss to Youngstown State, while adding that film review showed “we weren’t good enough” on offense.
Negative plays on early downs put the offense in a deep hole, Hill said. The Salukis faced 2nd-and-10 or longer 11 times. Likewise, it stared down 3rd-and-8 or longer 11 times.
“We were able to overcome some of those down and distances, but not often enough,” said Hill, whose team was 4-of-15 on third down, and a respectable 3-of-4 on fourth down.
Hill pointed to a handful of key plays where, if the offense had executed better, it might have changed the outcome.
For example, the Salukis were leading, 10-7, when SIU safety Matthew McClelland intercepted a pass by Beau Brungard early in the third quarter. Southern had the momentum, and the offense drove to the YSU 32. On a key 3rd-and-4 play, a DJ Williams pass to Markell Quick was slightly behind the receiver and fell incomplete. Hill said Quick might have gone the distance had he caught the ball in-stride. Instead, Southern went for it on fourth down, Williams was sacked, and YSU got the ball back still trailing by three.
After Youngstown State took a 14-10 lead in the third quarter, Williams was strip-sacked at the SIU 20 on a play where the Penguins only brought three rushers. Hill said that can’t happen.
“When you’re playing good teams, you have to win one-on-one matchups,” he said.
Youngstown proceeded to complete its only touchdown pass of the game on the next play to make the score 21-10.
Perhaps the most obvious set of critical errors by the offense took place early in the fourth quarter.
After Williams made a brilliant 36-yard completion to Kyle Thomas to make it first-and-goal at the YSU 7, tight end Karsen Konkel was flagged for a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty, backing the offense up to the 21. Williams then completed an 11-yard pass to Tae Marrero Jr. and an eight-yarder to Allen Middleton to place the ball at the YSU 2, but a rare offensive facemask penalty was called on tackle Jacob Katauskas, pushing the ball all the way back to the 25. On 3rd-and-25, Williams found Middleton open on a seam route near the goal line, but the receiver juggled the ball before it ended in the arms of a trailing defender for an interception.
“It’s a game of inches with that ball down the seam,” Hill said.
The Salukis (3-3, 1-1) dropped four spots to No. 25 in this week’s Stats Perform poll. They have another top 10 matchup on Saturday when they play at No. 10 South Dakota (4-2, 1-1) in a rematch of a five-overtime game won by the Coyotes last season.
In other news, ESPN announced that SIU’s nationally televised game versus Illinois State on Oct. 17 will air on ESPNU at 3 p.m.
Here’s a detailed look at Southern’s performance from Saturday, plus our weekly StrongDawgs MVFC Power Rankings.
The Defense
In recent weeks, StrongDawgs has documented how well Southern’s defense is playing. Saturday’s body of work versus Beau Brungard provided even more confirmation.
Here’s a revealing stat. In the last two seasons, only four teams have held Brungard below 300 total yards (passing and rushing): Michigan State, North Dakota State, Kentucky and Southern Illinois.
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