Jacob Spiwak
Asst. Sports Director
Sometimes in the great sport of football, a team can play a solid all-around game and still not have much of a chance to win on that given day.
As unfortunate as that can be, it’s exactly what happened to FIU (2-2) this past Saturday, Sept. 26.
The Panthers dropped their Conference USA opener by a score of 27-17 to the Louisiana Tech University Bulldogs (2-2), a team that many have picked as their favorites to win the conference.
Despite the final score, FIU didn’t play poorly at all; in fact, I’d argue that they played fairly well for the most part. They didn’t turn the ball over a single time and their defense hung in there with an offense that had scored an average of 44.3 points per game in their first three contests. However, a combination of costly penalties, inability to get past the Bulldog’s massive defensive line and LA Tech’s star running back, Kenneth Dixon, led to a game where FIU just didn’t really stand much of a chance.
There’s no shame in getting burned by Dixon, who had 169 yards on the ground with two rushing touchdowns and was on the receiving end of another. I’ve been saying for the past couple seasons that I expect Dixon to have a successful career in the NFL given his incredible career numbers (3,934 rushing yards with 68 total touchdowns) and he continued to impress time and time again against FIU.
The Bulldogs offense always gets a lot of well deserved credit, but their defense is often overlooked. Led by their impressively strong front seven, LA Tech made it very difficult for sophomore quarterback Alex McGough and the FIU offense to move the ball. FIU avoided turning the ball over, which was a major step for an offense that has struggled with turnovers all season, but their inability to sustain drives and put up enough points to keep pace with LA Tech cost them.
There were quite a few players who stepped up with great performances for the Panthers, and they’re the main reasons why the Panthers were able to stay in the game. McGough looked pretty good in the pocket even though he was under constant pressure from LA Tech’s defensive line all game, completing 29 of his 44 pass attempts for 263 yards and two touchdowns. Junior linebacker, Treyvon Williams, was seemingly everywhere as he led the Panthers with 11 total tackles.
Other key contributors included sophomore running back, Alex Gardner, senior cornerback, Jeremiah McKinnon, and senior tight end, Ya’Keem Griner.
The two main concerns I had while watching the game were the lack of touches for Anthony Jones and the play calls that consistently gave the ball to Gardner up the middle for little-to-no gain. Jones has shown flashes of greatness at times this year, but the true freshman hasn’t gotten enough touches to show exactly why there’s so much hype around him. Hopefully the coaching staff is able to get him more involved in the coming weeks, as the Panthers won’t face too many defenses that are as talented as LA Tech’s.
As far as all of the running plays, I really would’ve liked to see more deep passes down the field. LA Tech’s biggest strength on the defense is their enormous line and the inexperienced secondary is by far their biggest weakness. Despite this, it seemed as if a lot of drives were stalled because Alex Gardner was called on too much even though he wasn’t given any rushing lanes and McGough was rarely given the chance to drop back and pass.
At the end of the day, FIU would’ve needed to play essentially a perfect game to keep up with the Bulldogs and unfortunately that just isn’t how it turned out. This isn’t a game that many people gave FIU a chance in and to their credit, they were in it until the very end. Last season’s team more than likely would’ve gotten blown out in a game like this, so I still think Panthers fans can take some positives out of the game no matter the result.
FIU will play their final non-conference game this Saturday, Oct. 3, as the Panthers head up to New England to play the University of Massachusetts Minutemen (0-3).
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