YSU falls to Duquesne 28-25, as offense’s 2nd half struggles doom Penguins
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YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State found out the hard way that possession doesn't necessarily equal points.
Despite holding onto the ball for 25 more minutes than Duquesne, YSU struggled to convert its time advantage into scores, as the Penguins stumbled to a gutwrenching 28-25 defeat to the Dukes on Saturday at Stambaugh Stadium.
Head coach Doug Phillips didn't mince words about YSU's issues on both sides of the ball.
"It's our job to make sure that we have our kids ready," Phillips said. "I'm disappointed in myself for not having this team ready to play. As coaches, it's our job to put our kids in a situation to be successful, and I didn't feel good offensively, defensively -- didn't feel well, special teams (as well), and that comes down to preparation. They outcoached us, they outperformed us, outplayed us and outefforted us. (The Dukes) did everything they needed to do to come in here and get a win, and for that, we gotta find an answer."
YSU dominated the time-of-possession battle, holding onto the ball for 42:17, compared to 17:43 for the Dukes.
The Penguins scored on each of their three offensive possessions in the first half, but that changed after halftime. On YSU's first three drives of the second half, it held the ball for 8:28, 4:53 and 6:52, but didn’t score.
After getting the ball to start the second half, a long 13-play, 75-yard YSU drive ended with a turnover, as quarterback Beau Brungard was picked off by Duquesne's Antonio Epps in the end zone. The Penguins' two ensuing drives ended in punts.
"(Duquesne) did a great job -- (they said) let's keep the ball in front of us," Phillips said. "When you get long drives like that first one in the third quarter where it started at the 10-yard line and you get to the (opposing) 20, you're running the football. Then all of a sudden, we turn the ball over and get no points. When you're possessing the ball, you have to score touchdowns."
The mounting number of penalties didn't help YSU's offense, either, as the Penguins consistently found themselves behind the chains. YSU finished with 10 penalties for 96 yards.
"We always preach that penalties are killers; we can't have those," running back Tyshon King said. "To have 10 penalties, that just sets us back as a football team. We get a big play and have to bring it back for a penalty. Penalties are drive killers and drive starters for an opposing offense. We gotta clean it up, and that's just playing with fundamentals."
On the flip side, the Dukes scored two touchdowns on their three second-half drives. One of those scores came after the turnover when Duquesne quarterback Darius Perrantes connected with Tedy Afful from five yards out for his second score of the game.
Defensively, the Penguins are still looking for answers up front with their run defense.
Coming into the weekend, YSU gave up 205 rushing yards per game through the first two weeks of the season.
The Penguins allowed Duquesne's JaMario Clements to run for 204 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries on Saturday. Clements had a 72-yard run in the first half that set up the Dukes' first score, then he put the game on ice and gave Duquesne a double-digit lead with a 75-yard touchdown run with 1:40 to go.
"That's a work in progress," Phillips said of the run defense. "You come out and you want to stop the run. That's one of our measurements of toughness. So we gotta find out what we're doing. We had some run fits there. You can watch film (on the field) now, so you're seeing it. You got a guy in the gap and he's gotta make that tackle. So we have to go back and we have to coach that better. We can't allow it to open up the way they did."
After Clements' last score, YSU's offense finally found some life in the final two minutes.
The Penguins went 75 yards in 11 plays, as YSU capped it off with a 1-yard touchdown run from King, his second of the game. After getting the two-point conversion, the Penguins tried an onside kick with 20 seconds left, but it was recovered by the Dukes.
"I tell you what, I'm probably not going to sleep tonight," Phillips said. "I'm going to sit there and think, what can I do better as a head football coach to get this team ready to go for the next nine weeks because it don't get easy. We gotta come back tomorrow, and we gotta come with a great attitude, a great work ethic and we gotta be problem solvers and figure out a way to stop the run, figure out a way to play complementary football on offense, defense and special teams."
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