YSU’s offense efficient, explosive in win over Racers
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Despite riding a five-game win streak, the Youngstown State football team's potent offense had experienced bouts of inconsistency in recent weeks.
YSU looked lethargic in the first halves against Southern Illinois and North Dakota and the second half against Northern Iowa.
But on Saturday, the Penguins looked to be back to their efficient and explosive selves against Murray State. Quarterback Beau Brungard and the rest of YSU's offense put on a clinic against the Racers, running away with a 62-35 victory in Kentucky for the Penguins' sixth-straight win.
"It was just execution, playing faster, playing more physical, playing with better fundamentals than what their defense was able to do," YSU head coach Doug Phillips said in a phone interview. "I think Beau had four incompletions the whole game for 400 yards and four touchdowns, so it's pretty good when you have him driving the ship. To be able to throw the ball like that, find open receivers and take care of the football, it was just a great offensive output."
YSU scored touchdowns on all nine of its offensive possessions and finished with 589 total yards, while averaging 8.9 yards per play.
Brungard ended the afternoon completing 31-of-34 passes for a career-high 423 yards and four touchdowns. His passing performance also broke Montgomery VanGorder's single-game school record of 418 passing yards set in 2018.
Brungard had 22 straight completions at one point during the afternoon, breaking another school record of 15 set by Tom Zetts in 2004.
Wide receiver Lynn Wyche-El also continued to inch closer and closer to 1,000 receiving yards on the season.
He finished with 10 receptions for 145 yards and a touchdown, his fourth straight 100-yard receiving performance and sixth total of the year. Wyche-El also has at least one touchdown in all 10 games this season.
"I just come in with my head down and one thing I love is winning, just doing whatever my team needs to win," Wyche-El said. "If I can help in any way that's possible, I'm going to do it. If that means me getting 100 yards and a touchdown, I'll do it. If it means me blocking all game with two yards or no yards, I'm gonna do it. I just really love winning."
Despite its best efforts to keep itself in the game, Murray State just could never get out of its own way, especially in the first half.
Two failed onside kick attempts, a mishandled field goal attempt, penalties and two turnovers on downs before halftime doomed any early momentum that Murray State generated.
If not for YSU's offensive efficiency and some missteps by the Racers, Murray State might have been able to make it a game.
YSU's defense, which has been steady and much-improved for most of the year, was shaky against Murray State.
Racers quarterback Collin Shannon was 23-for-39 for 351 yards and three touchdowns, and MSU finished with season-highs 536 total yards and 35 points, just the third time all year that the Penguins have given up more than 400 total yards.
"It wasn't a good showing, and that's something I want to break down, look on film, see what we're doing with the communication and the alignment," Phillips said. "We're going to enjoy the win now, but man, we gotta find some corrections. That's a reality check too. Defensively, you don't want to put that stuff on film. So we gotta play better."
The Penguins will close out the regular season at home next week against Illinois State, before waiting a week to find out their fate for the FCS playoffs.
"Last year, I thought going into the last couple games, we weren't playing up to where we needed to. We gotta make sure we keep getting better and that we're playing all three phases of football," Phillips said. "Today wasn't three phases, so we gotta get back to work and make sure we get a lot better this coming week."