24-34 Hornet loss. Tough game, Hornets battled but ultimately the Hornets just didn’t execute at the level needed to advance in the postseason. USD is a solid team, but they don’t have any players that jump off the screen at you and I felt this game was for the taking if the Hornets hung in there. The Coyotes did what they needed to do and ground out a win.
On defense, I believe the Hornets did enough to put this team in a position to win. The Hornet front handled USD’s physicality fairly well and while I didn’t expect the Hornets to shut down USD’s ground and pound offense, the defense hung in there. The Hornets forced a fumble that was cashed in for points that negated one of the Hornet turnovers, forced a couple of field goals when USD was in scoring position, and forced 4 punts. The Hornets did have a blown coverage for a touchdown and gave up some chunk yardage plays, but USD could have ran away with this game and the Hornet defense didn’t let that happen.
The otherside of the ball was a mess. Coach Fresques’ play calling was questionable at times and it didn’t seem like the play calls allowed the offense to get in a rhythm. Fulcher (14 car, 63 yds, 2 TD, 2 rec, 15 yds) was a total beast today. Kaiden Bennett (3/7 34 yds, 1 INT) left the game early with a shoulder injury but Carson Camp (14/23, 168 yds, 1 TD) came in and provided a spark. The most disappointing aspect of this game (beside play calling) was the performance by the receivers. Marshel Martin (3 car 41 yds, 2 rec, 6 yds) finished his disappointing season with a disappointing performance. An early drop on a tough play on the opening drive resulted in a punt but he had a crucial drop late in the game with the Hornets driving down 2 possessions. Carlos Hill (3 rec, 39 yds) dropped/tipped a ball early in the game that gifted USD with excellent field position that they cashed in for a touchdown. Offensive line could have been better, but they functioned well enough to allow the Hornet offense to move the ball. The execution just wasn’t there in this game on this side of the ball.
Special teams were fine. A couple of bad returns put the Hornets in bad field position but Elijah Tau-Tolliver had a nice kick off return on a fake reverse that set up the Hornets with good field position. Zach Schreiner (1/1 FG, 3/3 PAT) made a late field goal to keep the Hornets within 2 possessions.
Here are my takeaways from the game:
- Coach Fresques needs to do away with all the cutesy play calls (reverse passes, end arounds). They rarely work and fool no one. There were also too many slow developing run plays that the Hornet offensive line just couldn’t get set up on against such a strong defensive front. Freques should know better by now. Every time it seemed like this offense was getting in a rhythm, Freques went away from what was working. This team was moving the ball just fine with the base plays, no need to get cute.
- KB looked ready to ball. He was throwing darts prior to his injury, it’s a shame he had to leave the game.
- Camp was impressive with both his arm and legs. He needed to connect on that pass to Grover late in the game as that would have cut it to one possession. Camp did take some bad sacks and needed to throw the ball away on a couple of busted plays.
- Hornet receivers were the biggest disappointment of the game. There were plays there for the making and this group didn’t make them. In addition to Marshel’s drops, he got blown up on that KB run play that resulted in the fumble and scoop and score. That scoop and score was essentially the ball game and it wouldn’t have happened if Marshel wouldn’t have gotten punked on that play.
- An exception to the above is Anderson Grover (3 rec, 79 yds). He had a hell of a postseason...if only he could have made that tough catch on that ball late in the game...
- Fulch was a total beast out there today. That juke he made in the readzone that broke some ankles was something else. Fresques should have played the hot hand and gotten him more touches.
- Offensive line was meh. Good on some plays, terrible on others. A handful of procedure penalties that put the offense behind the sticks.
- Defense played well up front. Aside from a couple of chunk yardage plays, I thought they played the run well and kept things mostly contained. Hard to expect more from them than what we saw today.
- Secondary has had issues with blown coverage all season so it was no surprise to see it happen with the 2nd/3rd string. The coaches need to get that rectified this offseason.
I know we were all hoping for a win today but a 8-5 season with a road playoff win is a great season. This program was written off by the pundits (and doomers on this board) when Taylor bailed so the fact that this program made the postseason and was one of the last 16 teams standing for the 4th straight season shows that this program is here to stay. There are some things to work on and positions to fill following graduation (and the portal) but this program has a strong foundation that should allow them to be successful into the foreseeable future.
Stingers Up!