Too close for comfort, again

A comfortable 21-0 halftime lead turned into another nail-biter for the Bears against Southeastern Louisiana. Two defensive stops in the fourth quarter were just enough for UCA to win 28-21 and remain perfect in the SLC.



It started out slowly. Most of the comments I heard early on where how nothing seemed to be in sync – for either team. But luckily there was a second quarter to be played after the scoreless first.



The Bears had the ball three times in the quarter and scored three touchdowns.



Then, the bad news came as the team started warming up for the second half. Robbie Park was warming up, which isn’t too abnormal. The problem was Nathan Brown was not. He wasn’t throwing; he wasn’t stretching; he wasn’t out of the lockerroom at all. I was finally able to find out that Nathan had apparently suffered a concussion at some point in the first half.



No big deal right? Robbie has some good experience, although he hasn’t played all to often this year.



It looked like there was nothing to worry about. Robbie led the team straight down the field on the opening drive. A 25-yard completion to Willie Landers put the ball at the 1.



That great play was followed by another redzone blunder – a fumble. It was the game’s second trip to the redzone that resulted in zero points.



But, have no fear, the defense holds the Lions to three and out. And then the special teams stop a fake punt attempt to give UCA the ball at the Lions 24.



Four plays later Brent Grimes scores his third touchdown of the night to extend the UCA lead to an even more comfortable 28-0.



Time to relax a bit, maybe leave the stadium completely if you’re a fan – which some seemed to do. Nope. That’s not the way things were going to go on Saturday.



SELA then turned it up a notch. The Bears had just 46 yards of total offense on their next four drives. And the Lions had three touchdown drives of 65 yards or more to cut the lead to 28-21. Welcome to the drama that has become finishing games this season.



The Lions choose to not try the onside kick and instead kick it deep for a touchback. Seemed like the right decision as much as the UCA offense had struggled to move the ball. And boy was it the right call.



UCA ran three plays, mixed in a little false start penalty and netted -2 yards. The incomplete pass at third and 12 also meant the clock stopped and SELA would have just under three minutes left to try and tie it up – more than enough time.



Two SELA penalties – two of their whopping 15 on the night – made things difficult. A holding call on first down gave them an extra 10 needed to move the chains. After a big 12-yard run by their quarterback, a false start penalty set up second and 13.



Three incomplete passes later – the last batted down by Vance Fizer (I believe) very much like the play that ended the Texas State game – and the Bears had finally locked it up – for real this time.



Two things that stood out immediately to me. 1.) Who knows if the game is even close if Nathan plays the second half. 2.) That fake punt attempt by SELA set up the only UCA score of the second half – one that required moving the ball just 24 yards. You know what the say about hindsiight right?



Let’s hope that Nathan is able to come back next week. Let’s hope that even though he’ll like sit out most or all of practice this week, he will not be rusty. Nicholls just beat McNeese tonight. We may need to be 100% to go on the road and win next week.

Bears run out of San Marcos

The running game was clicking for the Bears on Saturday. UCA ran the ball more times (49) and for more yards (231) than any game this season – including the games against lower division foes – in their 31-24 win over Texas State.



The result of the successful running game meant that UCA was able to control the ball for 37 minutes of the contest.



The Bobcats were able to cut the UCA lead to seven with just 52 seconds remaining, but the Bears recovered the onside kick to seal it. According to Steve Sullivan’s play-by-play call, this attempt, unlike the attempt last week by Sam Houston State, had a real chance until Anthony Gambles used his vertical leaping abilities to go up and grab the ball.



Then came "The Best Play in Football" – the victory offense.



The score shows a difference of seven points, but if the Bears score on two consecutive possessions inside the redzone, the game isn’t even close.



Now give the Bobcats come credit here, but you can’t drive to the five and come away with nothing. And then only following possession, after Texas State cuts the lead to four with a field goal, the Bears again got into the redzone. Three plays netted one yard and Eddie Carmona missed his second field goal of the game.



A touchdown on just one of those drives just about puts the game out of reach. Field goals certainly make it more comfortable. Instead, it takes recovering the onside kick to seal it.



Further thoughts:

1. The last two games have included some very odd special teams play. This week was the Bobcat punting game. All three punts were kicked out of bounds. One was just a 17-yarder.
2. Brent Grimes averaged 6.3 yards per carry to get his 135 yards.
3. Marquez Branson caught two passes early, but didn’t catch a pass the final 43:45. Part of that has to do with the commitment to the running game, since Nathan Brown attempted just 3 third-quarter and 6 fourth-quarter passes.
4. Speaking of the third quarter, for the second straight game, the Bears scored zero points in the third quarter. There was opportunity to score in the quarter – see above re: missed field goal.
5. Brown completed 18-of-22 passes. That’s a spectacular 81% clip. But, he totaled just 163 yards passing.
6. The Bobcats took advantage of a 15-yard personal foul penalty with under 25 seconds remaining in the first half. On the next play, Texas State’s big-time receiver, Cameron Luke, caught an 18 yard touchdown pass. The radio crew was not happy at all about the call. Coach Conque was also not happy, but he was more upset about the lack of discipline from the defense. The drive went 74 yards in just 37 seconds. A 21-7 lead at the half would have made me feel a lot better.
7. UCA had no turnovers in the game.
8. The kick coverage unit was fantastic – in the beginning. Eddie Carmona’s first two kickoffs went for touchbacks. The next two returns went for just 18 and 15 yards. But Karrington Bush showed his speed on the next two, setting the Bobcats up with good field position after 46 and 49 yard returns.
   
9. Do you call it a positive? The UCA defense held(?) Bush to just an average of 7 yards per carry.
10. The second missed field goal lead to the Bobcats starting the drive on the 20.On the second play of the drive, UCA forced a fumble that Quad Sanders picked up and returned to the 8. UCA capitalized with a touchdown – probably the killer for the Bobcats.
11. The UCA defense had zero sacks. Larry Hart had just a single tackle. The unit gave up 376 yards of offense. Other than the drives to end the first and second half, they played well. But allowing touchdown drives in 37 and 23 seconds… yikes.

Going into the game, I was certainly not as concerned about Texas State as I was Sam Houston – even after they upset McNeese. Just when you thought that you could relax a bit, the Bobcats made another play to get some momentum back.



It was a fun game to listen to. But honestly, I’d prefer a boring blow out game next time.

Initial Reaction – Texas State

• UCA wins 31-24.
  
• The offense MUST learn to get into the endzone from inside the 10.
  
• And we can’t miss 27-yard field goals.
• The defense played a good game against a team that just put up 45 against the McNeese State defense.
• We ran the ball all over them – until we got inside the 10.
• Brent Grimes sounded phenomenal all game. I’ve been doubting whether we can run the ball enough to win some close games. Grimes was good today. 
• We must score when we get inside the 10.
  
• We played error-free football.
  
• Nathan was solid, but I thought we went too much to the run game. I know we’re ahead, running the ball at will – until we got inside the 10 – and using clock, but we didn’t take advantage of our best player.
  
• The UCA 3rd-down defense was outstanding.
  
• The UCA 4th-down offense got the job done.
• We must score we we get inside the 10.

I’m sure I’ll have some more thoughts once the official stats are up on ucasports.com. But for now, it’s off until dinner.



The Bears move to 2-0 in the Southland. Go Bears!

SHSU Second Thoughts

Game Stories

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Central Arkansas makes crucial stop in final minute Slugfest QBs shine in spotlight during offensive freenzy Not-so-special kickoffs killed the Kats (SHSU fan blog) UCA a little better than Sam Houston State in conference opener

• Larry Hart is a pass rushing machine. But the play of his that I remember most was the crushing tackle he made on a run play.
• The third quarter seemed to be a good one for the Bears in the past. This year is certainly not following that trend. UCA’s given up more points in the third quarter than any other. And, the Bears have scored fewer points in the third. The Kats got back in the game – and took a lead – during the third quarter by scoring 10 straight points. UCA’s offense that quarter? An interception and a punt.
• Two fumbles deep in SHSU territory netted UCA just 13 yards – total. Both drives resulted in field goals. A 21-7 lead sounds much better than 13-7.
  
• Eric Ware is very quick and apparently hard to tackle. Get him the ball in space and he can and will make people miss. His 61-yard rush accounted for 42% of the yards on the night. The problem for Ware on Saturday is that the Kats defended the receiver screens very well most of the night. Three of his four catches were for two yards or less.
• Penalties, penalties, penalties. There was plenty of "discussion" between Coach Conque and the officials Saturday night. UCA had twice as many penalties as SHSU. Sure, some of them were questionable. I’m sure Kat fans feel the same way. But six of UCA’s 12 gave SHSU first downs.
  
• UCA pulled out the ole pooch kick Saturday on third and very long. Nathan’s kick was a good one. But, another penalty gave the Kats the ball at the 30 instead of the 15. 
• Was Marquez Branson’s touchdown catch fun to watch or what? The little assist into the endzone by the defender at the end was also nice.
• Willie Landers has had back-to-back 100-yard games. He was two yards shy against Quincy from making it back-to-back-to-back.
• UCA’s had a 100-yard receiver in 4-of-6 games.
• The Bears have had zero 100-yard rushers this season.
• Isaiah Jackson’s return ability – or that of the entire team – changed the entire game.
• Nathan Brown completed 71% of his attempts, threw three touchdowns and threw his first interception of the season.
• And while the SHSU kicker and deep snapper have been discussed a lot. Some praise should go to UCA’s crew for being perfect on extra point attempts and field goals.

A special teams matter

I’m pretty sure Coach Conque called it. When you have two teams so evenly matched, mistakes and special teams can be what determines the outcome. Mistakes came out about even. Special teams were all UCA, and that led to the 48-46 Bear win.



Mistakes:

UCA – Penalties (12 for 128 yards!) and an Interception

SHSU – Fumbles lost (2) and an Interception



Special Teams:

UCA – FGs (2-for-2), PAT (6-for-6), net kickoff yardage (46.6)

SHSU – FGs (2-for-2), PAT (4-for-5), net kickoff yardage (27.9)



I said it right after Taylor Wilkins missed it. "That’s going to be huge." Lucky guess, sure. But it turns out I was right on. SHSU was pretty lucky that a few others squeaked through/over.



But the strangest special teams blunder was the backward onside kick at the end. I have watched a lot of onside kick attempts. Some don’t turn out so well. But I don’t think I have ever even heard about a kick actually going backward. It was the capper to the horrible night the Bearkats’ special teams had.



Moving on. There were some things that were very obvious Saturday night.

1. Rhett Bomar is a great quarterback. He made a mistake in the two-minute offense at the end of the first half. There was a defender a half-step from him the entire night, but he’d find the open receiver or scramble for a first down.
   
2. Nathan Brown is a great quarterback. He made a mistake – his first on the season – when the defensive end dropped back in protection or contain instead of going upfield. That resulted in a SHSU touchdown on the ensuing drive. He managed the offense well. He remained slippery when under pressure (only sacked once). And he always looks good in the victory offense.
   
3.  If there was a stat for hurries in the official stats, I think UCA would have set a new record. I don’t know if the UCA defensive line is just that good or if the SHSU offensive line was that bad. The pressure on Bomar was constant. The Bears had four sacks, and if Bomar wasn’t such a great runner, they would have had several more. It looked like the SHSU offensive line was tired in the fourth quarter. But refer to #1 above, it didn’t slow Bomar down too much.
4. SHSU had no, as in zero, faith in their kick coverage unit. After nearly getting burned for a touchdown return – called back due to one of those 12 penalties – it appeared the plan was to just let the Bears offense start at the 40 the rest of the night. Who knows if it worked out better for them. Also obvious, Isaiah Jackson looked very good returning those kicks.
5. Some of UCA’s players have to be more under control emotionally/mentally. Taylor Scott can’t hit Bomar late. It was going to be third and 10 I believe. The other roughing the passer call was bogus. But the referee knew it was bogus so on a play right after that when Bomar gets rocked, the flag stayed in his pocket.

I’m sure there are more. I’ll do a second thoughts blurb sometime soon, but it’s 1:00.