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| Ethan Harris caught six passes for 95 yards in Furman's 52-7 loss at Western Carolina Saturday. Photo courtesy of Furman |
CULLOWHEE, NC - During pregame warm-ups about 45 minutes prior to Furman's football game at Western Carolina Saturday afternoon, All-American kicker Ian Williams was going through his typical rotation of field goals. On one of his shorter attempts, the pigskin soared over the large, ball-getting netting behind the goal posts and landed on the roof of the field house at EJ Whitmire Stadium.
It was an impressive, albeit unimportant, sight to behold. Hopefully, Furman fans already in attendance saw it because it's not like they had much else to admire the rest of the day. Western Carolina didn't pass for more than 600 yards like it did last season at Paladin Stadium, but it did put up the same point total and had a wider margin of victory this year as the Catamounts dominated their way to a 52-7 victory. The Paladins had five turnovers and didn't force any in their most lopsided FCS defeat since a 45-0 home loss to Samford on Oct. 25, 2014.
"Credit to them. They just whipped us in every way. They were tougher than we were. They outcoached us," Furman coach Clay Hendrix said. "We're our own worst enemy sometimes and we've been that way throughout this year and it really hasn't caught up with us until today. It catches up with you against a really talented, good team.
"I'm just really disappointed with some mistakes we continue to make. Our immaturity showed up today and really cost us."
While the first quarter ended scoreless, it was far from uneventful. The game began with a typical Furman kickoff return that saw the Paladins begin at their own 15. Coming off a 500-yard performance the previous Saturday in a win over ETSU and facing the 117th-ranked defense in the FCS, Furman produced one yard on its first possession in going three-and-out. A 14-yard punt return to Furman's 41 set the tone for field position as most of the first half was spent on the Paladins' side of the 50.
It appeared that Western also had gone three-and-out when Billy Lewis picked off a pass at the goal line on the Catamounts' third snap, but that turnover was wiped out by an interference penalty on another defender 20 yards upfield. Furman did force a turnover on downs when Caldwell Bussey stopped Western's Patrick Boyd for no gain on a 4th-and-1 at the 14.
Furman's next possession began with Trey Hedden hitting Ja'Keith Hamilton on a 19-yard pass over the middle. It appeared to be a good start to what could've been another big week for Hamilton after he stepped up with a monster day the previous Saturday, but he didn't get up. After being checked on for several minutes, Hamilton had to be helped off with some kind of foot injury and never returned. Just four minutes into the game, Furman's leading two receivers were on the sideline as Evan James (shoulder) remained out. Tight end Jackson Pryor was also out with an injury Saturday.
The Paladins drove to the Western 47 where Hedden took a deep shot to the end zone. It initially appeared that Kerry King caught a touchdown, but before he could get a firm handle on it the Catamounts' Hasaan Sykes wrestled it away for an interception.
"We just let the guy take the ball away from us," Hendrix said. "It was a huge play in the game."
Western's next snap resulted in Joshua Stoneking padding his FCS-leading stat total to 10.5 this season. Two plays later, Taylen Blaylock had what would've very likely been a pick-six, but he couldn't haul in the pass and settled for a third-down pass breakup. It looked as if Furman at least finally won a field position battle, but the Catamounts' Stephen Brantley delivered a 62-yard punt that was downed at the 19.
Late in the first quarter, Dylan Chiedo and Tre' McLeod teamed up for a sack of Taron Dickens. That was the last time Western's record-breaking quarterback was sacked though, which probably had a lot to do with how things turned out. That sack brought up a 2nd-and-22, but the Catamounts ended up converting on third down and got on the board early in the second quarter with a 44-yard field goal by Marcus Trout.
On Western's next possession, it appeared that Furman recovered a fumble near midfield as tight end Josiah Thomas twisted his way for yardage on a third-down catch. There was no whistle heard on the television broadcast as the ball popped free. No part of Thomas' body ever hit the ground. No official came running in pointing to the ground to signify that he was down and the play was over. No official bothered to mention that his forward progress was stopped. There was no video review of the play.
Officials just spotted the ball and Western quickly snapped it. On the next play, Dickens threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Michael Rossin as the Catamounts took a 10-0 lead.
On the third play of the Paladins' ensuing possession, another judgement call went Western's way on a fumble recovery. It appeared that the ball was starting to come loose as Gavin Hall's backside hit the turf and fully came out when his full body hit the ground. The Catamounts' Justin Wallace grabbed the ball when it was in bounds, but as he pulled it into his stomach it appeared that his body was out of bounds. Officials actually reviewed this one and the turnover call stood.
Four plays later, Dickens found Joshua Perry for a nine-yard touchdown. In a five-minute span of game time it went from scoreless to a 17-0 lead for Western.
"We've been a pretty resilient group if you look at our year. We don't win those games in the fourth quarter if we weren't, but we haven't been popped in the mouth like we were today," Hendrix said. "We've got to get the right guys on the bus. If there's some guys that don't need to be on the bus, we've got to get them off the bus. Some guys that keep making similar mistakes, we've got to look at that."
After the Paladins responded with a three-and-out, the officiating ineptitude hit a laughable low on the Catamounts' next possession. Dickens was pressured and made a backhanded throw at the feet of a Western lineman. The closest official threw a flag for an obvious intentional grounding, but after officials huddled they ruled that it was a fumble recovered by Furman. Another huddle precipitated a video review. The review resulted in the ruling switching to an incomplete pass - and they even remembered to enforce the intentional grounding penalty!
Western pushed the lead to 24-0 with 1:38 left in the half. Hedden threw into a crowd and the Catamounts' Ken Moore picked it off and returned it 64 yards for a touchdowns. There were offsetting unsportsmanlike penalties during the play, which typically results in a replay of the down. But they came after the interception, which allows the play to stand. ... I guess. It's the kind of thing more competent officials would probably explain when announcing the penalty, but no such luck Saturday.
Furman's lone score sort of came by accident. The Paladins seemed content to just get into halftime before another fiasco hit but after two short runs, Western called timeout with 57 seconds left. On 3rd-and-5, Hall finally found some space and popped off a 23-yard run. That led to Hedden finding Joshua Burrell wide open in the end zone for an eight-yard touchdown pass. Facing a defense that was allowing 37 points per game entering Saturday, the Paladins finally got on the board with 13 seconds left in the half.
Any glimpse of hope for Furman after the late score in the first half quickly went out the window after halftime. After all of the snakebites the Paladins endured in the second quarter, the venom took effect in the third. Boyd carried the ball on each of the first four plays of the second half for 34 yards. On the fifth play, Dickens hit Malik Knight perfectly in stride in the end zone for a 41-yard touchdown.
Furman drove to the Western 11 on its first possession of the second half, but Hedden's pass to the end zone was underthrown and easily picked off by Moore.
After a 12-play, 80-yard touchdown drive by the Catamounts, the Paladins had a 13-play possession. On 4th-and-goal from the two, Hedden was sacked and fumbled and the ball was recovered by Moore. It was Hedden's fourth turnover Saturday and Furman's fifth.
"We get stopped at the two and then (later) we just lob one up on third down and they pick it off and take it back to the house. We just need an awareness of where we are," Hendrix said. "It certainly hurt losing Ja'Keith after already losing Evan. So now you know you're going to be playing against loaded groups, so you've got to be able to throw and win with some guys that maybe don't do that as much. I thought Ethan Harris still competed at a high level."
The Paladins may want to look into making the second Saturday in October a permanent bye week. Saturday marked their highest turnover total since five against Chattanooga in a 41-10 loss 364 days earlier. They also forced none that day. Prior to last season's loss to Charleston Southern, in which Furman lost four turnovers and forced none, the Paladins never had a minus-four turnover margin in any game under Hendrix.
Furman's final possession ended as the clock expired with the ball at Western's five-yard line. That left the Paladins with 1-of-4 showing in red zone scoring for the game. To be fair on the last one, it wasn't like Furman was pulling out all the stops to try to cut the lead to 38. Unlike some other coaches in the SoCon, Hendrix doesn't really seem interested in chasing meaningless points.
"Obviously, Trey had a tough day. We've just got to make good decisions. It's okay to punt. It's okay to kick a field goal. We can't just give them the ball," Hendrix said. "I still like this group of kids, but we're not good fundamentally right now and that's on me.
"We are who we are. It's not like everything is going to change drastically. You can always tweak and refine some things. ... We can't get an edge on somebody and we can't set an edge on somebody. And if I see another quarterback scrambling because we run past him ..."
Hedden completed 18-of-35 passes for 208 yards. His top target was Harris, who had 95 yards on six receptions including an incredible 36-yard catch along the sideline while he was being heavily covered. Ben Croasdale got his first significant action this season in the fourth quarter and led the Paladins (4-2, 2-1 Southern Conference) in rushing with 72 yards on six carries, including a 50-yard run.
Dickens finished with 220 yards passing with four touchdowns and no interceptions, and also rushed for 48 yards, for the Catamounts (4-3, 3-0).
Next up for Furman is a trip to Wofford on Saturday for a noon kickoff.
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