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| Luke Shields had Furman's lone touchdown in the Paladins' 20-15 loss at Tennessee Tech Saturday. Photo courtesy of Furman |
In the words of Pittsburgh weatherman Phil Connors, "Well, it's Groundhog Day ... again."
Watching Furman football this season has kind of been like living the same Saturday over and over again. The latest version of the usual script came Saturday at new Southern Conference member Tennessee Tech. The Golden Eagles were coming off their first loss of the season, but were still ranked 15th in the FCS Stats Perform poll. It was the Paladins' fifth game against a ranked foe this season, more than any other FCS team has faced.
Once again, Furman held its own against a solid opponent and was just one or two plays away from pulling out a victory. After making those necessary plays to rally for a win at Mercer on Sept. 12, Saturday was the fourth consecutive week that the Paladins didn't as Tennessee Tech posted a 20-15 win.
Like all the other games in that stretch, Furman's defense gave up an early score or two to put the Paladins in a hole then played lights out the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Furman's offense was non-existent in the first half. The offense came to life in the second half enough to have the ball with a chance to win late, but couldn't pull it out. All four losses have come by seven points or less.
"We've got talent, but we've almost got to be perfect sometimes and we're certainly not," Furman coach Clay Hendrix said on the Furman Radio Network's postgame show. "I can't really fault them for anything, other than some penalties that hurt us. They fight. ... We've just got to find a way to make another play or two. That's kind of been the story of the year."
Furman (2-5, 1-2) hasn't had a lot of balls or calls bounce its way during this losing skid and that continued early on Saturday. Tennessee Tech's opening possession appeared to be a three-and-out after a 3rd-and-13 incompletion, which would've likely still been three yards shy of the first down had it been caught. However, a late flag flew and the 10-yard pass interference call gave the Golden Eagles' an automatic first down.
It was kind of hard to see the play on the live feed and there was no replay as the television production was not what you'd expect of a program that recently spent $60 million on stadium and roster improvements. I've seen better camera work on Facebook live feeds of high school games broadcast from an iPhone. The bigger point was the flag came very late and no Golden Eagle was asking for one. Meanwhile, a Tennessee Tech team that was averaging 9.4 penalties for 97 yards a game had five for 40 on Saturday.
Nevertheless, Furman had a couple of more chances to get off the field on that drive and didn't. The last of those third downs resulted in a five-yard touchdown pass from Jax Leatherwood to Tre Holloway. That 13-play drive shaved 8:45 off the clock against a hobbled defense and staked the Eagles to a 7-0 lead after one quarter.
"We weren't sure what Raleigh (Herbert) would be able to do. We brought Caleb (Easterling), but wasn't sure what he could do. Braylon Peebles couldn't go (after briefly playing early) and that really hurt us back there (in the secondary)," Hendrix said. "The only negative to say defensively is third down, including third-and-long. We get a really tough call on third-and-13 ... but give up another third-and-10. We could never get any field position."
It was another fruitless opening quarter for the Paladins, who have a bye the week. By the time they take the field again Oct. 24, it will have been 351 days since the last time Furman scored an offensive touchdown in the first quarter.
Tennessee Tech (5-1, 3-1) threatened for more. On the first play of the second quarter though, a botched handoff resulted in a fumble that Joshua Stoneking hopped on at the Furman 19-yard line. The Paladins drove into the red zone, but on third-and-10, Connor Ackerley's pass to Nick Segarra went for just four yards to Tech's 14. Furman settled for a 31-yard field goal by Nathan Chapman to cut the lead to 7-3.
Late in the first half, the Eagles put together another 13-play scoring drive. This one was an 85-yard march capped by MJ Flowers' one-yard touchdown with 31 seconds left to push the lead to 14-3 at the half.
Against FCS competition in the opening half this season, Furman has been outscored by a combined total of 73-33. First-half points for the Paladins in those games have come by one offensive touchdown, one defensive touchdown, one two-point conversion, one extra point and six field goals.
Furman appeared to get right back into it after forcing a three-and-out to start the second half. On the punt, Connor Adams came flying in and easily blocked it. The ball bounded into the end zone, where it was originally ruled that Adams recovered for a touchdown before a Tech player ripped it out as they rolled out of bounds right in front of the official who signaled touchdown. After a video review, the call was overturned and ruled a safety.
"We finally blocked the punt, but right there, just fall on it," Hendrix said. "Then they don't have to go to review."
Easterling returned the safety kickoff to the Furman 43. With momentum on their side, the Paladins opened the second half with a sideways screen pass to the right for a five-yard loss. That was followed by a sideways screen pass to the left, that was dropped rather than being caught for another loss. On the next play, Ackerley was sacked for a 10-yard loss.
Furman's defense held strong and continued to provide chances for the offense. After Leatherwood completed 17-of-19 passes for 167 yards in the first half, he completed just 7-of-17 for 45 yards in the second half.
After a 13-play drive, Furman got a 53-yard field goal from Chapman to cut the lead to 14-8 with 4:47 left in the third quarter.
Early in the fourth quarter, Tech was facing a third-and-18 at midfield. The Eagles didn't get the first down but they got 15 yards and that gave kicker Carter Brown a chance. He delivered a 52-yard field goal to push the lead back to nine.
Midway through the fourth quarter, the Paladins finally found the end zone thanks to an incredible catch by former Eagle Luke Shields. With the defensive back draped all over him - and no flag - Shields made a left-handed grab of Ackerley's 23-yard pass to the end zone. That helped shave the lead to 17-15 with 6:48 remaining.
Furman was poised for a three-and-out on Tech's ensuing possession after Daco Coleman just missed an interception that bounced on the turf on second down. On third-and-10 though, Leatherwood and Holloway connected for a 10-yard gain. On the next play, Flowers popped off a 31-yard run and then had a 37-yard run to the end zone. That score was wiped out by a holding penalty, but the Eagles still had an answer when Brown drilled a 52-yard field goal with 2:50 left.
On their ensuing possession, the Paladins drove from their own 25 to the Eagles' 24. But after two incompletions sandwiched around a false start, Ethan Harris couldn't hang on to a pass around the 10-yard line. After a timeout on fourth down, all it took was a three-man rush by Tech for Ackerley to get sacked from behind.
The Eagles took over with 1:04 left. Since Furman wasted two timeouts with the clock stopped on its previous drive, the Paladins had just one left. There was no point in using it, so Furman didn't as Tennessee Tech kneeled out the clock.
"We were down a bunch of guys today, but those guys came out there and fought to the very end. I think our guys believed to the very end that they were going to go down there and get it done, but we had a couple of false starts (on the final possession). The last one was a killer," Hendrix said. "Give them credit. I mean their kicker just hit line drives on those 50-yard ones, but he knocked them through there."
A week after allowing Western Carolina to rush for 298 yards and average 4.9 yards per carry, the Eagles held Furman to 67 yards rushing on 33 attempts (2.0 per carry).
Ackerley completed 24-of-39 passes for 222 yards with no interceptions. Shields caught seven passes for 87 yards, while Daniel Haughton had seven catches for 54 yards. AK Burrell had a game-high nine tackles, including seven solo stops and one-and-a-half tackles-for-loss, to lead Furman.
Following this week's bye, Furman will host Samford on Oct. 24 at 2 p.m.
"We need the bye. We're beat up. We're going to have a good football team before this thing is said and done," Hendrix said. "We're going to get healthy and going to get better. ... We're going to lift and do a lot of mental work (in the off week), but we've got to get healthy.
"We've got a stretch of five conference games left and we still think we've got a bunch to say going forward. I think this league's still wide open, but we've got to find a way to get it done."
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