I don’t think any of us saw this coming.
Liberty started Big South Conference play with a humbling loss at the hands of a Gardner-Webb, who has traditionally been one of the conference’s weaker teams. Liberty couldn’t seem to do anything right on either side of the ball for much of the first half, and the Bulldogs just seemed to want it more from the moment the Homecoming game kicked off in Boiling Springs.
The loss puts the Flames in a tough spot, 0-1 in conference play, and left with very little margin for error if they hope to qualify for the post season again this year.
Quarterback
Josh Woodrum – 30/45 307yds 1 TD 1 INT
The long scoring drives that we’ve become accustomed to seeing in the first quarter didn’t come. Liberty uncharacteristically went 3 and out on its first two drives. Josh got the offense going on drive number three, coming up with a big third down completion to Dante Shells. It wasn’t enough to get the Flames on the board though. The drive ended in the first of 3 missed field goals.
At this point Liberty was down 14-0 and couldn’t generate any offense until midway through the second quarter when Woodrum took the Flames 75 yards on two consecutive pass plays for their first score of the game.
That would be the lone touchdown pass for the evening. Josh threw an interception on what looked initially to be a promising drive the following possession. The Flames were down 10-27 at the half.
The defense would respond in the second half, limiting the Bulldogs to 7 points. The offense didn’t seem to hear the same half time speech from Turner Gill.
Despite a Tyrell Maxwell interception that gave Liberty the ball at the Bulldogs’ 18, the Flames would settle for a field goal and never score again. Woodrum would hit a wide open Darrin Peterson in the end zone, but Petey dropped what would have been the tying score.
Grade: C-
Running Backs
Des Rice – 10/52
After seeing a ton of success last weekend against Georgia State, the Flames looked more like their usual selves when it came to the running attack. The Flames rushed 20 times for a grand total of 60 yards, leaving the offense pretty one-dimensional and generally ineffective.
An already struggling run game took a big hit Saturday night when D.J. Abnar came out of the game with a bad leg injury. We should know more of the specifics and any timeframes regarding his injury later this week.
Grade: D+
Wide Receivers
Darrin Peterson – 9/107 1TD Dante Shells – 2/64 Canon Smith 5/54 Zac Parker – 5/23
The receiving corps combined for over 300 yards but failed to find the end zone in the second half when the Flames came within a touchdown of Gardner-Webb. The play that stands out in my mind was the usually-reliable Darrin Peterson’s drop in the 4th. Petey blew past his man and found himself wide open. Josh put the ball right on his numbers, but he was unable to hold on for the score. The Flames would come away empty-handed.
Apart from the first half drive, where Woodrum found Dante Shells and Darrin Peterson on back to back plays for the Flames’ lone touchdown, the passing game just didn’t get it done.
At this point in the season, the Flames know that field goals are far from guaranteed points. The receiver corps is arguably the most talented unit on this year’s squad and they will need to take their game to the next level if the Flames are going to win the conference and punch their ticket to a second consecutive FCS playoff appearance.
Grade: C
Offensive Line
The play of the offensive line is definitely improving. They gave up just one sack (in garbage time), which is a big step forward from previous weeks.
Liberty’s run game continues to struggle however. Liberty run plays averaged only 3.0 yards tonight and the line carries a significant load of the responsibility. Despite this, the offense line never really looked like a liability tonight.
Grade: C-
Defensive Line
The Bulldogs gashed the Flames on the ground, accumulating 268 rushing yards on 43 attempts. QB Tyrell Maxwell led the charge, picking up a ridiculous 176 yards on 20 carries for 3 scores. 176 was good enough for a new personal best for the sophomore quarterback. Whether it was designed runs or broken plays, the Bulldogs’ quarterback found his way out of the pocket and picked up big chunks of yards.
JaRon Greene and Erwin Dessources combined for the lone sack of the game towards the end of the 4th quarter and Dessources was even credited with an interception towards the start of the second half. The offense ultimately failed to generate any points from the turnover that left the Flames in great field position.
The bottom line: This defensive line gave up nearly 300 yards rushing to what has traditionally been one of the conference’s (if not FCS’s) worst offenses.
Grade: D
Linebackers
Like I said above, how in the world do you allow a quarterback to rush for nearly 200 yards?
It’s not like this is just another night for Tyrell Maxwell. It was homecoming night for Gardner-Webb and it was clear from the onset that they just wanted it more than Liberty did. The Flames defense as a whole and the linebackers in particular seemed to lack the intensity much of the first half. The second half was a different story, but by then the damage had been done.
Gardner-Webb had three rushing touchdowns in the first half, two of which were long (14 and 45 yards). Both were the result of missed tackles. At the D1 level missed tackles often come down to two things: a lack of energy (which would be understandable considering the Flames’ inability to put together many sustained drives tonight) or a lack of intensity leading to poor/lazy technique. As the first half wore on, the linebackers looked like they were dealing with a combination of both.
The motivation issue seemed fixed coming out of the break, but the defense could only do so much with what the offense was (or should I say ‘wasn’t’) giving them.
Grade: D
Defensive Backs
We didn’t see the defensive backs get torched this week. Well, they did give up one long TD pass this week (30 yarder to Kyle Horton), but Webb’s passing game was hardly the Flames’ kryptonite on Saturday night.
Tyrell Maxwell didn’t look especially sharp throwing the ball. He threw only 15 times and two of those passes were intercepted.
The effectiveness of the running game mercifully kept the majority of the pressure off the Flames young secondary.
Grade: C
Special Teams
Wow.
The Flames don’t just struggle on special teams. They lose games with how incapable they seem to be when it comes to taking three points from an otherwise decent drive.
Lunsford converted just two of five field goal attempts, 2 missed (40 and 43) and one blocked (35).
Zac Parker went from special teams hero after a 71 yard punt return touchdown at the start of the second half to special teams zero when he muffed a punt with three minutes to go in the game, giving Gardner-Webb the ball on their own five up 20-27. The Bulldogs would score on the next play and effectively put the game out of reach.
To put it in perspective, special teams blunders created a 16 point swing in favor of Gardner-Webb.
Lunsford has struggled all year and the missed field goals, as disappointing as they are, aren’t even that surprising any more. But watching Zac Parker slip and fall as he awkwardly try to field a punt he had no business even being near – that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Grade: F
C- for the QB is very generous.