Inside the game: Troy 33, FIU 23

October 21, 2008

Drew Champlin

Two offensive plays, one defensive

The Good: A 2-yard TD pass from WR Jerrel Jernigan to Justin Bray
Situation: Troy was up 16-13, 1st and goal at the FIU 2 after recovering a fumble very early in the third quarter.
Neal Brown’s take: The defense had just gotten the ball to us. The last time we were deep in the red zone, Levi dropped the snap and we had to kick the field goal, so we wanted to make sure we scored a touchdown.

I think it was second and goal at the 3. We had already ran the QB sweep earlier in the game so we had shown it. We motioned Nate Nolin over, our blocking back, to seal the edge. Jerrel took off and had a run-pass option. He was supposed to look at the guy who was over our Z and Y receivers. If the defensive backs had bit, he was going to flip a dump pass to the receiver. They were going to act like they were going to block and get upfield. He ran out there and did a really good job carrying out the fake. He didn’t get excited about throwing a touchdown pass. He ran out there and was patient.

Justin Bray did a really, really good job. He was patient, he stood there and sold the block and avoided the defender. Jerrel threw it to him. It was a big play.

THE BAD (well, it wasn’t a turnover): An overthrow on a trick play by Levi Brown to Andrew Davis that would have been a 54-yard TD pass and put Troy up by 14. Later, Troy got a FG but gave up a TD at the end of the half.
Neal Brown’s take: It’s probably a different game if we connect on that because that would have put us up (14). We don’t end up scoring, we punt and they end up scoring (two possessions later). It’s a deal where the QB stays in most of the time when Jerrel’s in the game. He moves to wideout. We had the speed sweep off to DuJuan and he flips it back to the QB. We had Andrew go deep and Levi just overthrew him. It looked really good all week in practice. He got open like I thought he would and he just got excited and missed him. The ball got about 60 yards in the air and he just had some adrenaline in him and overthrew him.

The good: Cameron Sheffield’s sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery on the same play.
Situation: FIU receives the kickoff to start the 2nd half, down just 3 with momentum. It’s 2nd and 8 from the 22 on the 2nd play of the second half
Jeremy Rowell’s take: It was obviously a big point during the game.  He just beat him around the corner and got the strip and swatted it out.