The Good, The Bad & The Ugly As The Towson Tigers Drop to 1-2 on the Season

Just when the Towson Tigers thought things couldn’t get any worse, Week 3 of the young college football season welcomed one of their toughest challenges of the season: one of the premier FCS programs – the North Dakota State Bison.

Following a tough 26-14 loss in Week 2 to the New Hampshire Wildcats, the Tigers entered the matchup 1-1 in the record books with hopes of getting back in the winner’s column against the Bison in their long awaited 2021 home opener at Johnny Unitas Stadium. 

But unfortunately for them, the turn of their luck will have to wait another week as they were yet again blown out to the tune of 35-7 by the Bison.

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For Tigers fans familiar with Towson’s long-standing rivalry with the Bison, this was actually the exact same score of their matchup back in the 2013 FCS National Championship. A game in which North Dakota State also came out victorious. Eight years later and it seems as though the Tigers are still working desperately to play spoiler to the Bison’s dominance only to come up short once again.

Next up on the schedule, the Towson Tigers are back on the road to face the undefeated San Diego State Aztecs who are coming off of a 33-31 triple-overtime victory over the Utah Utes.

As the Tigers make their final preparations ahead of Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. kickoff, let’s review the good, the bad and the ugly of the Tigers’ last two losses. We will also preview the Tigers matchup with San Diego State, who look to continue on their path back to the top of the Mountain West Conference.

The Good

Despite a few tough losses filled with game altering mistakes, the Tigers do have at least one positive plot point to fall back on. That positive is the potential emergence of a lead running back. 

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that one of Towson’s biggest questions moving forward is who, if anyone, will emerge as the feature back out of the Tigers backfield. Well, they may have found him: Georgia Tech transfer Jerry Howard Jr.. 

Prior to coming to Towson, Howard Jr. played four seasons for the Yellow Jackets where he finished with 1,114 all-purpose yards and 850 rushing yards. In his first game as a Tiger against Morgan State, he was on a bit of a pitch count in a crowded backfield as he got only seven carries. But even with having less carries than freshman Sabias Folley (12) and senior Kobe Young (11), he still had more rushing yards (45) and yards per attempt (6.4). 

For that, in Week 2 coach Rob Ambrose rewarded Howard Jr. with more bites at the apple. Against New Hampshire, Howard Jr. led the team with 18 carries for 97 yards on 5.4 yards a clip. Although the team’s sole rushing touchdown was scored by senior Caleb Smith, Howard Jr. clearly asserted himself as the man out of the backfield for the Tigers.

In one game alone, Howard had almost as many yards as Smith had through the first two games of the season (98). 

Then as an encore to his Week 2 performance, Howard Jr. was featured as the solo back against North Dakota State. Howard Jr. led the charge with 18 carries for 45 yards while scoring Towson’s only points in the game on his first touchdown as a Tiger. 

At the rate he is on, Howard Jr. could be on pace for the first 1,000-yard rushing season since Victor Darius did it back in 2015. 

The Bad

After allowing only 63 rushing yards and 142 total yards against the Morgan State Bears, Towson’s dominant looking defense got carved up on the ground by the Wildcats and Bison. 

Between New Hampshire running backs Dylan Laube and Carlos Washington Jr. combined for 138 yards on around seven yards per carry. Not to mention that they both had big play runs of 30+ yards and both punched one in for a touchdown. 

Speaking of big plays, that may have been what hurt the Towson defense more than anything. There were four or five plays in particular where the Towson defense simply rolled over, two of which could have potentially led to an even uglier scoreboard.  

The 32-yard touchdown run where Dylan Laube was relatively untouched. A 54-yard bomb from New Hampshire sophomore quarterback Bret Edwards to wide receiver Sean Coyne for a touchdown in the final minutes of the 2nd quarter. 

There was even a 48-yard burst from Carlos Washington Jr. that got all the way down to Towson 18-yard line in the closing seconds of the first half. This could have easily set up yet another score if not for the time expiring as Tigers went into halftime down 20-7. Not to mention that the Wildcats missed two field goals, one in each half. 

Then to make matters worse, North Dakota State followed up with 328 yards rushing on 7.1 yards a carry. The Bison had seven players gain at least 20 yards on the ground as sophomore Dominic Gonnella led the way 92 yards on 13 carries.

Junior running back Tamerik Williams, and sophomore Jalen Bussey also came up big in the run game, combining for 129 yards and two touchdowns. North Dakota State dominated on the ground and in turn had more yards on the ground than the Tigers had passing and rushing combined (200).

What looked like a solid defense in Week 1 now looks relatively suspect only a week later as they look like polar opposites of who they were in the season opener. As we progress through the season, this Towson defense will define which version of them is the real deal. Are they the defense we saw shutdown Morgan State or the one that got torched by New Hampshire? Only time will tell. 

The Ugly

The hope for Towson fans is that Ferguson’s late game interception against Morgan State was just a byproduct of the first game frontrunner yips. Instead, it not only seeped into Week 2, but it even became a little contagious in the Tigers’ quarterback room. 

In spite of throwing for 147 yards and a touchdown on 12-of-27 passing attempts, Towson quarterback Chris Ferguson threw two interceptions in the first half and got yanked. 

Then to make matters worse, junior Jeff Miller was subbed in late in the 2nd quarter and went on to throw a pick of his own in the final minute of the half. He also threw another one in early in the 3rd quarter while on an eight-play drive into the red zone. 

The bottom line of this game was that Towson turned the ball over four times while the Wildcats did not turn the ball over even once. 

Thankfully in Week 3, Ferguson did not turn the ball over against North Dakota State which is surely heading in the right direction. Nonetheless, he was on 19-of-28 for 163 passing yards and did not score a single touchdown. So, when considering the lack of a truly outstanding performance through three games, this leaves a bit of a dilemma regarding Ferguson’s job security as the main signal caller.

At this rate, the Towson coaching staff may soon be going back at the drawing board in terms of their quarterback quandary. It is still a little early, but they need to decide whether or not they believe Ferguson’s turnover problem is a blip or a trend before the season is too far along.

Quick Scouting Report of the San Diego Aztecs

San Diego State enters this game 3-0 and this team goes as senior running back Greg Bell goes.

Through three games Bell already has 405 yards on the ground along with four touchdowns. He is the definition of a bell cow back as he already has 71 carries including 33 carries last week in the win over Utah.

This is a guy who likes to punish those at the line of scrimmage and work through contact so it will be Towson’s big guys up front to meet him early and often at or behind the line of scrimmage. Bell is a big part of how the Aztecs set the tone on offense and stopping him will be the key to throwing them off their game.

Then there is senior quarterback Lucas Johnson who filled in last week for senior Jordon Brookshire who went down with a foot injury against Arizona.

Johnson has not been asked to do much, only completing 10-of-19 passes for 44 yards and a touchdown last week. As a second-string signal caller that is being asked to simply act as a game manager, he should be a guy that the Tigers look to rattle by being aggressive with heavy blitzes and a lot of different looks.

Towson’s defensive coordinator Eric Daniels should have fun drawing up defenses this week as should look to have eight guys in the box often and should be able to be a little creative with his blitz packages. The Aztecs will be looking to control the clock and do most of their damage through long, methodical drives that end with Greg Bell jumping into the endzone.

The Tigers’ key to victory is limiting those methodical drives and capitalizing on possessions by ending every drive with points. Against a running team like San Diego State, even field goal drives are better than leaving points on the board.