Towson Tigers Football: Week 2 Preview vs. New Hampshire Wildcats

Following what was an exciting and highly anticipated Opening Weekend, it feels safe to say that the hype for the 2021-22 College Football season is real. Across the country we got our fair share of big-time blowouts, intriguing first impressions and more than a handful of highlight plays.

Heading into Week 2, your favorite team falls into one of two categories: 1. Looking to start a winning streak and go 2-0 or Looking to bounce back in a big way to nod things up at 1-1.

In the case of the Towson Tigers, they start their season in the winning column with the 31-0 win over the Morgan State Bears in the 26th edition of “The Battle for Greater Baltimore.” As this team looks to bounce back from falling just short of making the postseason back in 2019, there are a handful of new faces on both sides of the ball. In a statement victory to kick off the season, the showed signs of promise in the post-Tom Flacco era and the defense looks like they could be special.

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In this article we will be taking a deep dive into Towson’s 2021-22 season debut, pointing out all the good and bad that could have further implications as the season continues. Also looking ahead to this weekend, we will project how their big-time performance on Opening Day could impact the Week 2 game plan as they prepare for the New Hampshire Wildcats.

Top Storylines:

Solid Debut by QB Chris Ferguson

After spending three seasons representing the black and blue for the University of Maine Black Bears, graduate transfer Chris Ferguson looks to finish out his Colonial Athletic Association tenure rocking the black and gold.

Debuting for the Tigers at quarterback after only joining the program back in early June, Ferguson needed to make a splash in Week 1 to prove he deserved to win the starting gig. Thankfully for Ferguson, he played more than solidly in his introduction to “The Battle of Greater Baltimore” rivalry game.

In the 31-0 blowout win over Morgan State, Ferguson threw for 269 and two touchdowns on 20-of-33 completions. Despite the score making it look like Ferguson threw a party, he played above average at best. He clearly showed some early signs that he has a lot of work ahead of him in regard to picking up this Towson offense.

Tigers head coach Rob Ambrose actually noted this point himself when asked about how Ferguson looked in his debut.

“A little rusty,” Ambrose said. “A little bit like a guy who only learned the offense in the summer. Good enough to win but not good enough to win it all yet. But it’s easier to make these corrections and adjustments when it’s 31-0.”

Ferguson did not let himself off the hook either. When looking back at the game, the one glaring blunder in Ferguson’s debut was the late game interception thrown in the final two minutes of the game. Although the game was well out of reach, Ferguson clearly understands that his ability to execute is crucial as he has high expectations for himself and his ability to run this offense.

“I’m going to want some throws back,” Ferguson said. “There were just drives overall that I think we should have finished that we should have put in the end zone. So, I got a little taste in my mouth, but it’s good to walk out of here with the ‘W’ and start the season 1-0.”

In wake of what was a subpar debut, it should be a positive sign for Tigers fans that Towson was able to put up 31 points with a “rusty” Ferguson at the helm. As he continues to get reps in the offense and get comfortable in this new system, expect coach Ambrose to open up the playbook more and more each week. Nonetheless he played well and at least did not prove the coaching staff wrong in going with him as the starter.

Towson Defense Pitches Shutout

Of course, the debut of Chris Ferguson was a big storyline in this game, but the real headliner was the play of the Tigers’ defense. Not only pitching a shutout against Morgan State, but quite literally keeping the Bears offense in check all game long.

Towson held the Morgan State offense to only 142 yards total and never allowed the Bears offense to get a rhythm. Morgan’s freshman quarterback Duce Taylor had a rough debut going only 3-of-9 for 68 and split snaps with junior Jairus Grissom and senior Neil Boudreau.

Morgan State also could not get the ground game going as they were held to 63 rushing yards as Grissom led the charge with 35 on five carries. Then as the cherry on top, the Tigers defense also forced a turnover (Grissom fumble) early in the fourth quarter to add insult to injury.

According to senior safety S.J. Brown II who had five tackles in this game, pitching a shutout was the Towson defense’s no. 1 priority throughout the entire game.

“We take pride in that,” he said. “Our defense is very talented with a good group of guys and good chemistry. Everybody did exactly what they were supposed to do…We had a statement to make, and I feel like we did that tonight.”

Now nobody is saying that Towson needs to hold teams under 200 total yards and zero points every week, but at least they showed the capability of doing so. If this defense can continue to be even a fraction of what we saw in Week 1, the Tigers have a chance to have one of if not the best defense in the CAA. Hard to jump on that bandwagon just yet considering Morgan State does not have the most dynamic offense, but the potential for Towson is definitely there.

Biggest Question Going into Week 2:

Can WR Darian Street assert himself as Towson’s No. 1 WR

When looking at this Towson offense, they have a relatively balanced attack that relies on a stable of running backs and a handful of splash plays in the passing game.

Against Morgan State, nine pass catchers got at least one reception and four of them had an average yards per catch in the double digits. Leading them in that category was senior wideout Darian Street with 45.5 yards per catch for 91 yards on two receptions. Street is clearly the team’s top receiver in name as the next best pass catcher following the departure of Shane Leatherbury.

But as a “take the top off the defense” kind of guy, the receptions are not lock step with No.1 wide receiver status. In Week 1 it was actually Caleb Smith (six receptions) and Jabari Allen (three receptions) who led the team in catches as they combined for 91 yards. Street alone was obviously equally effective as Smith and Allen combined but it poses the question: How dangerous could Darian Street be with more targets/receptions?

As the team’s go-to receiver, Street will need to emerge as a more versatile threat and use that breakaway speed to make himself a more consistent threat on a down-to-down basis. The big play ability is clearly there but he is someone that the Tigers should look to get going early and often as a guy who is capable of moving the sticks on any given play.

Quick Scouting of New Hampshire:

The New Hampshire Wildcats also enter Week 2 coming off a late game stand to beat Stony Brook, 27-21. Although they won the game, the Wildcats are coming off a bit of a lackluster performance against the Seawolves in a game that ended much closer than it should have.

 New Hampshire opened the game up with a 27-0 run lasting until midway through the third quarter only to allow a late Stony Brook surge that almost cost them the game. In layman’s terms: Similar to Towson, New Hampshire still has some big questions to answer in spite of the big Opening Weekend victories.

The two players to watch for the Wildcats are the quarterback-wide receiver connection of sophomore Bret Edwards to Brian Espanet. The combination of Edwards and Espanet hooked up five times to the tune of 100 yards and two touchdowns. Their biggest play was a 64-yard bomb in third quarter to score the Wildcats final touchdown of the game.

The other player to watch is junior running back Carlos Washington Jr. who looks like New Hampshire’s bell cow back out of the backfield. Washington Jr. led the rushing attack with 63 yards on the ground on 16 carries as the Wildcats finished the game with 126 total rushing yards. Washington Jr. also showed receiving capabilities out of the back field with two catches for 32 yards including a 29-yard splash.

Stopping these three will be a tall task but there were some flaws in Week 1 that could play in Towson’s favor.

The first is the Wildcats’ struggles on third down. New Hampshire was 3-of-13 on third down and only had 12 first downs in the entire game. Now this is partially due to the fact that they consistently got solid field position by forcing a fumble and two interceptions.

But overall, this indicates that in the early goings they struggled to put long drives together. After scoring 27 points through two and a half quarters, the Wildcats had seven possessions in which they proceeded to turn the ball over three times (three fumbles) and punt three times along with the kneel down to close the game.

Towson’s goal in this game should be to focus on forcing turnovers. This New Hampshire team seems to get flustered and rattled following turnovers which in turn leads to even more mistakes. This could be another potential big game for the Towson defense as they look to build on their Week 1 performance.

Stay tuned as tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. at New Hampshire’s Cowell Stadium or catch the game on FloFootball.com. Both teams are looking to open up CAA conference play with a statement win as only one of these unbeaten teams can leave this game unblemished.