This sluggish loss came after a bye week, which is never a great sign. Chad Morris said at his weekly press conference that his team had the best week of practice it has had all season. But the game didn’t reflect that at all.
SMU was out of sync on offense all day and porous on defense again. Any adjustments made were short-lived. SMU fumbled on a kick return, nearly fumbled two punts, missed a field goal, failed to recognize blitzes, committed untimely penalties, and didn’t contain or maintain gap responsibility on defense. Mistakes like those should not happen off a bye week.
The offensive line shuffled and struggled. SMU used a new offensive line combination nearly every drive and played eight different linemen. The line didn’t recognize a blitz on one first-half Matt Davis sack, and struggled with the pressure South Florida sent early in the game. Davis or someone on the line needs to do a better job recognizing the defense’s pre-snap alignment and either change protection scheme or identify a hot route.
Dual-threat deception, again. I hate to keep harping on this, but SMU’s inability to stop spread, up-tempo offenses with running quarterbacks has continued. USF quarterback Quinton Flowers rushed for 201 yards, the most by an FBS quarterback this season. SMU was repeatedly fooled against zone-read and run-pass option plays, failing to maintain gap responsibly and containment.
SMU shuffled around a lot on defense too, and didn’t hesitate to experiment. Deion Sanders Jr. flipped over from wide receiver to play defensive back, and offensive lineman Bo Antonovic played defensive line. RC Cox played at star linebacker, and SMU used seven different players (by my count) between its linebacker spots.
South Florida’s defense dominated. SMU fans looking for a good performance from a 4-2-5 defense just saw one. South Florida swarmed to the ball all day and never allowed SMU to get into a rhythm. The Mustangs scored on a 12-play, 77-yard drive in the first quarter when they established the run and used that to set up a 24-yard completion to Ryheem Malone, which led to a 2-yard touchdown from Xavier Jones. But the Bulls kept the running game in check for the rest of the game.
Their defensive backs made great reads in the running game and played stifling zone coverage. When they did play man-to-man coverage, they were mostly right on a receiver’s hip. Davis looked uneasy in the pocket and unsure of where to go with the ball or when to bail and run. In the third quarter, he missed a wide-open Courtland Sutton by throwing behind him. Those are throws he usually makes. He also threw an interception, his first since Sept. 4. He finished with nine completions on 24 attempts for 113 yards.
Where is Courtland Sutton? He’s seeing a lot of double coverage lately, but SMU hasn’t found a way to counter it. Secondary receivers have stepped up at times, but one needs to emerge as a true threat each week. Sutton had just one catch for one yard through three quarters on the heels of a six-catch, 48-yard performance against Houston. He’s produced his three lowest yardage outputs in his last three games. He finished today with 56 yards and a touchdown, but most of it came long after the game was decided.
