5 Thoughts ...
2008 Motor City Bowl
Florida Atlantic 24 ... Central Michigan 21
GAME
REVIEW: FAU hangs on late
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1. When the Dan
LeFevour Fan Club convenes, I’ll
be staying home. I’m not wowed
by the Central Michigan
quarterback. Sure, he’s got the
numbers and can certainly make
plays with his legs, but in
terms of the total package that
pro types look for, he looks an
awful lot like a system guy
who’s feasted on plenty of bad
MAC defenses. Admittedly, I can
only watch LeFevour at length
for two or three games a year,
but his Motor City Bowl
performance was telling. His
footwork in the pocket is
inconsistent. He sails a lot of
passes. And he’s unproven beyond
the short and intermediate
stuff. In other words, he’d
benefit from another year in Mt.
Pleasant rather than leaving
school with a year of
eligibility on the table. -
By
Richard Cirminiello
2. Central Michigan head coach
Butch Jones is likely to be
second guessed and third guessed
after taking a big chance in the
fourth quarter, when the team
was down by 11, to go for a
touchdown instead of take the
almost certain field goal, but
that was hardly the team's
biggest issue. Much will be made
around Florida Atlantic about
how Rusty Smith had a great day,
and CMU will almost certainly be
barking about getting hit by a
key roughing the passer call,
while Dan LeFevour took a few
big shots that were never
called. But the difference in
this game came down to the
Florida Atlantic offensive line
in the final three minutes. With
CMU's offense rolling, and after
an ill-advised and unsuccessful
onside kick, all the defense had
to do was come up with a stop,
give LeFevour the ball back, and
hope to still have one of the
two timeouts left in the bank to
go on a march for a game-tying
field goal. But instead, FAU's
offensive line, particularly the
right side, blew the Chippewas
off the ball for five straight
plays, Charles Pierre twisted
and turned his way to 34 yards
and three first downs, and the
Owls had the game won. The FAU
offense that relies so much on
passing and precision ended up
closing by being more physical
than a defense banking on seeing
the running game. And now FAU,
and the Sun Belt, has a huge win
to offset the Troy loss to
Southern Miss. - By
Pete
Fiutak
3. I stand here in complete
amazement of Florida Atlantic’s
Howard Schnellenberger. The guy
was the offensive coordinator
when the Miami Dolphins had
their perfect season…36 years
ago. He won a national
championship with the Miami
Hurricanes a quarter-century
ago. And here he is, on the
brink of his 75th
birthday, still reaching
milestones. In what might be his
crowning achievement,
Schnellenberger has won
back-to-back bowl games at
Florida Atlantic, the program he
helped give birth to less than a
decade ago. In an era when Joe
Paterno and Bobby Bowden are the
favorite sons of the AARP, it’s
easy to lose sight of what’s
been taking place in Boca Raton.
By upsetting Central Michigan
in Michigan, Schnellenberger
is now 6-0 in bowl games, a
record among NCAA head coaches.
- By
Richard Cirminiello
4. I was touting
this game all along as the
potential for fun and excitement
with two great quarterbacks,
high octane passing offenses,
and little expected from the
defenses. Instead, it became a
good defensive battle until late
with plenty of intrigue in a
competitive game down to the
end. Not to sound like Mr. Up
With Bowls, but a close game
like this turned out to be might
be a better advertisement for
the MAC and Sun Belt than a
blowout by either side would be
for the league with the winning
team. I know the numbers. I know
that the MAC and Sun Belt just
don't bring in the readers and
don't have the fans of one
big-time BCS team, but fans of
college football might have
watched this game and realized
that sometimes it can be fun to
watch the non-big boy teams
play. It doesn't have to be
Florida - Alabama every week for
there to be good games. -
By
Pete
Fiutak
5. Officiating decisions and
currently existing NCAA football
rules played a huge role in
deciding this game. First of
all, the officiating crew
applied the letter of the law by
throwing a roughing the passer
flag against Central Michigan,
which was immediately followed
by a Florida Atlantic touchdown
on a home-run pass from Owl
quarterback Rusty Smith. CMU and
quarterback Dan LeFevour weren't
so lucky when an FAU defender
landed on LeFevour's helmet long
after a play ended. On this
occasion, the refs applied the
spirit of the law and withheld
the yellow laundry as a result.
The Chippewas would get stopped,
and would have to settle for a
field goal.
Now, about the football
rulebook:
Late in the third quarter,
CMU receiver Antonio Brown took
an end-around 72 yards for a
touchdown. FAU jumped offside on
the play, but at the Owl 20,
Central Michigan receiver Kito
Poblah--blocking
downfield--committed an
offensive face mask penalty.
The officiating crew properly
applied the existing rules. The
offside penalty and the face
mask penalty offset, requiring
the down to be replayed. The
point of mentioning this series
of events is to show that the
rulebook needs to be changed.
If FAU had not jumped offside,
Central Michigan would have
gained a first down at the FAU
35, because Poblah's face mask
penalty (15 yards, of
course) would have been marked
from the spot of the foul, which
was the Owls' 20. Let's make
this clear, then: If the
defensive team (FAU) had not
committed a penalty, the
offensive team (CMU) would have
gained 37 yards.
But since FAU did make a mistake
and commit a penalty, the
offense did not receive the
benefit of a 37-yard gain.
Very simply, the rulebook needs
to be changed: If a big
downfield play involves a
blocking penalty, that
penalty cannot be treated as an
offsetting foul. Those in charge
of reshaping and tweaking the
rulebook need to look at other
similar situations in which
penalties enjoy a level
of equivalence they do not in
fact deserve. - By
Matthew
Zemek