The Monarchists

Old Dominion vs. Marshall Recap

David Asbury

The Eighth Loss to Marshall

In the second Sun Belt game of the season,  ODU fell to Marshall 41-35 in Huntington, WV.  ODU falls to a 2-3 record and 1-1 in the Sun Belt.  Marshall is now 4-0 with wins over ECU, Virginia Tech, and ODU.  ODU is now just 1-8 against Marshall in what some fans are calling the “Steel Bowl.” This year’s Marshall team is good and ODU covered the 13.5-point spread, but moral victories do not count.  We want to see the Monarchs come away with actual victories in these cases, especially when ODU had a chance to pull off the victory late in the game but failed to march down the field.

 

It was Jack Shields’ first start at quarterback for the Monarchs and he struggled at times.  He completed 11 of 23 passes (47.8%) for 95 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions.  One interception was an 85-yard pick-six in a game ODU would end up losing by six points. But we have to acknowledge that this Marshall defense has been stout against the passing game all year.  They have not permitted a 200-yard passer and average only 142.75 passing yards per game.  Given the competition, I expect Shields to get another shot next week against a much softer USM.  Also, Shields did well on his legs beginning the game with a 66 yard rushing touchdown.

 

The rest of the offense showed improvement, especially the offensive line which only allowed one sack in the game.  That is much improved from the Wake Forest and Commerce games (ten and eight sacks allowed respectively).  Jordan Bly caught his first touchdown pass of the season, but no wide receiver really stood out this game as the Marshall corners seemed glued to them. This did not bode well for Shields as he had few options to throw all game.

But ODU’s rushing attack was lethal this game.  The team ran for 339 yards on the ground!  ODU averaged 10.9 yards per carry, by far the best all season.  A lot of that was Kadarius Calloway’s three big touchdown runs.  He ran for 236 yards on eleven carries, averaging 21.5 yards per carry.  Until this game, Calloway had not played much despite being highly-touted.  With this breakout game, he now leads the team in rushing yards with 261.  I am going to write my congressman to request a congressional hearing to investigate his lack of carries thus far.

 

Defensively, the Monarchs allowed 464 yards but had some good stops to limit the Herd to field goals rather than touchdowns.  They also had three takeaways with two fumbles recovered and an interception.  The Monarchs actually limited Marshall’s star running back Rasheen Ali to only 79 yards and 2.8 yards per carry.  Jason Henderson played lights-out as always, gathering 16 tackles and was a major reason Rasheen Ali was so limited.  Henderson is now tied for most tackles in the country (76) with UTEP’s Tyrice Knight.  LaMareon James also had two passes deflected and is really coming into his own as our top cornerback.

However, the defense could not contain Marshall’s quarterback Cam Fancher who rushed for 102 yards on 15 attempts. The defense had no sacks as Fancher was almost always able to escape any pressure and get yards on his feet.  The defense certainly did enough for the Monarchs to win this game but they could have done more, particularly to limit Fancher on the ground.  On the other hand, Marshall dominated the time of possession, and the defense was on the field for over 40 minutes and most defenses would buckle when on the field for that long.

At one point, the Monarchs were up 21-3 in the second quarter.  It is hard to call it a blown lead so early in the game, but ODU fans are getting restless with blown leads and poor play in the last three games.  Such restlessness is understandable however Marshall was always going to be a very tough game. I predicted we would lose by a touchdown.  Although I would prefer to be wrong in my predictions, I am now 5-0 and therefore predicted they would be 2-3 at this point in the season. ODU has won the games they were supposed to and lost the games they were “supposed” to. They have been competitive in each and every game.

I still think this is a bowl-caliber team.  The schedule gets a little better with a struggling USM next week and then a bye week the week after.  If ODU can enter the bye with a 3-3 record, then they will be in a good position to reach a bowl this season.  This team does have a lot more depth than last year’s team. I still believe.