Towson coach Gordy Combs said he was optimistic as his team took the field against Coastal Carolina for the third quarter at Brooks Stadium in Conway, S.C.
“At halftime, we felt pretty good about our situation,” he said. “They had outplayed us in the first half, but we were only trailing, 7-3.”
But the four-point deficit quickly turned into a rout as the Tigers (1-3) struggled to do anything right in a 31-3 drubbing on Saturday night.
“They were a lot bigger than us,” Coastal Carolina coach David Bennett said. “That’s a very good offensive football team.”
But his kind words did little to hide the harsh numbers.
Towson mustered a meager 186 yards of offense as senior quarterback Sean Schaefer was sacked four times. The school’s all-time leading passer completed 20-of-32 passes for just 142 yards.
Combs was worried about his defense’s ability to stop the run, as the Tigers allowed an average of 221.6 rushing yards per game in their first three games. And they were even worse against the Chanticleers, who gashed Towson for a staggering, 302 yards on the ground on 38 carries, an average of 7.9 yards per attempt.
Towson must find a way to stop the run if it’s to beat Columbia (0-1) on Saturday afternoon at 3 at Johnny Unitas Stadium. The Lions have played only one game this season, a 29-22 loss to Fordham (2-1), but ran for 149 yards and didn’t turn the ball over. The Tigers are 0-2 all-time against Columbia under Combs, but the teams haven’t played since the Lions’ 28-13 win in New York in 1999.
And if Towson is to break the streak, it must do something it has failed to do the past five quarters: reach the end zone.
“We just couldn’t get on track offensively,” Combs said. “We just weren’t making plays.”
