Georgia State’s players and coaches practiced on Monday like a team that gave away a win on Saturday, according to coach Trent Miles.
“We have a team that’s mad at themselves,” Miles said. “I’m mad at myself.”
The Panthers had four turnovers and a critical series of errors on New Mexico State’s game-winning drive in Saturday’s 34-31 loss at the Georgia Dome.
Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter took responsibility for the ease with which the Aggies drove 83 yards in two minutes, 15 seconds for the game-winning touchdown.
He elected not to blitz much during the drive, which gave Aggies quarterback Tyler Rogers time to complete 6-of-9 passes, including the 11-yard winner to Teldrick Morgan with 15 seconds left.
“I’d like to have last drive back as a play-caller,” Minter said. “I should have been more aggressive. If we’re going to go down, go down putting pressure on the guy. I take full responsibility for that.”
The Panthers used a coverage scheme on the fateful play that Minter said they called 20 times during the game and executed well. This time, a defender used poor technique and Morgan was left wide open.
“We had four of the five guys covered well and didn’t cover the one guy really well,” Minter said.
Those mistakes were made a few times during the game-winning drive.
For example, linebacker Mackendy Cheridor wasn’t supposed to be chasing a wide receiver down the field when he raised a long arm to tip a pass through the end zone a few plays earlier. There was an assignment error made by another player, which left the receiver running open. Cheridor recognized the mistake and did his best to get back and defend.
“We played well, and time and time again we have critical errors when the game is on the line,” Minter said. “We have to be mentally tougher.”
As for why the Panthers didn’t blitz more frequently throughout the game, Minter offered this common-sense answer grounded in giving up seven plays of at least 20 yards the week before:
“We blitzed a lot (against Abilene Christian) and gave up a lot of bombs,” he said. “I thought if we made this team drive the ball down the field on us they’d have a hard time doing that. Going into the fourth quarter and only giving up 10 points, you’d take that every day of the week in the Sun Belt Conference.”
Offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski also took some of the responsibility for the loss, pointing at the turnovers.
Nick Arbuckle had an interception returned for a touchdown, which cut Georgia State’s lead to 17-10 with 3:15 left in the first half. Jagodzinski said there was a run-read option on the play, but Arbuckle elected for the pass.
That error was compounded two minutes later by Arbuckle fumbling while trying to move the football from one hand to another when the Panthers were inside the 15-yard line just before the half.
“We left so many points out on the field just by turnovers,” he said. “If we don’t turn the ball over we don’t lose. We could have gone up 24-0 by the half. We didn’t because of turnovers. You can’t put your defense in that position either, on sudden-change stuff.”
