Tough loss for the Flames tonight, that one really hurt our at large bid chances. A win probably put us at 50/50 if we lose to Coastal, but now I’d say we are sub 5% chance of making the playoffs if we can’t win next week.

Darrin Peterson and Jacob Hagen had heroic performances for the Flames. They did everything they could to propel Liberty to victory.

Also a quick shout out to Liberty Equipment, the all red look was pretty sweet.

Offense

  • Masha looked like he was settling in at points, but he also made some bad mistakes. The Flames scored 36 points and he threw four touchdowns, so it’s tough to ask for much more in his first start.
  • Masha was pretty effective running the ball. He had 3-4 big gains on 10 carries for 104 yards. When the Flame’s leading rusher (today) would turn on the jets, there weren’t many defenders that could keep up.
  • Darrin Peterson are you kidding me? 3 touchdowns (2 of which were amazing catches) and 123 yards (enough to break Chris Summers’ single season record). Really can’t say enough about how well Petey played tonight. Masha said after the game that Peterson had told him to just throw it in his vicinity and he would catch it, Peterson wasn’t kidding either.
  • D.J. Abnar finished the game with 12 carries for 40 yards. Initially I thought he would be a big part of the offensive game plan, especially after his 39 carries last week, but it seemed like CSU made it their mission to force the Flames to beat them through the air without Woodrum.
  • Overall, there is no question Liberty made some mistakes on O, and having Woodrum may have been enough for the win, but the real story is that the offense scored 36 points with a first time starter at QB and the defense couldn’t stop CSU’s option attack.
  • Also worth noting that Dante Shells was out this week, but coach Gill is hopeful that he will be ready for Coastal.

Defense

  • Hagen’s three picks were the only thing keeping LU in the game. The acrobatic third pick in the end zone was amazing and gave the Flames a chance to win. What a performance on senior day. He has to be the frontrunner for Big South Defensive POY in my mind.
  • Nick Newman made some big plays in the first half, Batting down passes, huge hits, etc. but did get burned once on a long pass play to Christian Reyes. It seemed like he became a lot less aggressive after getting burned. We’ll definitely need him to step up next week, and looking forward to the future, he will need to be one of our defensive leaders.
  • Chima Uzowihe provided great pressure, and was one of the few bright spots in the front seven.
  • Christian Reyes was really tough for Charleston Southern. He gashed the Flames for 188 years on 18 caries, and never fell backwards with only one yard of loss on the day.
  • DBs played fairly well, but that was in part to Austin Brown’s inability to throw the ball.

Special Teams

  • Really tough to say if Flames should have onside kicked it after that last touchdown. Retrospect is always 20/20, but at the time, the defense was having no success.
  • CSU used a rugby style punt today, and boy was it effective. Truett Burns had two punts for 108 yards (54 yard average!), which played a huge part in CSU winning the field position battle.
  • Flames were actually pretty good on kickoff returns today. Alpha Jalloh did a good job of taking what was given, and ended up with 79 yards on four returns. We didn’t start a single drive after a kickoff (out of six) behind or on the 25.
  • John Lunsford missed an early extra point after making 94 straight, it ended up proving to be quite costly. If the course of the game stayed the same, a made extra point would have resulted in a tie ball game. Coach Gill pointed out that Lunsford has been very good, “but no one is perfect.”
  • Lunsford also kicked a 51 yard field goal, his 3rd 50+ yarder of the year. He is now 3 of 4 from 50+ on the year, with his only miss being just short (but right down the middle) at Appy State. It seems that he is most comfortable from long range.