Ferrum falls to 0-3 Bridgewater 35 Ferrum24

For Ferrum to be 0-3 is a tough pill to swallow. It certainly must have the coaches bewildered. I have reviewed the stats from the Bridgewater game, and several things jump off the page. It is a rare day that Ferrum is held to under 100 yards rushing. This has not happened in the last five years, and likely it has been longer than that. Ferrum, which had seemed more solid than usual in the secondary was burned for 299 yards passing, and gave up four TD's through the air.
Passing numbers for Ferrum were pretty good, as Mayo completed 50% of his passes, for 153 yards through the air, and one touchdown. He was not intercepted.
Special Teams had its bright spots as Marcus Mayo returned a punt 76 yards for a touchdown. and Puschell was 1-2 on FG's. T.J. Grzesikowski had an overall good day punting, but did have one punt blocked, that resulted in a Bridgewater touchdown. As far as I know this was the first time T.J. has had a punt blocked in his career at Ferrum.

I have to believe that while Ferrum has room for improvement in most all areas of their game, they ran into an especially well prepared Bridgewater team. The Eagles were coming off of their bye week, and obviously had focused on how to stop the Ferrum running game. They also were prepared to pass and exploit the Panther secondary.

Reviewing the keys to a Panther victory-

Offense needs to execute on every play. Utilize the speed in the backfield to get to the outside.

Running game was not all that effective. Bridgewater for the most part shut that down. Thomas Porter did not have any carries for the Panthers.

Defensive line needs to dominate the line of scrimmage. Put a hat on somebody, and make them feel it.
While the D line did better in stopping the running game, Bridgewater did have 162 yards rushing. There were no rushing touchdowns for the Eagles. This was a good effort. There were also 4 sacks of the Bridgewater QB.

Special teams- Return teams- Blockers stay in your lanes- Return man, follow your blockers- look for the seam, and hit it.

Ferrum scored on a punt return. A 76 yard carry by Marcus Mayo. Very good.

FG/XP's- Head down until follow through is complete. Execute the basics-
 This area is one that will be fine. With more reps, this will continue to improve.

This was not a game with all negatives to be sure. Ferrum did quite a few things well, but the ineffective running game, coupled with the secondary that really struggled led to Ferrum's third straight loss. Bridgewater is a strong team, and was up to the task.

It is difficult to say what Ferrum needs to do to right the ship. I am sure that the coaches are working diligently in practice to identify and correct any areas of weakness.