Owls suffer breakdowns in all areas
The start to the most anticipated football season in Florida Atlantic University history felt more like a reminder of the Owls’ darkest days Saturday. FAU allowed 56 unanswered points in a 63-14 loss to No. 7 Oklahoma.
Entering the game on a 10-game winning streak, FAU gave up a touchdown on Oklahoma’s first drive and trailed 28-0 after one quarter. Sooners quarterback Kyler Murray completed 9 of 11 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns. Rodney Anderson was one of four Sooners running backs to score rushing touchdowns and finished with 100 yards on only five carries. Marquise “Hollywood” Brown caught six passes for 133 yards and a touchdown.
For FAU, the bright spots were few and far between. Redshirt freshman Chris Robison, a former Oklahoma recruit who transferred to FAU last August, was inconsistent as the starting quarterback and was replaced by graduate transfer Rafe Peavey in the fourth quarter.
“We played as bad as you can play,” coach Lane Kiffin said. “Like I told the players, it’s discouraging.”
Here are five takeaways from the game:
1. More QB questions: Kiffin played all three of his quarterbacks, with mixed results. Robison completed 15 of 26 passes for 157 yards and rushed six times for minus-8 yards, a mostly disappointing performance. Kiffin noted that Robison likely was feeling the pressure of making his first start and facing the team that signed him out of high school.
Peavey completed 2 of 3 passes for 24 yards with an interception. Redshirt junior De’Andre Johnson completed 1 of 3 passes for 11 yards, but ran nine times for 39 yards and led the Owls to a touchdown in his lone drive.
Jason Driskel began last year as the third-string quarterback before taking over the job and going 11-1 as a starter. Could Johnson repeat Driskel’s climb?
2. Not enough Devin Singletary: On the surface, Singletary didn’t have a bad outing, carrying 18 times for 69 yards and a touchdown. Singletary even had a 26-yard run against a stout defensive line that bottled him up early. But when FAU still had a chance to claw back in the second quarter, his carries were limited as Robison either ran the ball on a designed play or overthrew an open receiver.
If the Owls hope to rebound with a win against Air Force next Saturday in Boca Raton – or take down UCF in Orlando later this month – they’ll need to feed Singletary as much as possible.
3. What happened to FAU’s offense? Expecting FAU to put up 50 points on Oklahoma’s defense the way it did in beating Akron in the Boca Raton Bowl was unrealistic. But Kiffin’s offense looked lost for most of the game. The nerves of facing a blue-blood college football program were clear and led to early mistakes. The runheavy offense featuring short, safe passes and the occasional trick play was nowhere to be seen with Robison at quarterback.
FAU’s offense was outgained 650 yards to 324, with 75 of those yards coming with Johnson in the game. Given how often Kiffin has said the offensive scheme isn’t much different from last season’s, the change in strategy backfired. FAU needs to get back to what worked last year.
4. What happened to FAU’s defense? After losing to Navy 42-19 in their opener last September, the Owls allowed more than 30 points only three times, and only once in Conference USA play. Oklahoma consistently found holes in a defense that failed to tackle properly or have the same success in pass coverage that it did last season.
Oklahoma has a fearsome offense — one that could finish in the top 10 nationally — but there were several plays that could have been easy stops for FAU. Owls defenders should expect to see Murray’s first-quarter scramble from one sideline to the other, which ended in a first down, plenty of times in the coming days.
5. When it rains, it pours: Kiffin said FAU pulled off the “trifecta” by failing to compete not only on offense and defense, but on special teams. Oklahoma blocked a punt by Sebastian Reilla, a freshman walk-on, and recovered it for a touchdown. FAU had six penalties for 48 yards and converted only four of 15 third-down attempts.