Despite important victory, flaws still haunt Golden Panthers

By: Joel Delgado / Asst. Sports Director

It wasn’t pretty.  It was far from flawless and even further from convincing.

But it was one thing and when the dust settles it is the most important thing: a win.

It took a nice defensive play in the end zone by Dez Johnson with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter for the Golden Panthers to secure their first victory of the season and to avoid what could have been one of the biggest meltdowns in the program’s history.

‘The Fourth Quarter Syndrome’ nearly doomed FIU for the fifth week in a row as the Golden Panthers gradually faded from the second quarter onward as they stumbled their way to the finish line.

This time, however, the clock mercifully ended with the Golden Panthers on the winning side of the box score for their first win of the season.

STRONG START

 

As usual, the Golden Panthers came out with fire and began to look like a team that could be a championship contender in the Sun Belt Conference.

The running game appeared to resurrect under a typical October sun in South Florida with a balanced ground attack led by speedsters Darrian Mallary and Kedrick Rhodes. Even T.Y. Hilton got into the act, finally finding the end zone for the first time this season on a fancy reverse to open up the scoring.

With all four FIU touchdowns on the afternoon coming through the ground, all by different rushers, the Panthers finally developed the running game they had been looking to establish.

It will be critical for the Golden Panthers to keep the run option open for the remainder of the season.

Through the air, Wesley Carroll started looking like the field commander fans were praying for prior to the season and put together a string of six consecutive completions in rapid succession to set up a drive that put the Golden Panthers comfortably ahead near the midway point of the second quarter.

After that, things began to get very uncomfortable.

THE MELTDOWN

Down 21-0 and on the verge of getting blown out, the Hilltoppers burst to life from seemingly nothing and picked up a touchdown cut into the lead.

After Carroll threw an interception on the first play of the ensuing drive, every person in the building felt the momentum starting to swing towards the visiting team.

The defense began to falter much faster than usual, coming up flat and allowing the Hilltoppers to pick up critical third down conversions time and time again.

Not to mention a number of ill-timed penalties that opened up a number of doors for the opposing offense to walk right through.

As a team, the Golden Panthers amassed more than a football field worth of penalties with a whopping 141 penalty yards on 15 penalties, dangerously close to setting a new program record.

More capable teams would have made them pay dearly for those mental miscues.

All of a sudden, a game that appeared to be heading towards a definitive Golden Panther victory came dangerously close to turning into a devastating nightmare.

The Hilltoppers came to within a touchdown of tying the game twice in the second half, including late in the fourth quarter.

But when it mattered, FIU held on to that slim lead.

KILLER INSTINCT

Once again, the Golden Panthers lacked the killer instinct to deliver the killing blow and once something goes wrong, the overall game play comes crashing down faster than a house of cards.

The defense turns dormant. The offense crawls back into a shell and abandons its unpredictability. And the penalties pile up.

If FIU has any intention of making travel plans of going to New Orleans in December, they need to stop playing down to opponents and maintain composure when the opposing team stands up and puts up a fight. It is a mental blockade that needs to be torn down and overcome if this team wants to battle for a Sun Belt championship.

‘The Snowball Effect’ is something the Golden Panthers need to avoid.

They might have been able to deal the Hilltoppers their 25th consecutive loss, but they won’t be as fortunate against a more formidable Sun Belt foe.

But on this day, it was enough to give them a win. That’s what matters.  There are such things as ugly wins.

Pretty losses, on the other hand, don’t exist.