Thursday, October 6, 2022

NM State Aggies vs FIU Panthers Football 10-1-22 Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

This was a cool-looking pic from the team Twitter.  I’m going to make little digression before continuing on with the football game.  Honestly, I’m not sure where to put this, since I’m not doing a pre-postseason MLB post.

 

Halftime Out-of-Town-Scores

The El Paso Chihuahuas played the Reno Aces for the PCL Championship on Friday.  I was really busy with Month End processing at work, but managed to listen to some of it.  The Aces won 6-2.  The Chihuahuas committed four errors in the game, though with only one unearned run.  They did have their chances with 11 runners left on base. 

 

As threatened, MiLB used this game to experiment with a challenge system for balls and strikes.  I’m experiencing physical pain just typing that sentence.  The challenge system in baseball has been a waste of time, except that it’s allowed broadcasters to jam in another commercial.  Doing this for balls and strikes is a nightmare in the making. 

 

How did it work in this game?  At least it worked quick, but of the three challenges I heard, two calls by the ump were overturned.  In other words, the automated strikezone that the PCL has been using all season was more accurate than the umps.  There’s no point to this challenge system, when the automated system is being used to check the ump’s calls.  Just use the automated system.

 

The game was held in Las Vegas in front of over 6,000 fans.  Given Vegas wasn’t playing in the game that was a great crowd.  (Reno being reasonably close probably helped.)  Regardless of the outcome, it was a great season for the Chihuahuas.  Their late-season run to get to the championship was epic and fun to listen to.  It was a team record in wins and they led minor league baseball in runs.  Broadcaster Tim Hagerty got a bit choked up doing his end-of-season goodbyes.  I did, too. 

 

Third Quarter

To reset the game, the Aggies were down 21-7 to FIU.  I can sum up the second half of this game in two words: nobody scored.  I cannot remember the last time I saw or heard of a professional or college football game where nobody scored for a half.  It’s almost impossible in the modern game. 

 

The End.

 

One day, I’m gonna do it.  That’ll be the whole post about a game.  It’ll happen and I’ll post it.  (It’ll probably be after a soccer match.)  But today is not that day.  I’ll continue with the recap anyway, only because there’s a stinger at the end of this.   

 

The Aggies received to start the half.  Diego Pavia was in at quarterback.  Once again, we’re back to shuffling quarterbacks.  The Aggies got a first down.  During a break, the Cheerleaders performed in the north endzone.  About half the student section had left.  Even with another quarterback, the play call was still going with another long pass.  This almost resulted in an interception.  There was a punt and it was a bad one.  FIU started on their 35.

 

Pavia and Gavin Frakes chatted on the sidelines.  Pavia had on headphones to listen to the coach in the booth.  FIU picked up a first down.  On the next set of downs, Syrus Dumas got a sack on third down to force a punt.  FIU QB Grayson James was helped off, but was okay.  The Panthers false started on the first attempt at a punt, but on the second attempt, the receiver let it go and it was downed on the Aggie 2 yard line.

 

The Aggies gained a few yards, but went three-and-out.  Again, there was another fruitless deep ball thrown.  Another bad punt put the Panthers at midfield.  On the sidelines, some kids went down to pose for pictures with the Cheerleaders.  FIU went up tempo again and quickly moved downfield.  On third-and-goal, Chris Ojoh came up big with a sack.  FIU settled for a field goal, which went wide.  No good.  Though the crowd was bleeding out, they were loud.  Give them an assist on the sack and the miss.   

 

The Aggie offense came back out.  Justice Powers made a catch on third-and-four for 26 yards to continue the drive.  That’s what they needed, more mid-level passing.  The short passing game and a Personal Foul on FIU moved the ball downfield to the Panther 28.  A false start and a broken up deep ball stalled the drive.

 

Fourth Quarter

The quarter started with a 44-yard Aggie field goal attempt that missed.  FIU took over and almost immediately it was third down and they had to take a timeout.  Their up tempo style had gotten the better of them.  A pass was deflected on the down, but a Pass Interference call gave them a new set of downs.  FIU rushed the ball with some success, but were finally stuffed on a third down. 

 

The Aggies got the ball back.  Ron was complaining about the length of the media timeouts, but the game was actually clipping along and the game time was under three hours.  I saw Frakes with his helmet on.  He went around and slapped some encouragement on the offensive linemen, but Pavia came back out.  The Aggies started out with a pass for a first down, but it was waved off on an Ineligible Receiver penalty.  The Aggies got a first down anyway on a 23-yard pass to Kordell DavidJamoni Jones rushed for another.  Unfortunately on a fourth-and-four in FIU territory, Pavia was nearly sacked and threw an incompletion. 

 

The Panthers started taking their time on their final drive with 7 minutes left in the game.  On a third-and-three, Dumas tipped a pass, but it popped right to the receiver for a first down.  FIU drove it down to 2 minutes before the Aggies took a timeout.  They took another timeout on a fourth-and-one.  James made it on a keeper.  The Panthers were in easy field goal range, but decided to just kneel on the ball twice to end the game.  That was sporting of them.  21-7 FIU final.

 

There was a small scuffle after the final play.  I have no idea why.  The Aggie defense stayed on field and shook hands with the Panthers.  Inexplicably, the rest of the Aggie team charged off the field into the tunnel right after the whistle blew.  This seemed like a breach of etiquette.  Other than that pushing and shoving at the end, I didn’t see a lot of animosity.  Moreover, you’d think they might have waved to fans before leaving. 

 

The combined band continued to play and sing as the crowd left.  A bunch of kids were out on the field playing.  I had my personal highlight, while I waited for Ron as he went to the bathroom.  Wave the Wonder Dog and his owner came by.  I finally got to pet him!  He’s a good dog.  Oh, the love.  Well, I suddenly felt a lot better about coming to the game. 

 

I’m going to pick Syrus Dumas as my Aggie player of the game, mostly because he made a couple of good plays. The defense played well, except for that one big play.  The offense . . .  well, at least they didn’t have any turnovers.

 

Leaving the stadium, we heard a PA’s voice at the baseball field.  Driving by, there was a game going on.  Ron wanted to stop, but I’d had enough for the day.  We did not figure out who was playing.  The Aggie Baseball had no notice of a game that night. 

 

Finally, the stinger.  I called dad when I got home with the score.  He said he was sure that he’d heard that the Aggies were two touchdown favorites in the game.  I doubted this, but checked right after I talked to him.  The Aggies were 14.5 point favorites.  I had to do a little digging on that unlikely spread.  I had heard about FIU’s last game briefly last week, because it was a very memorable 73-0 loss to Alabama . . .  oh no, wait. . . it was Western Kentucky?  The Hilltoppers?  That’s one of their conference opponents even.        

 

I hadn’t connected the dots to tonight’s game.  I didn’t realize it was the same team that had gotten blown out.  The Aggie Coaches Show and the pregame show (which I didn’t hear all of) didn’t talk about this, or if they did, they only glanced over it.  Needless to say, this makes the loss even worse.  It’s bad that FIU figured out how to box the Aggie offense (the rushing game) and that the Aggies had no answer.  It is encouraging that the defense was able to adapt and improve in-game. 

 

I do maybe intend to go to at least one other game this season.  Hopefully, we can see another win.     

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