 "Photo: Associated Press")
ORLANDO, Fla.—It took a broken play to leave Marshall heartbroken.
Clinging to a 20-14 lead with under three minutes to play on a hot and muggy Orlando Sunday evening, Thundering Herd quarterback Brian Anderson bobbled a snap from newly inserted center Landis Provancha and went improvising.
The play was designed to be a give to Darius Marshall for what the Herd would believe to a be a game-clinching first down. Instead, it became a rushed quarterback sneak which turned into a rush of momentum for UCF.
Anderson plunged ahead on a second-and-1 from the Herd 27-yard line.
He got the first down, then lost the ball.
“I just kind of bobbled the snap and I wasn’t able to get the ball to Darius,” Anderson said. “So I turned it upfield and unfortunately I wasn’t able to hold on to it.”
The Knights’ Bruce Miller got enough of a paw on the pigskin to knock it loose at the Marshall 30, where UCF’s Josh Robinson gobbled it up.
Eight plays later, the Herd’s season took a major bump in the road.
When Knight quarterback Brett Hodges found Rocky Ross wide open on a toss to the corner of the end zone, Marshall went from being bowl eligible to having to wait a long 13 days to get another crack at it.
The Herd (5-4, 3-2 Conference USA) won’t play again until Nov. 14 against Southern Miss at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
It fell 21-20 Sunday before a crowd of 35,676 at Bright House Networks Stadium.
“This was the worst loss in my career,” said junior linebacker Mario Harvey. “High school, little league, anything.”
Demoralizing. Gut-wrenching. Deflating. Et-cetera, et-cetera. Throw in any disappointing adjective and you’ve got the feeling of the Herd locker room.
This one hurt.
“I just gave about 50 (players) a hug,” said Marshall head coach Mark Snyder. “They played their hearts out tonight. They played well enough to win.”
For three and a half quarters, Snyder and company had cooked up the winning formula.
Expose a suspect UCF secondary by throwing the ball downfield. Check. Anderson’s 13 completions went for an average of 18 yards a catch.
Keep a lethal Knight defensive line from teeing off on Anderson by relying on max protection and help from D. Marshall in the blocking game. Check. Anderson was sacked just twice in the game’s first three quarters.
Play solid special teams and don’t allow any cheap UCF scores. Check. Senior safety Ashton Hall took a deflected field goal and returned it 68 yards, setting up a late first half D. Marshall 3-yard touchdown run. Also, the Herd prevented a Knight cheap one when a Hodges “Hail Mary” completion to A.J. Guyton at the end of the first half was stopped at the Marshall 5 as time expired.
The only thing left unchecked was the effort to play a full four quarters.
The Herd needed to be a closer like the New York Yankees’ Mariano Rivera. Instead, it became the Philadelphia Phillies’ Brad Lidge.
It blew a save.
With 3:25 left to in the third quarter, Craig Ratanamorn nailed a 21-yard field goal to put Marshall comfortably ahead 20-7, a lead the Herd would sustain until eight minutes to go in the fourth when a Brynn Harvey 2-yard touchdown run would put the Knights within six.
But let’s back up a bit.
On Marshall’s proceeding possession, Anderson found Aaron Dobson for a 43-yard completion on a crucial third-and-13 from the Herd’s 13.
It was the type of play that could have sealed the game. Marshall, up six with under nine minutes to play, was in UCF territory. Even if it didn’t score, it could have run three plays, killed some clock and punted back to the Knights deep inside their own territory, making them drive 80 or 90 yards for a winning score.
But all that logic went for naught after the Dobson catch was called back for a 15-yard illegal use of hands penalty on Daniel Baldridge.
“It hurt,” Anderson said. “It was going to be a big first down, change field position. It’s just something you have to overcome and we weren’t able to do it.”
Anderson had to overcome more than just back-breaking penalties in the game’s waning moments. Already missing his starting left guard Ryan Tilllman, who didn’t make the trip because of injury, and only having the hobbled services of left tackle Brandon Campbell, Anderson lost his center Chad Schofield at perhaps the most inopportune time.
Two plays before the game-changing fumble, Schofield hit the turf with an apparent left leg injury. The blow shifted Provancha, who started the game in Tillman’s place at left guard, to center.
As the Florida nighttime mist began to pick up, the ball became increasingly hard to handle — especially for Provancha who hadn’t snapped in a game all season.
He snapped it, Anderson juggled it, then ran, then fumbled.
“It’s difficult,” Anderson said of the challenge of implementing a new center at that juncture of a game. “But it’s something you have to be able to do when (Schofield) goes down.
“It’s my fault.”
Andrew Ramspacher can be contacted at ramspacher@marshall.edu.
