Week 12 Football Recap: Sir (De)Lancellotti Not Enough

TROY, AL – The Bobcats end the 2013 season with a disappointing 42-28 loss to Troy University, this despite a resilient effort from senior quarterback Duke DeLancellotti.

Before the game, many wondered if the Bobcats were playing for a bowl bid or simply for pride after the critical loss, at home, to Western Kentucky last week. It was reported by the guys at BobcatReport that Texas State would indeed receive a bowl bid to a bowl in barring a Bobcats loss.

Unfortunately at this point, reality has set in across Bobcat Country that a 6-6 record will not convince bowl sponsors to send Texas State an invite.

The game was much more competitive than the final score indicates, and much of that had to do with the surprising play of third-string quarterback Duke DeLancellotti.

DeLancellotti would get the start in place of the injured Tyler Jones and the debacle that was Tyler Arndt’s last game.

This was Duke’s first start of his career at Texas State and what a performance it turned out to be.

Duke ran the option very well, at times, making the correct read more often than Jones had in his stints as starting quarterback. Not surprising since he was recruited as a spread option threat out of Santa Ana, California. His passes, unlike Arndt’s, had zip of them and he made the quick, easy reads to pick up quality yards.

DeLancellotti was plagued with a lot of dropped passes. He would finish the game throwing 11 for 31, 192 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Adding to that, on the ground, he had 17 carries for 72 yards and 2 touchdowns.

The running game made a much welcomed return to the Texas State offense despite Chris Nutall being out. Terrence Franks stepped in nicely running for 80 yards on 8 carries. Robert Lower topped it off with 78 yards on 12 attempts.

Unfortunately there are two sides to a football game it would be the once highly-touted defense that would be Texas State’s downfall.

The big play deflated the Bobcat defensive effort the entire game forcing Duke to get into a shootout with the number one offense in the conference. Not a recipe for success.

It would be a tag-team effort from both of Troy’s quarterbacks, Corey Robinson and Deon Anthony, who would surgically decimate the Bobcat defense. Robinson would slowly and methodically move down the field and Anthony would come in for the big plays deep. Anthony would only complete 4 passes but he still ended with 164 yards and 2 touchdowns. Robinson’s day ended throwing 17 or 22 for 133 yards and 1 touchdown.

At this point I’m assuming a conversation with a bowl sponsor would go like this:

With Texas State’s bowl hopes all but gone, how would you grade the Bobcats’ season?

It’s easy to ride them off as a disappointment seeing how the season ended, but when you step back and look at the schedule isn’t 6-6 about right for the program at this time?

It’s safe to say (in my humble opinion) that the team probably overachieved in the victory against Wyoming which included a weather delay and in the first half against Tech which included a quarterback shuffle mid-game.

I’ll post my season grades during the week in my next post. For now, this image will have to suffice as the Bobcats’ season in a nutshell.