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Like any good college football coach, P.J. Fleck has a way of making one doubt, at least temporarily, their own lying eyes.
For instance, after Fleck’s football team beat the snot out of Rhode Island on Saturday, 48-0 at Huntington Bank Stadium, he told reporters, “I told you that was a really good FCS team.”
The Rams may be a lot of things, but a really good football team, of any stripe, isn’t one of them. The conceit is that Rhode Island is a top-tier Football Championship Subdivision team, but because we live next to the Dakotas, we see really good FCS teams all the time — sometimes beating big, bad Football Bowl Subdivision neighbor Minnesota.
Yet the Gophers coach makes this statement with such enthusiasm, such offhand sincerity, that you momentarily wonder if Rhode Island really is a good FCS team and the Gophers are just such a good FBS team that this really good FCS challenger had no shot. Because despite what Fleck said in the leadup to this game, and what happened during a woeful first quarter that ended with a 3-0 Minnesota lead, Rhode Island really did have no shot against Minnesota.
The Rams’ offense managed one down inside Gophers territory — the 48-yard line — and used that down to commit a false start penalty that sent them back to their own 47. The Rams’ defense couldn’t get off the field, allowing touchdown drives of 6 minutes, 33 seconds, 6:58 and 7:57. URI quarterback Devin Ferrell, a transfer from Virginia Tech touted as a dual threat, ran four times for 15 yards and completed 6 of 18 passes for no scores and two interceptions.
When you come to your senses, you fall back on your lying eyes and trust your gut: One of these teams isn’t as good as advertised, and it was wearing two shades of blue.
“They play really, really hard, really tough — throw a lot of different things at…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/john-shipley-three-things-trust-215100648.html
Author : Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Publish date : 2024-09-07 21:51:00
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