Herd quarterback Rakeem Cato didn’t mince words when asked about what he could take away from Marshall’s 45-38 loss to Tulsa.
Cato is not used to losing football games and when Marshall falls he takes it very personality, whether the loss is on his shoulders or not. Cato finished the day with 391 yards passing and three touchdowns passes but none of that mattered as Marshall came close but fell short again.
“It’s coming to point where we’ve got to win a ball game,” said Cato. “It’s going on the sixth or seventh game and we’re still struggling to win a ball game.”
It’s no wonder Cato is frustrated by Marshall’s 2-4 record halfway through the season. The Herd is a handful of plays away from being 5-1. The extremely frustrating part of that is the handful of plays that have cost The Herd have mostly been unforced mistakes that have been converted into points for the opposition.
“We’re stopping ourselves,” said a dejected Cato following the loss to Tulsa. “It’s coming to a point and time when we’ve got to make a big play when its there.”
A Marshall fumble led to a field goal for Tulsa in the first half. On 4th and 1, The Herd allowed 260 pound Alex Singleton rumble 48 yards for a touchdown. Then to compound problems Trey Watts returned a kickoff back 98 yards for a touchdown in the second half just as Marshall was starting to build some momentum on both sides of the ball.
Go back to last week and the three interceptions that led to Purdue touchdowns and in the Ohio game, Marshall had ample opportunities to either stop the Bobcats or finish its own drives but came up just short.
“When you’re number is called you got to make a play,” emphasized Doc Holliday. “We put ourselves in position there at the end to go into overtime or win and we didn’t do it.”
No doubt Marshall had chances to knot the game up late. On the next to last drive of the game for Marshall, twice Joan C. Edwards Stadium fans believe The Herd had scored the game tying touchdown only to be disappointed.
Antavious Wilson caught what would have been a 31-yard touchdown pass but was flagged for pass interference taking the score off the board.
“We played against 12 people out there. We’re playing against the opposing team and the referees out there,” lamented Cato.
Two plays later Cato hit senior Aaron Dobson in the back of the endzone for what looked like a 21 yard touchdown pass, but Dobson was unable to haul in catch along the back of the endzone. Doc Holliday was blunt in his assessment of the end of the game.
“We just didn’t make plays at the end when the game was on the line.”
Often players will look for the positives and try to take something away from a loss that can be applied to future contests, but Cato and the rest of The Herd are getting a tired of just getting close and almost coming up big.
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