Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009

Coastal Carolina notebook: Lackluster offense befuddles Chants' coaches

STONY BROOK, N.Y. -- Coastal Carolina's coaches have been trying to figure out their offensive woes all season. Saturday's 177-yard effort against Stony Brook only added to their concerns.

When coach David Bennett was given a final statistics sheet before his postgame press conference, he remarked that his team's final numbers looked like halftime figures.

"Eighty-one yards rushing and 96 yards passing for us," he said. "We ought to have those stats at halftime.

"Offensively we're just being very immature I think. We're still in Week 7 telling wideouts to get off the line when they're on. We're telling them to come in motion. ... There are just little things like that a good football team can't do."

Getting cozy

Stony Brook made a living harassing Coastal's quarterbacks Saturday.

Despite entering the game next to last nationally in sacks, Stony Brook had five of them, tied for the highest amount the Chants have ever allowed in a single game.

The Seawolves had four in the first half, matching their total from their first seven games of the season. Stony Brook's five sacks amounted to 37 total yards, a big reason why Coastal's offense was just 4-for-16 on third down.

Wounded Chants

Coastal played large portions of the game without a number of starters.

The most obvious was quarterback Zach MacDowall, who suffered a high ankle sprain in the third quarter. However, his absence wasn't that significant in the end, because the Chants scored on their next two possessions with backup Jamie Childers.

Coastal also had to shuffle its line after offensive guard James Sims left in the first half with an injury. The defense also saw strong safety Dominique Davenport and defensive end Quinton Davis miss major amounts of the game with unknown injuries.

Choosing sides

Stony Brook won the coin toss to open the game and deferred its choice until the second half, a decision that could have won the game for the Seawolves.

Coastal had to take the ball when making its second-half choice, allowing the Seawolves to pick which direction they wanted to go and when. They chose to go against the 20-mph wind in the third quarter and had it with them in the fourth. Coastal couldn't muster any fourth-quarter points into the wind.