The University of Toledo needed a wake-up call, and Jacquez Stuart provided it in the form of a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown just before halftime.
Then, with a lethargic offense running in place during the third quarter, cornerback Braden Awls handed UT a silver platter of momentum after a diving, one-handed interception.
On the next play, Tucker Gleason connected with Junior Vandeross III for a career-long 73-yard touchdown pass, and the Rockets blasted off for a 38-23 victory over Massachusetts.
“Those were two huge plays,” Toledo coach Jason Candle said. “There’s no doubt about that.”
Before the Awls interception, UT had 102 yards of offense and 17 points. Over the final 19 minutes, 8 seconds, Toledo had 156 yards and 21 points.
The Rockets finished with just 258 total yards, and three passing plays accounted for 152 of them.
Gleason completed 8 of 23 passes for 175 yards and three touchdowns.
“We kept shooting ourselves in the foot on offense,” he said. “We’d go three-and-out, three-and-out, and then we’d have a three-play, 70-yard drive for a touchdown. And then we’d go three-and-out, three-and-out. So it was just weird. You never really got into a flow or a rhythm.”
Six of UT’s 12 drives ended in a three-and-out, including the first three series of the game. The Rockets only had one possession of more than four plays, contributing to the incredibly lopsided total plays and time of possession that favored UMass — 88 to 45 and 44:21 to 15:39.
Toledo was just 3 of 12 on third down.
“The thing that sticks out the most is the third-down conversions,” Candle said.
The first quarter was all defense, as Toledo and UMass combined for 137 yards and four first downs. The Rockets squandered numerous opportunities to set the tone, with starting field possession on their own 48 twice and 49 once on the first three drives. They gained 11 yards on nine plays.
The second quarter was even worse for the Rockets, who had 24 yards. Part of that was due to Stuart’s 98-yard kick return, but there was also operator error for the Rockets.
“I’ve just got to be better,” Gleason said. “I’ve got to be more accurate. Sometimes I was trying to fit something in when I had something better that maybe wasn’t going to go for 50 [yards], but it would have gotten us five, six, seven yards.”
Toledo had zero yards in the third quarter until Gleason hooked up with Vandeross, part of a game-changing sequence that gave UMass long odds to win.
“That interception was a huge play,” Vandeross said. “You saw the play. Acrobatic. Going back on the field after that, I mean, you’ve got to go score.”
UMass quarterback Taisun Phommachanh was 26-of-40 passing for 259 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He was sacked five times and hurried twice.
The Minutemen had 384 total yards, averaging only 2.6 yards per rush. They were 5 of 19 on third down and converted zero in the fourth quarter.
Concerns arose, even in victory, as the Rockets struggled running the football, especially between the tackles. They finished with 83 yards on 22 carries, and if you erase Gleason’s 34 yards, UT only had 49 rushing yards and 2.5 yards per carry.
UMass head coach Don Brown, a connoisseur of blitzes and creating chaos, saw a matchup he liked against an inexperienced offensive line. It factored into Gleason’s completion total and Toledo’s lack of a run game, but UMass did not have a sack and it only had one tackle for loss and QB hurry.
“You want to get into a rhythm,” Candle said. “You want to have 80 snaps and 600 yards. I understand. We didn’t. We had it 45 times, and those were the plays we called and we didn’t hit any explosive runs. So we’re going to work at it this week and try to figure out how to get some explosive runs.”
The next game he referenced is a road trip to the Deep South, where Toledo will play Mississippi State of the big, bad SEC. The Rockets have ventured into SEC country before and returned home with a victory, defeating Arkansas in 2015.
It’ll take more game-changing plays to do it again.
“We’re going to do a great job of fixing our mistakes and continue to grow this team,” Candle said.
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