VERMILLION — The University of South Dakota football team was determined to not let its first lead of the day slip away in its eventual 42-31 second-round FCS playoff victory over Tarleton State.
With 7:02 to play, Tarleton State only trailed by four and drove to the USD 35-yard line. Behind a tricky delayed run-pass-option offense, the Texans had led for most of the game, up until recently. In large part, the Coyotes were able to take their first lead of the game because of two timely interceptions in the second half.
And a third was right around the bend.
Texans quarterback Victor Gabalis slightly overthrew his receiver and after a quick tip-drill, the ball ended up in the hands of Tim White. It marked the third takeaway of the second half for the Coyotes in a game where takeaways ended up being the difference.
The secondary trio of White, Mike Reid and Shahid Barros all nabbed interceptions in the second half of the victory. For Reid, it was his second interception of the season and it was the first for both Barros and White.
But early on, the secondary didn’t look like they would come up with any big plays. In fact, the first half was one of the few times this season where the back end of USD’s defense looked completely outmatched.
The style of offense the Texans were running was throwing the Coyotes for a loop. The Texans ran a long-mesh run-pass option offense. When the quarterback would receive the snap in the shotgun, it would be one and half to almost two seconds before the actual play would develop. That’s to say it took that amount of time for the quarterback to either make the decision to hand it off or throw.
At times, it looked like the quarterback and running back were operating in slow motion because of how delayed the RPO was. It caused problems early on and Reid said the later success against the offensive scheme was just because of greater familiarity over the course of the game.
“You kind of have to get a feel for something like that,” Reid said. “The more you go against it, the more you get a feel for it and the more you can adjust. One of the main things we’re always doing is playing with character. We’re always going to fight. We're going to keep persevering every time. It's just something that you’ve got to get over that hump some days. Today was one of those days where we just had to get over that hump.”
“What it causes you to do a little bit is you end up, I thought we did maybe in the first half, we played defense on our heels just a little bit,” USD head coach Bob Nielson said. “In the second half, I thought our guys played with a lot more confidence and certainly generated a couple of turnovers. One of the things we talked about at halftime was let's generate a couple of turnovers and get some stops. Defensively, we did a good job of that in the second half.”
What the defense ended up doing was putting less emphasis on stopping the run and dropping more defenders into coverage. That paid off as the Texan run attack, led by one of the best running backs in the country Kayvon Britten, only finished with 98 total rushing yards on the day. For reference, Tarleton State averaged close to 200 rushing yards per game in the regular season.
That greater emphasis in pass defense was something that really stood out on the other sideline. Tarleton State head coach Todd Whitten said the lack of a consistent rushing threat led to the turnovers, which in turn were the difference in the game.
“The thing with secondary players is that they have dual responsibility,” Whitten said. “They’ve got to play the run and the pass. Our inability to get much going in the run game really, probably from the entire second half, everybody they had back there was committed to the pass. So it makes it a lot easier to play pass defense back there like that. Not one time do I think one of their secondary players triggered to come force our run. They did a good job. They made some adjustments there at the half and I think that was the big difference.”
The turnovers were big too because the Texans weren’t a team that gave the ball away many times during the season. Tarleton State had the second-best turnover margin in the country (plus-16) and were in the top-25 in fewest giveaways. It became a big emphasis for USD throughout the week and it paid off in a big way.
Nielson said the turnovers played a major part in USD’s comeback and he gave full credit to the defense for rallying when it mattered most.
“They came in as a team that had really taken good care of the football,” Nielson said. “We were trying to play the run with (fewer players) and put more guys in coverage. As a result, I thought we did a really good job of tightening some of those windows in the second half on a couple of the interceptions.”
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