College Football Breakdown

FIU beats Troy in OT 23-20

Miami-Florida International outgained Troy 521 to 299 but turnovers, great punting by Troy and the play of Troy DE Massaquia made this an overtime game. At home, FIU got off to a sluggish start and found themselves down 7-0 in the first quarter after Troy QB Robinson connected on a long pass setting up a 10 yard td run by D.J. Taylor. FIU, hampered by holding and false start penalties as the result of the FIU pass rush led by Massaquia, moved the ball in a balanced fashion but could only muster up 3 first half points. In the second half, the FIU offensive line did a better job of establishing some running lanes and QB Carrol was able to get the ball downfield for two long touchdown passes to WR Younger (43 yarder) and WR Times (76 yarder). That opened up a 10 point lead for FIU and all the momentum was going there way. Troy, who had only 12 first downs on the evening, somehow find a running game for one series that resulted in a touchdown. Then on the next FIU possession, a fumble was scooped up by Troy and ran back for a touchdown. The game had completely changed in 13 seconds and Troy took the lead 20-17. FIU shut down Troy for the rest of the game, kicked a field goal to tie and forced OT. In OT, Troy missed a long field goal which allowed FIU to finish off a stubborn Troy by kicking a short field goal to win the game 23-20.

Bottom Line: FIU dominated in the time of possession and in yardage, but had 4 turnovers and had to deal with long fields all night because of great net punting by Troy. If it wasn’t for the outstanding play of DE Massaquia who was abolutely dominant, FIU probably would have won this game by 3 touchdowns. FIU continues on with a chance at a Bowl Game while Troy is pretty much done for the season.

JJBeatz
www.collegefootballbreakdown.com