By Jared Fields, Sports Editor
Rashon Myles sat outside the locker room at San Angelo Stadium as he cut off the tape wrapped around his right ankle and shook his head in disbelief.
“Bottom line, we limit our mistakes, and we’ll be an undefeated team,” Myles said after the Wildcats third loss in a row, a 27-24 loss to the Angelo State Rams.
“We’re making turnovers, special teams mistakes, defensive mistakes, all the way around, everybody is making mistakes,” Myles said. “Mistakes will kill you.”
Myles summed up the night and season so far for the Wildcats, who made five turnovers, three fumbles and two interceptions, which allowed the Rams to stay close and eventually win with a 28-yard field goal with five seconds remaining.
Head coach Chris Thomsen said the team feels the same as Myles.
“If they continue to play hard and limit mistakes, then they believe they can beat anybody,” Thomsen said.
ACU held a 17-3 lead in the third quarter, but could not maintain the margin and let the Rams tie the score later in the quarter.
The Wildcats scored their final touchdown of the game with 3:25 left in the third quarter, when Billy Malone hit Robb Spells for a 67-yard touchdown pass.
Both teams traded possessions until the Rams converted a play-action rollout pass on fourth and goal on the ACU goal line to tie the score with 3:27 on the clock in the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats went three and out on the ensuing possession and punted the ball away with 3:00 left in the game.
Angelo State took over on its own 42-yard line and turned to freshman running back Kyle Fox to run down the clock. Fox helped the Rams picked up two first downs and took the ball to the 11-yard line.
Angelo called a timeout with five seconds remaining to set up the game-winning field goal. The Wildcats called two timeouts in a row in an attempt to ice the kicker, but ASU kicker J.D. Williams split the uprights from 28-yards away to win the game.
The Wildcats dominated the game on the stat sheet with 437 total offensive yards and ran 21 more plays. Billy Malone threw for 354 yards, and two receivers, Jerale Badon and Spells, had more than 100-yards receiving.
Defensively, the Wildcats held ASU to 287 yards and stopped them on third down on nine of 11 attempts.
The difference in the game came down to execution. The telling stat of the game for both teams was red-zone percentage. The Rams scored points in five of their six possessions in the end zone, while ACU only converted two of six possessions into points.
With so many missed opportunities, execution seems to be the only thing keeping the Wildcats from winning the close games and having a better record.
“If we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot, we’re going to continue to finish like this and drive home like this and this is embarrassing,” Myles said. “This is embarrassing because they are not a better team. All the teams we have played, not one is a better team than us.”
However, spirits are not low for the team. Four games remain, and four wins will give the Wildcats a winning record.
“As long as they keep playing as hard as they can, then sooner or later those things are going to start going our way,” Thomsen said. “I believe that.”
