Faulkner University

Faulkner scored the opening touchdown before Cumberland rolled off 35 unanswered points to send the Eagles to a 35-7 loss Saturday at Cramton Bowl.
Faulkner took the 6-0 lead on a 2-yard run by Trent Richmond. The run capped a 13-play, 66-yard drive that took more than 10 minutes.
But that proved to be the bulk of the Eagles’ offensive production accounting for 66 of the team’s 120 total yards.
“After we scored, you could tell their defense came out with some fire in them,” Faulkner offensive coordinator Justin Crews said. “We just couldn’t get any momentum or confidence after that.
“They’re very good up front. I knew they had a good pass rush. They’re a better run-stopping defensive line than I thought.”
The Cumberland defense limited Faulkner to just 51 yards on 42 carries. A great deal of Faulkner’s rushing success came from Richmond during the game’s early going. However, he was noticeably absent from much of the rest of the game.
“The game plan was to rotate our backs again and just see who was getting hot,” Crews explained. “We probably should have gone with Trent more after that (first) drive.”
Faulkner’s faster backs proved incapable of beating Cumberland’s speedy defensive front to the corner. That fact, coupled with a struggling passing attack and spotty special teams play, left the Eagles’ defense with poor starting position most of the day.
“Field position is a big thing. We just couldn’t sustain any drives in the second quarter. That hurt us,” said head coach Jim Nichols.
While Faulkner lost the lead in the second quarter, it still entered the second half down only one possession. Faulkner had the first possession of the third quarter and looked to make something happen early. In a pivotal stretch of the game, Nichols opted to go for it on fourth-and-one with his team just shy of midfield.
“I’ll take the heat,” Nichols said. “We challenged our [offensive] line and our offense to score out of the box. We didn’t get it. They blew us up in the middle. It put our defense in a bad position and they scored right after that.”
On the ensuing possession, Faulkner faced a similar situation on fourth-and-four. Nichols opted to go for the first down again.
“I don’t want them to ever think that we can’t put them in those positions,” Nichols said. “I’m not going to be one of those guys that punts it on fourth-and-inches because I trust our offense to get that yard. We just didn’t get it that time.”
His team again failed to convert, setting Cumberland up for another score.
“They ran the same two plays over and over again,” Eagles defensive coordinator Eric Howell said. “We kept stunting to the right spots and just kept missing tackles and missing plays.”
After seeing his team fall behind 21-7, Howell had apparently seen enough. Faulkner’s second-string defense played the remainder of the game.
“We had a meltdown with our first-string guys. So, after that third touchdown, we took them all out,” Howell said. “That was nothing but to send a message to them. It was a wakeup call for them. There may be some guys that may not play as much next week.”
Despite the backward step, Nichols remains optimistic, noting the offense did not turn the ball over and was penalized only twice for 20 yards.
“We’ve got to be perfect to be in games right now,” he said. “We’re not that good yet. “We’re getting there. But we have to be perfect on everything.”
Faulkner plays Edward Waters at Cramton Bowl next week for the first football homecoming in school history.