COLUMN: Southeast Missouri State football team keeps offensive 'conservative' vs. Mizzou

There was a distinct difference between the mood of the Southeast Missouri State football coaches and their star offensive players following Saturday night's loss at Missouri.

The Redhawks debuted with a decidedly limited playbook from which to work, something the coaches said had a purpose that focused on the future but drew frustration from the likes of star receiver Paul McRoberts.

"I think there's a really good reason for what we did," Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz said after the 34-3 loss. "But I'd rather keep that on the sideline than tell SIU and everybody else our coaching philosophy, but our philosophy came from Coach Tuke and how we handled this first game."

Matukewicz was emphatic in saying that he trusts new quarterback Tay Bender to throw passes down the field -- "Yeah. Hell yeah," was his answer when asked about it -- but decided before the game began not to let him.

"Coach Tuke said, 'Hey buddy, we're not doing that until we get some snaps underneath us," Matukewicz said. "We've got 10 more games, and if we go out here and throw 50 times, he'd have been in two pieces and we'd have had four picks, and so I just wanted to hold the offense back a little bit until we get going. I wish we could've run the football a little bit better."

Bender completed 12 of his 22 passes in the game, but 10 of them were for 6 yards or fewer, leaving McRoberts with little to do to start his senior season.

He hung out behind the line of scrimmage sometimes, ran shallow crossing routes and occasionally took off on a deeper route but was mostly used as a blocker.

"Pretty much I've got to work on my blocking because I let a couple guys, such as DeMichael Jackson and Tremane (McCullough), get hit," McRoberts said. "Those guys were moving fast and it was something that I can't cover, so I didn't want to get a penalty so I wouldn't block them in the back.

"But as far as pass game and things like that, I feel like we could've took more chances, but the coaches had a game plan and we were rolling with it. I've just got to get better at blocking. That's all I can say."

McRoberts, who said he had "no idea" about the plan before the game, caught four passes. The first was for three yards on third-and-23 early in the game. The next two came earlier the second on the Southeast's only scoring drive of the game.

He shed defenders to catch a 21-yard pass on third-and-9 and a 19-yard pass on third-and-10. He was free at the goal line later in the drive, but Bender didn't see him in time and the Redhawks settled for a field goal.

The completions were two of the four third-down conversions for Southeast, which converted just 4 of 18.

The Redhawks faced third-and-5 or longer 15 other times and chose to run or complete a pass shorter than the needed yardage 13 times. Trailing just 20-7 midway through the third quarter, Bender was asked to run up the middle on third-and-15. He gained three yards, and the Redhawks punted.

"I feel like we should've took more chances," running back DeMichael Jackson said. "I feel like we've got the two best receivers in the OVC with Paul and Adrian (Davis), and I feel like we should've thrown some more deep balls. Just get them going, get their rhythm going, just give them some better looks sometimes."

Like Matukewicz, offensive coordinator Sherard Poteete said doing so would have jeopardized the Redhawks' future.

"They have some great defensive linemen and some great pass-rushers, and we knew that going in," Poteete said. "They were going to get after us a little bit, so that was kind of why our goal was 'Let's stay in second-and-short, third-and-short so that they can't really just pin their ears back and come after us. We were very conservative tonight offensively. In the big scheme of things the OVC is the goal. This game ... doesn't have an effect on our OVC run."

McRoberts' last catch of the night resulted in a 3-yard loss on third-and-8 in the fourth when the game was out of reach.

"Everybody wants to win, but you've got to do what it takes to win," McRoberts said. "Obviously we didn't do that tonight, but we followed the coaches' rules. We didn't do a great job at it, but we tried. It's something we can get better at -- really listening and really keying in on what they have to say and doing it without questioning."

Bender, who "played his butt off" according to Poteete, finished with a team-high 69 yards rushing on 14 carries. The Redhawks had 180 rushing yards as a team on 42 carries, good for 3.5 yards an attempt.

"You've got to be careful," Matukewicz said. "We're breaking in a new quarterback and this thing's about the OVC. It's not about the non-conference, and I wasn't walking out of here with four picks."

Instead the Redhawks walked off of Faurot Field with healthy players, a good defensive showing for most of the game and the promise of an extended playbook as the season goes on.

"I told him, 'Soon, I'll uncuff the chains," Matukewicz said.