Without big plays, Southeast Missouri State football offense scrapes by

RYAN HERMENS | The Sun Southeast Missouri's quarterback Jesse Hosket (4) throws a pass during the first half of Saturday's game at Roy Stewart in Murray. The Redhawks won 17-16.

MURRAY, Ky. — Big plays. They are difference makers. And on Saturday night at Murray State, the Southeast Missouri State football couldn’t find them.

The Redhawks began the game by driving 75 yards on 14 plays on a sustained drive that put them up 7-0, but they quickly found out how little that means without big plays.

Six plays later, the Racers got a 67-yard completion from quarterback KD Humphries to running back Demetric Johnson and the game was tied. Soon, as the Southeast offense stalled out, the Redhawks found themselves trailing by a touchdown for most of the second half.

Part of that was penalties, some of that was turnovers, some of it was succumbing to a blitz-heavy Murray State defense. But an inability to get any game-breaking plays did the unit no favors, even as the Redhawks picked up a 17-13 victory.

“In the run game we have to be able to get on the perimeter because we’ve got some good speed,” Southeast quarterback Jesse Hosket said. “In the passing game we’ve got to take some shots down field early on when they’re not expecting it.

“That’s not my call. I’m here to do what Coach [Jon] Wiemers calls in and I back him up. That’s up to him. There’s no doubt we have the talent to do it.”

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Meanwhile, Murray State was surviving on big breaks. Of the host’s 352 yards of offense, 215 came on three plays — Johnson’s TD reception, and 81-yard catch by Jesse Blackburn that set up a touchdown and a 67-yard catch by Mareio McGraw that ultimately led to a missed 33-yard field goal.

While the Racers had three plays of 67 yards or more, SEMO had just five of 20 yards or more, and only three prior to the final drive of the game — the one it needed to win the game.

“On offense one of our main focuses is the big plays — big runs, big passes,” Redhawks center Jake McCandless said. “Those are really important to us. We talk a lot about it and we just try to execute and do what we can do get a few of those.

“They’re very important because whenever you get one of those you get momentum on your side. You can roll with that momentum to keep doing it and get in the end zone, and tonight we did that on that last drive, and that’s the one that counted.”

The big plays Southeast put together paled in comparison to the yard-chewing explosions that Murray State pulled out of its pocket a few times, but they turned out to be just enough.

After looking mostly inept after the opening drive, Southeast Missouri State bookended the game with another successful drive, finally finding some rhythm. And covering half the field in two plays.

Southeast started its decisive series with strong field position at its own 42-yard line, but it was a 31-yard throw from Hosket to receiver Tyler McLemore that broke open the drive.

“Really, we just called our curl concept play,” McLemore said. “I saw we had a squad corner so I did what my coach tells me to do every day — outside, release the corner and just find the hole. Jesse did his job to put the ball on me and I was just able to make a play.”

Hosket said the play was easy — the cornerback jumped the flat and McLemore was wide open to sprint down the field. But it was something the Redhawks had figured out so few times on the night, and it set up the game-winning score one snap later.

Hosket dropped back and tossed the ball up to the end zone, where Adrian Davis went up over the top of a defensive back, juggled the ball and hauled it in.

Back-to-back big gains were the difference.

“He does that,” McLemore said. “He’s a tremendous athlete. He does that day in and day out in practice, and when they called that play I knew he was going to do his one-eleventh. There wasn’t a doubt in anyone’s mind. We knew he was capable of doing it.

“Our coaches did a tremendous job of play-calling. They put us in positions to make plays, and playmakers make plays.”

Except when they didn’t for much of the game. The result was a failure to find the end zone against a defense that was allowing 43.3 points per game entering the weekend.

“It’s the small things on offense, really, that we’ve got to continue to work on,” Davis said. “We’ve been working on it since fall camp, but I feel like every week we progress.”

For one final drive, there was enough progress to win.