McCollum's Column: Bears discover that those little bugs are lethal when magnified

Every football game for the University of Central Arkansas Bears has turned into a cruel version of “Groundhog Day” this season.

Same ole. Same ole. The Bears get close to victory, then are turned back by penalties, dropped passes, defensive breakdowns, bad luck ... the whole 10 yards of Murphy’s Law.

Who would have imagined that in Week 12 the Bears would be playing to salvage a .500 season?

But the perception and assumptions are part of the problem. More about that later.

Every loss kind of looks the same — although there was a twist to Saturday’s game against McNeese State, which had a whole lot of meaning for the Cowboys and not much for the Bears. It was actually one of UCA’s best efforts of the season. More about that later.

The problems started in preseason when the Bears lost to injury two of the upperclassmen players they couldn’t afford to lose, wide receiver Willie Landers and fullback Nick Cowger. Landers was the leading returning receiver and the Bears’ major threat for the home-run ball. Cowger’s loss was more under the radar but a vital one because of his versatility. He was a good blocker and a good and most capable receiver coming out of the backfield. 

The Bears had a direct replacement for neither. There is no receiver who is both a deep threat and has the ability to catch the ball as Landers. There is no fullback or H back with the savvy and pass-catching ability as Cowger.

That’s why is a gross oversimplification and a major inaccuracy to cast the blame at quarterback Robbie Park, who does not have all the skills of Nathan Brown (most quarterbacks don’t), has not had a bad season. Generally, he has played well and within himself. In fact, Park, who does not have the mobility of many UCA quarterbacks, has probably been handcuffed by a lack of consistent and versatile receivers as much as any UCA quarterback in a couple of decades. 

For example: In the waning moments of the Sam Houston State game, the Bearkats are blitzing mightily at Park on fourth down. He gets a deep pass off knowing he was about to get crushed. He has to get the ball away just as Preston Echols is making his break downfield. Park leads Echols perfectly and puts enough air under the ball where the receiver has time to get to it. It was a bigtime throw. The ball bounces of Echols hands at the Sam Houston 19. The Bearkats win by three.

The characters changed but that type of scene was replayed all too much.

The Bears were vulnerable to a defense that could move about and cram the box because they have no receiver who can consistently beat man coverage and none who could consistently catch the tough pass for the key reception good teams have to make. That situation was compounded by a lack of a fullback for spot screens and dumps along the perimeter and no tight end such as Marquez Branson, who could make big plays deep.

The offense has been reduced to get the ball to Brent Grimes and let him do what he can with an offensive line that is very good at blocking the run — as long as someone doesn’t false-start in key situations. 

The defense has had its share of breakdowns and missed tackles. And the offense didn’t have enough big plays to cover up wounds by defensive and special teams mistakes.

This is not a bad UCA team. It is one of the most limited UCA teams in years.

Every mistake, every breakdown, every penalty is magnified because there is a lack of big playmakers to neutralize them — even Grimes is a spurt back without breakaway speed. 

UCA is not very capable of scoring in three to five plays. This year, the Bears have to have 10 to 16 plays to grind it out. The added number of plays required for productive drives increases the percentage for error. 

For example, UCA had 22 third-down plays against McNeese State. When a team has that many third-down plays, it indicates it is walking a tightrope on every drive. The Bears have had to nickel-and-dime without much spare change. Without a home-run hitter, the Bears have had to play small ball, and that’s hard to do in the Southland Conference.

But there may be a psychological aspect that relates to preparation.

In preseason, the Bears, after a 6-1, unofficial conference championship season, were picked in the middle of the pack with 14 preseason all-conference players. The immediate reaction was that those who rated were wrong. The Bears had a chip on their shoulders and went into the season with the mindset everyone was wrong and they were going to prove it because they were UCA and had history and tradition behind them. It turned out the pollsters were pretty much dead-on.

They had concluded UCA had a large group of good proven players but collectively something might be missing as a team.

Maybe the question both UCA and players should have asked going into the season was whether those predictions might be right and if so, what needs to be done to make sure they don’t turn out the be right?

The short answers were more precision and more attention to detail and fewer assumptions that everything good that happened in the first two seasons in the SLC was going to happen again. It was not a given that UCA was going to win all its home games, all its conference games, all its games in Texas, all its games on TV. The mindset was the Bears would always overcome everything and find a way to win. The players, who may have been spoiled by quick and almost seamless success in NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, might not have fully understood the fine line of difference between the top of the SLC and the bottom.

That mindset was compounded by the schedule. UCA almost beat a Hawaii team that is currently an unimpressive 5-6 and a Western Kentucky team that would not win any and fire its coach. Then, there were two perceived guaranteed-win games against two teams from NCAA Division II, both of whom (particularly Glenville State) proved more of a headache than expected. That sent up a red flag that few noticed at the time.

Two of the Bears’ first SLC games were against Northwestern State and Nicholls, which finished at the bottom of the league with Northwestern going winless.

Bottom line: the Bears’ last six games were against teams much, more tougher and with more athletic ability and more experienced quarterbacks than the first six.

Because of the scheduling with Hawaii and Western Kentucky, the Bears had to play 11 straight weeks. Even with the best teams, that’s brutal and almost cruel. A team can get pretty banged up playing six straight weeks against good competition, much less 11.

Back to the McNeese game.

A staggering, banged-up UCA team with very limited firepower and nothing tangible to play for took a tradition-rich McNeese team that was playing for a share of a conference championship and a playoff berth to the wire with a chance to win in the final minute. The defense had one of its best efforts of the season and seemed to correct many of the problems that had earlier plagued it. The offense did exactly what it needed to do in grinding things out and controlling tempo to give it a shot.

Bottom line. If there wasn’t something special there — a lingering spark, a surge of pride, a large dose of character — the Bears are rolled over by the title-hungry McNeese machine.

“I think everybody is about the same in this league and it comes down to whether the ball bounces your way or not,” said Stephen F. Austin coach J.C. Harper, whose Lumberjacks have gone from a winless season to a conference co-champ in two years. “If you don’t get the breaks, you pay a price.”

UCA learned this year what kind of price can be paid for not being precise enough to make breaks or to allow teams to fully capitalize on them.

Little things mushroom into big things very quickly.

(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)