Notebook: Punt protection blunder costs Southeast Missouri State football team in loss to Mizzou

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The Southeast Missouri State football team trailed by 17 points late in the third quarter of its season opener against nationally-ranked Football Bowl Subdvision opponent Missouri on Saturday and faced fourth-and-10 from its own 47-yard line after a 5-yard penalty for a false start.

Rather than bring out junior punter Alex Knight, who averaged 47.3 yards per punt on his seven attempts up to that point, quarterback Tay Bender and the rest of the offense remained on the field.

Bender took the snap and attempted a pooch punt that was blocked by Mizzou linebacker Kentrell Brothers and ricocheted into the hands of defensive back Aarion Penton, who returned it 41 yards for a touchdown with 22 seconds remaining in the third quarter, putting the game far out of reach for the Redhawks in their 34-3 loss.

"It was just protection. The guy came off the edge," Bender said. "Coach always talks about you only care about what you can control, and I couldn't control that. I've got one job to do and that's get the ball off, and I did and it got blocked."

Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz took complete blame for the decision to put his first-year starting quarterback in that position.

"It was just poor coaching by Coach Tuke," Matukewicz said. "Coach Tuke's got to do a better job. Schematically you have nobody deep. They're all up. We snap it to the kicker, or to Tay, and he punts it. You're going to bleed it. We had the field position, thought we could down it, and we didn't execute our protection. They got back there and blocked it."

The Redhawks went three-and-out on their next drive -- Knight booted a 50-yard punt to the Mizzou 4-yard line -- before their defense, which was the most impressive facet of Southeast's performance, halted Missouri on fourth-and-7 on the Southeast 34 after a 10-play drive that spanned 4 minutes, 29 seconds.

"That had a very big impact, but we practice sudden-change and mistakes all the time, so we was ready," cornerback Ryan Moore said. "The defense bounced back."

Bender was called on to punt on the Redhawks' first drive of the game. Southeast faced fourth-and-4 from its own 41-yard line 2:10 into the game, and after Bender and the offense remained on the field, Missouri called a timeout.

After the break, Bender returned to the turf at Faurot Field and got off a 23-yard punt that rolled out of bounds at the Tigers' 36.

Matukewicz said Bender punting will remain in the Redhawks' arsenal. He kicked two 52-yard field goals during his junior season at Southwest High School in Lincoln, Nebraska.

"He's a phenomenal punter," Matukewicz said. "He used to kick field goals and everything, so he's a really, really good punter. If you keep the offense out there on fourth down, you call a play (and) don't like it, you punt it. It's all good. Or if you like a play, now we can go for it on fourth down. That's the coaching philosophy behind it. It was just poorly executed by Coach Tuke."

Knight averaged 49.7 yards, including a 60-yarder, on 10 punts.

"I just hope we never punt 12 times again," Matukewicz said when asked about Knight's performance.

Donnerson ejected

Southeast sophomore linebacker Kendall Donnerson charged at Mizzou quarterback Maty Mauk on a second-and-11 play from the Tigers' 36 with 9:38 remaining in the first quarter.

Mauk's pass to receiver Nate Brown fell incomplete, but Donnerson plowed into the junior quarterback well after the pass was thrown, knocking his helmet into Mauk's and sending him flying backwards.

After a review of the play, Donnerson was called for targeting and ejected from the game.

"It was embarrassing," Matukewicz said. "It was a targeting, and it cost us. We're going to coach him up."

The play was widely criticized across the Internet and drew attention from Bleacher Report, which called the hit "vicious," along with other media outlets.

"It's not like he made a conscious decision," Matukewicz said before snapping his fingers to demonstrate how fast it happened. "But we pride ourselves on talking about lowering your target zone, we put tape on dummies so they're used to getting lower. Hopefully that's a great opportunity for our whole team to learn and that never happens again."

Health

The Redhawks sustained no serious injuries in their "money game" against the two-time defending SEC East Champion Tigers, according to Matukewicz. His team's health was of major concern in the game that they were paid $385,000 for playing in.

Multiple Southeast players competed in their first game after sustaining season-ending injuries in 2014, including linebacker Chad Meredith.

Meredith, who tore his labrum during the team's upset victory over Southeastern Louisiana in the fourth game last season, had surgery in the offseason and received a medical redshirt.

He led the Redhawks with eight tackles, three for loss, in the first game of his redshirt sophomore season.

"It felt great," Meredith said with a smile. "It's been too long."