Photo by Brandy EubanksDespite a lopsided win over the Northeastern Oklahoma Golden Norsemen, KC head coach J.J. Eckert was concerned about the alarming amount of penalties piled up by the Rangers.
KC was flagged 15 times for 125 yards, a number which does not include multiple plays which featured off-setting penalties.
“Obviously, that’s something we have to fix,” Eckert said. “Late in the season that’s something that can come back to haunt you.”
The flags included a variety of infractions, including three personal fouls.
The trouble started on the very first drive of the day for KC. A holding call, a personal foul and a delay of game saddled the Ranger offense with third-and-40 from their own 10 yard-line.
“Particularly on that first drive…and you’re staring at a third and 40. There’s not many plays we have to make that,” Eckert said.
The most damaging penalty was one that did not count. On the final play of the first half Jimmy Anderson intercepted his second pass and returned it 80 yards for a touchdown, but off-setting penalties negated the play and the half was ruled over by officials.
“On Jimmy’s play, it was a spectacular play on his part and we could have gone into the half at 52-17. Instead we lost the momentum,” Eckert said. ” That’s definitely something we need to work on as a football team.”
Despite the number of flags, protests from players and coaches were kept to a minimum. Eckert had no complaints about the quality of the officiating.
“It was a good crew,” he said.
According to Eckert, the penalties are a correctable problem.”
“We have some things we need to clean up and we will,” he said. “It was probably just a situation of of mistakes that are all very correctable and we just didn’t do a good job of it.”
\\ J.C. Derrick, Executive Editor