[laker20]

The Laker's had plenty of chances to win this game, but failed on execution, game plan, adjustments and simply never could get the ball to bounce their way.

The Laker's had two TD runs called back (1 holding, 1 block in the back). We also had a ball that we intercepted and ran back 60-yards to the one, only to fumble on the next play. Then we threw one interception in our own endzone, and had a dropped pass in the endzone. All of these were on different drives. So, that was 5 opportunities to score of which we came back with zero. Then we had the opportunity to kick two short FGs but chose to go for it on 4th and failed both times (6 points would have been huge).

We also had at least three interceptions that we dropped, that would have stopped 2 of Mercer's scoring drives. We simply allowed Mercer's line to dominate the LOS and never adjusted our plays or our blocking schemes.

At half it was 13-0 Mercer, with us kicking to start the 3rd. We held them, but on the punt, Britt was tackled and lost a shoe (3rd time for the night). Rather than take a time out on what was a crucial drive we ran our first two plays with our best player on the sideline only to be forced into a 3rd & long. So ultimately we had to punt again, and Mercer moved the ball down field and threw a VERY controversial TD pass. The ball was thrown to the right sideline, our corner went up and caught the ball and as he was coming down the Mercer receiver wrapped his arms around him on to the ball (both players in the endzone. The official standing there signaled interception and after our offense started running on to the field, one of the other officials came over and changed the call to a Mercer TD......no conversation, nothing. This was a good 15-20 seconds after the play. So Mercer was up 19-0.

Finally, in the 4th, we got the ball and the Laker team I've watched all year showed up. We scored a TD with 10:45 remaining, held Mercer to a 3 & out and scored again with 7:20 left. Then we forced another 3 & out w/ 6 minutes remaining and took the ball down to the 12 or so only to try a reverse that lost several yards, then our QB gave up a sack (7th of the night). Turned the ball over on downs with 3 minutes remaining and never could force the punt to get the ball back.

The officiating was questionable at best. Two times Britt was tackled by the face mask (both very obvious) and once he was horse collared. But even with the poor officiating the big difference was that our players just didn't make the plays that had been routine all year. Had we even made half of them, we would have won by 20. Nonetheless, we'll have a week or two extra getting ready for next season.