Robert Morris Football
‘Physical’ Mistakes Caught Up to Robert Morris in Blowout Loss to West Virginia
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Robert Morris traveled down to Morgantown on Saturday afternoon to open the 2025 football season against West Virginia, the first Big-12 opponent in program history.
Despite forcing three first-half turnovers and only trailing by a touchdown at halftime, mistakes caught up with the Colonials in the second half as they let the Mountaineers pull away in route to a 45-3 blowout victory.
“I was pleased with the first half but obviously I was not with the second half,” Robert Morris head coach Bernard Clark Jr. said. “We were able to force three takeaways in the first half but we couldn’t capitalize on them though. In the second half, we went out there with poor tackling, we weren’t executing, I don’t know if we got a first down (in the second half).”
While the Colonials were massive underdogs in a game against a superior, Power-Four level opponent, Clark did not want to take any moral victories away from the performance as it he still expected his team to do the physical things correctly, which they did not in the second half.
The Colonials’ turned the ball over twice due to fumbles but those were not the biggest mistake that they made. The mistakes that caught up to them were “physical” mistakes, according to Robert Morris head coach Bernard Clark. He described physical mistakes as tackling issues, blocking assignments and dropped passes.
“It goes back to not so much of them wearing us down but to us making tackles when we are supposed to make tackles, getting open when we are supposed to get open, making the catches when we are supposed to make catches,” Clark said. “Those are the things that frustrate you because those are physical things, those aren’t coachable things, those are things that they are capable of doing as opposed to things that we are asking them to do.”
Aside from the physical mistakes from his squad, Clark was especially critical of both the offensive and defensive line.
Offensively, the Colonials only points came on a field goal which was practically gifted to them as they started the drive inside of Mountaineer territory. In addition, quarterback Zach Tanner stood in just a handful of clean pockets while the running backs were often met at the line of scrimmage by multiple defenders.
Defensively, the Colonials allowed 625 yards of total offense, 393 on the ground and 232 through the air. On top of all of the yards and points given up, especially in the second half, the front seven generated just one sack and three tackles for loss.
“They overpowered us upfront,” Clark said about what changed in the second half. “It started upfront, their d-line against our o-line, we got overpowered up front. The front four is what really did it more than anything else and I think in the second half, it just wore us down.”
“Our biggest issue to me right now, it starts up front,” Clark continued. “Our d-line, our o-line has to get better.”
Despite some chunk plays from the West Virginia offense in the first half, Clark’s defense held the Mountaineers to just 10 points and forced four fumbles, recovering three of them.
One defensive player that stood out in the first half was transfer linebacker Jakari Patterson, who finished with six tackles, two for a loss and a forced fumble. Patterson transfer into Robert Morris after spending last season at Austin Peay.
“I expect him to continue doing what he is doing,” Clark said about Patterson. “There has been about 57 new faces since December so it is one of those things, like Coach Rich Rod said they have like 70-something new faces, so that is the other thing we are trying to do is to see who can actually get it done. Jakari was one of those guys who got it done in the first half and played well.”
With a team full of transfers and new coordinators, practice can only take a team so far. The game reps against actual opponents will the thing that helps Robert Morris, like any other team in the country, figure out its flaws and how to fix them which is what it sounded like the loss did for Clark as he learned what his team is capable of doing and what it is not.
“What we are capable of running and what we are not capable of running,” Clark said about what he learned in the loss. “As a coach, sometimes you get frustrated because of all the things that you want to do but it does not matter what you, the coach, knows. The only thing that matters is what they are capable of doing.”
“Even though it is a big-time FBS opponent, it is a situation of are the fits where they need to be on defense and are we blocking who we need to block on offense or are we capable of making that block on offense, are we getting off of the jams on pass sets, stuff like that,” Clark ended. “Those things become prevalent more than anything else.”
Despite losing in blowout fashion to FBS foe West Virginia, the great thing about college football is that the Colonials get the opportunity to right their wrongs just a week from today when they head to Youngstown St. for a showdown with the Penguins.
