Sam Webster, who was perfect on field goals (7 of 7) in the first four games, missed two attempts in the first half, but Chamberlin still had confidence in him. When he decided to go for the first down, it was more about letting his offense gain experience in a difficult situation in case it ran into a similar scenario later in the season.
“I did think of (kicking) to try to at least get something positive out of the game,” Chamberlin said, “but I thought for the program, to help us be better later on down the road, let’s strive to get a first down.”
Dayton did get the first down. Quarterback Dante Casciola ran for eight yards to the Butler 8, but three players later, he was intercepted in the end zone.
Dayton had one more possession and again put itself in position to extend the streak. It reached the Butler 20, but quarterback Shane Hamm, who took over for the injured Casciola, was stopped on 4th-and-3. That marked the end of a streak that started in 1976 after a 9-0 loss to Marshall.
“On the one hand, it’s something that you want to be proud of and keep going however you can get it,” Chamberlin said, “but also, hey, let’s be competitors and not just worry about the streak. We were in the red zone. We wanted to get a touchdown there.”
The end of the streak wasn’t nearly as troubling for the Flyers as their overall performance in a 31-0 loss in Indianapolis. The defense struggled as much as the offense.
Butler quarterback Bret Bushka completed 25 of 29 passes for 338 yards and three touchdowns. Tyler Adams caught four passes for 149 yards and had a 75-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter.
“Everybody feels like they could have done a little more,” Dayton linebacker Ben Schmiesing said, “There’s not one guy who was satisfied with the outcome on Saturday. We’re going to have to lean on our closeness, on our brotherhood that we built. It’s not something that was built on one game, and it’s certainly not something that will be torn apart because of one loss. Having the bond that this team has, I think we just have to look ahead and regroup as a team and find our confidence and find our groove again.”
Dayton (3-2, 1-1) returns to action at noon Saturday against Marist (2-3, 2-1) in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Hamm will start at quarterback after Casciola broke his thumb late in the game. He likely will miss the rest of the season.
The Flyers lead the series against Marist 9-3, but Marist won 20-17 at Dayton last season. Marist owns victories against Stetson (3-2, 1-1) and Drake (0-6, 0-3). and a loss to St. Thomas (4-1, 2-0) in Pioneer Football League play.
“It may sound cliche, but you’ve got 24 hours to feel good or to feel bad,” Chamberlin said Wednesday, “and if it’s not the last game of the year, you’ve got to move on. That’s what we’ve done. We watched film on Sunday. Then we started on Marist, and we had a good practice (Tuesday), and I would expect another one today.”
Chamberlin doesn’t think one loss will knock his team out of contention.
“I think this year there won’t be an undefeated champion in our conference,” he said. “Last year there wasn’t. We’ve still got plenty of games to get into position the last game of the year to be playing for a championship. That was the first thing I told the players, and then the second thing I told them was, ‘We did not play well. We didn’t do the basics. We didn’t tackle. We didn’t block. We didn’t catch passes.’ Good teams are going to take advantage of that. That’s exactly what Butler did. It doesn’t mean we’re a bad team. It just means our execution was bad that day.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Marist, Noon, 1290, 95.7
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