Redshirt sophomore quarterback Joe Carbone as a gunslinger is ineffective and often costly for Stony Brook. In losses against Sacred Heart and Temple, he failed to throw his way to the end zone and finished the game with no touch downs and two interceptions. But as a game manager, he paves the way for wins such as the one Saturday against Towson.
So far this season, Carbone has excelled at game management. In Stony Brook’s upset win over Richmond, he had 155 yards on 11 of 15 passes and a single touchdown. His longest pass was seven yards. Yet he controlled the tempo and Stony Brook came away with the biggest win in program history.
His role in Saturday’s win against Towson was much of the same. He threw smart passes for decent yardage and turned to the running back corps to make big plays and score.
Carbone’s longest two passes were eleven yards each and he did not go overboard in the first quarter. He then got an incredible explosion of offense from the running back duo of redshirt junior Stacey Bedell and his cousin sophomore running back Jordan Gowins as Stony Brook got on the scoreboard first.
However in the second quarter, Carbone was inefficient as a passer. In the 15 total plays the Seawolves ran in the quarter, Carbone threw for 29 yards on eight attempts, completing three of them. It was a fruitless attack that allowed the Tigers to take a 17-7 lead to end the half.
When the Seawolves ran more rushing plays than passing, they seemed to score at will. In the team’s final drive of the third quarter, the Seawolves ran 10 rushing plays to three passing. The result was six points on the board, and a 20-17 lead over the Tigers. The other three scoring drives of the game went the same way — a plethora of rushing plays, a few passing plays and a touchdown.
During his offensive possessions, Carbone displayed a good balance of rushing and passing that seemed to have dictated the flow of the game. He threw a 22-yard pass to Bolden that put Stony Brook in Towson territory and later scored on a 12-yard quarterback draw.
Carbone’s job should not be to air the ball to get Stony Brook back into games. It should be to complement the rushing game. Against Richmond, he was used as a secondary offensive option in Bedell’s best game of the season. Carbone also had his best game of the season, but as a game manager rather than a downfield passer.
On Saturday, it became apparent the maestro of the offense was not Carbone, but Bedell. Carbone’s inefficiency does not allow him to take over as the offense’s first option. Instead, he should be utilized as he was on Saturday, a secondary method to gain yards, as he is more successful getting the Seawolves down the field than into the end zone.
