In facing the Monday-morning quarterback showdown, Jerry Pettibone brought along an expert to the weekly Huskie Club Luncheon—his wife Susy.

“I’m going to direct all your questions to her,” Pettibone said. “She’s the expert on football in the family.”

But Mrs. Pettibone let her husband field the usual litany of whys and how comes after Saturday’s 32-31 loss to Eastern Michigan. The Huskie boss said the two-point conversion pass by EMU halfback Gary Patton was “an unorthodox call” that sticks in Pettibone’s craw.

“It was about as—I think the word is—‘emotionally frustrating’ experience I’ve had in a long time,” said Pettibone, who said the Huskies’ outside linebacker “should have rushed him (Patton) to force an off-balance throw.” Outside linebacker coach Mike Sabock agreed.

“They ran a toss sweep, and it’s pretty obvious they’re going to throw,” Sabock said of the fateful play. “One of my guys—our outside linebacker—recognized what was happening and laid back to try to help defend the pass.

“He (Patton) had the ball maybe three or four seconds. He had plenty of time, where if my player had done what his keys told him to do, instead of trying to win the game himself, he wouldn’t have had time to throw. That one guy taking things on his own cost us a lot.”

But both Pettibone and Sabock refused to place complete blame on any one player. Pettibone said the team as a whole was on an emotional low for the first time all year, after two wild weeks at Western Michigan and Northwestern.

“I did have concern about a mental letdown, an emotional letdown, because we’re the type of team that has to play hard all the time. But there was a letdown,” Pettibone said, adding the team’s mood was good all during the practice week, at the hotel the night before and in pregame warmups.

“We were mad defensively at ourselves, both as coaches and players,” Sabock said, “mainly because we gave them the game in the first half.

“You might imagine we really yelled at them during halftime, but all we said was ‘We’re giving the game away. Let’s start doing what we’re coached to do.’ That was it. So we went out and did a good job. They (EMU) ran 14 plays the whole second half, up until their final drive.”

Pettibone said he felt “confident that we have addressed the (mental) problem as it was and we’ll have a good week of practice to get ready for Toledo.”

On the injury front, Pettibone said quarterback Pete Genatempo, who sat out Saturday’s game with a deep leg bruise, should be back against Toledo this week. Genatempo will once again share duty with Marshall Taylor.

Pettibone said defensive captain Tony Savegnago is a “question mark” after missing a week with a hyperextended knee, and fullback Antonio Davis is also uncertain with a bad foot. Also hurt is Rodney Taylor, who Pettibone said is “just beat up.”