ATLANTA -- Arkansas State coaches filled their players' heads during the short week with praise of the defense the Red Wolves would face Thursday night.
ASU was coming off its best offensive performance of the season, but Georgia State had held every Sun Belt Conference team it had faced to below its scoring standard.
In what ended up being ASU's 31-16 victory inside a mostly empty Georgia Dome, Coach Blake Anderson and his staff stressed the importance of game-changing plays on defense and special teams.
ASU's most experienced unit gladly accepted, coming up with three plays on special teams -- two it forced and another gift -- it used to pull away in the second half for its fourth consecutive victory and 13th in a row over a Sun Belt team.
"We found a way to get a team win, and we just need to find a way to do that each week," said Anderson, whose team punted seven times, missed two field goals and gave up a kick return for a touchdown. "I think everybody did their part. Even if it wasn't pretty, they did their part."
For a team that just five days earlier scored a season-high 51 points in a blowout of Louisiana-Monroe, style points came in unconventional ways against Georgia State.
The Red Wolves (4-4, 4-0 Sun Belt) were held to 305 yards of offense, its lowest total against a Sun Belt team this season, and 56 yards came in a second half in which it punted on six of its eight possessions. Quarterback Justice Hansen, who connected on passes of 20 yards or more five times while passing for 205 yards in the first half, was just 3 of 13 for 7 yards in the second.
ASU's running game was ground to a halt, gaining 93 yards on 41 carries. Its two touchdowns came from Johnston White, but those capped drives of 19 and 5 yards.
But that was, to an extent, expected against Georgia State (2-7, 1-4), which counts holding league co-leader Appalachian State to 17 points in a loss last month among its credentials.
"They were saying 'win the game on special teams,' " ASU cornerback Chris Humes said. "And that's kind of how it played out."
Humes finished the first big play.
Tied at 3-3 with less than a minute to go before half, Cody Brown sprinted around the left end to block a 50-yard field goal attempt by Rogier ten Lohuis. Near the sideline, Humes scooped up the ball and sprinted 57 yards to give ASU a 10-3 halftime lead.
After Conner Manning's 17-yard pass to Keith Rucker for Georgia State tied the game at 10-10, a bad snap on a punt put ASU on the Georgia State 19. Five plays later, White scored from 1 yard out to make it 17-10.
Blaise Taylor gave ASU the cushion it needed, receiving a punt on the right hash, finding the left sideline and sprinting 68 yards to make it 24-10. Georgia State's Tra Barnett responded with a 90-yard kick return, but Chris Odom blocked the extra point to keep it at 24-16.
"We treat special teams like another defensive snap," said Taylor, one of ASU's starting cornerbacks. "We play it as hard as every other snap."
Said Georgia State Coach Trent Miles: "We didn't give ourselves a chance to win the football game. It was self-destruction."
ASU's defense deserves some credit, too, after holding the league's worst offense to 331 yards. Conner Manning, who played for the first time in three games after suffering an arm injury, completed 22-of-46 passing for 237 yards with 2 interceptions, one by Taylor and another by Brown.
Humes said a defense loaded with returners was fine with coaches putting the game in their hands.
"We want that," he said. "As a defense, you want to put the pressure on us, because we work for that. We practice for all that. We can handle it."
Anderson wouldn't say that he was disappointed in what ASU did on offense. But, he acknowledged that he thought Hansen got frustrated at times after some missed throws. The running game and other parts of the offense didn't give the sophomore quarterback much help, either, Anderson said.
"We keep looking for someone else on offense to help him along," Anderson said. "But there's just no experience."
Five times in the first half ASU got to Georgia State's 25 or closer, but had only a 30-yard J.D. Houston field goal to show for it. Houston missed two other field goals, Hansen lost a fumble and there was a turnover on downs.
"We know we can't continue to shoot ourselves sin the foot when we get down there," Hansen said.
But Humes, Taylor, Odom and others bailed out the offense, and now six weeks after being 0-4, ASU is in a three-way tie with Appalachian State and Troy at the top of the Sun Belt standings.
"Wasn't a pretty night," Anderson said. "But it was still a W on the road and I will take any W on the road we can get."
Sports on 11/04/2016