The message was clear as day a week ago.
“If you can’t stop the run and you can’t run the football, it’s really hard to win football games,” Arkansas State Coach Butch Jones said after last Saturday’s loss at Tulsa.
If his Red Wolves didn’t get it then, perhaps it crystallized Saturday in Statesboro.
Georgia Southern trounced ASU 59-33 at Allen E. Paulson Stadium, dominating on the ground with a triple-option offense that outgained the Red Wolves 503-91. The Eagles busted touchdown runs of 59, 23, 41, 59 and 47 yards while repeatedly gashed an ASU defense that has now surrendered 50-plus points in three of five games.
Georgia Southern running backs Logan Wright and Jalen White each scored a pair of touchdowns with the tandem of Eagles combining for 365 rushing yards.
The Red Wolves looked to have momentum in the latter stages of the second quarter — after Georgia Southern (2-3, 1-1 Sun Belt Conference) punted a ball off its personal protector’s backside and out of the end zone for a safety, James Blackman and the ASU offense needed less than two minutes to drive 53 yards and connect with Corey Rucker for the sophomore’s second touchdown of the day.
But everything began to unravel once the Red Wolves took their only lead of the game at 19-17. The Eagles scored twice in 2:38, the latter touchdown coming shortly after Blackman’s second interception of the quarter, and carried a 31-19 advantage into the locker room.
Georgia Southern then methodically marched down the field to open the third quarter, making it 21 straight points, and after the teams traded punts, linebacker Quin WIlliams picked off Blackman, taking it 22 yards to the end zone.
A two-point lead became a 26-point deficit in less than 15 minutes and that was more than enough to send ASU (1-4, 0-1) to a fourth straight defeat.
Blackman finished the game with 292 yards on 28-of-43 passing with a pair of touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Layne Hatcher entered at the start of the fourth quarter, tossing two touchdowns of his own in a desperation comeback bid that came up well short.
More details in Sunday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.