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, Ga.
Georgia Southern trounced ASU 59-33 at Allen E. Paulson Stadium, having their way with a triple-option offense that outgained the Red Wolves 503-91 on the ground. The Eagles busted touchdown runs of 59, 23, 41, 59 and 47 yards while repeatedly gashing 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 combining for 365 rushing yards.
"For the first time all year, I thought we got completely dominated on the lines of scrimmage," Coach Butch Jones said. "I will get this solved, I promise you, but it's unacceptable in our football program to have what happened."
The Red Wolves appeared to have some momentum in the latter stages of the second quarter -- after Georgia Southern (2-3, 1-1 Sun Belt) 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.
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 -- to carry a 31-19 advantage into the locker room, then methodically marched down the field to open the third quarter, making it 21 consecutive points for the hosts.
After the teams traded punts, Georgia Southern linebacker Quin Williams picked off Blackman, taking it 22 yards to the end zone, and ASU (1-4, 0-1), in less than a quarter's time, watched a two-point lead turn into a 26-point deficit.
From Jones' perspective, it was earlier mistakes that started to bury the Red Wolves well before they were staring down yet another double-digit deficit.
"When we talk about playing winning football, we dropped a touchdown pass, then we had some negative-yardage plays and we miss a field goal," Jones said of the game's opening two series. "Then on defense, we have a fourth and 1, we need to get a stop, they make it by inches, and then the next play's an explosive play for a touchdown."
Blackman could never really settle in with the Eagles' defensive front in his face the entire game. He was sacked six times and hurried on five more plays, completing 28 of his 43 pass attempts for 292 yards and 2 touchdowns.
While ASU's offensive line did its starting quarterback no favors, Jones eventually pulled his starter in favor of Layne Hatcher at the start of the fourth quarter.
Hatcher, who relieved Blackman in the season opener and started against Memphis, seemed to jump-start the Red Wolves' offense, leading back-to-back touchdown drives at the start of the final quarter, pulling ASU to 52-33 and sustain hope for a miraculous comeback.
One play after a failed onside kick by the Red Wolves, White busted up the gut for 47 yards, settlng the day's final margin and giving Georgia Southern interim head coach Kevin Whitley a win in his debut.
With No. 16 Coastal Carolina coming to Jonesboro on Thursday -- the highest-ranked opponent to ever visit Centennial Bank Stadium -- ASU has little time to stew over yet another lopsided loss.
"We stopped ourselves," Jones said. "Things winning teams do, well-coached teams do, we're not doing them, and that starts with me. I promise you, there will be a lot of sleepless nights but we're going to get it right."