Jacksonville State Erases a 17-point Hole to Beat Georgia Southern
Down 17-0 in the second quarter, Jacksonville State did not panic, and it beat Georgia Southern 31-27 to get to 2-2. The Eagles drop to 1-2.
Georgia Southern looked like the better team for a while. Tripp Bryant kicked a field goal, and Weston Bryan, a quarterback with a single pass attempt all season, scored from 10 yards and 2 yards to make it 17-0 with 9:50 left in the second quarter. Caden Creel answered with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Likely, a Garrison Rippa field goal cut it to 17-10, and then Bryan ran in a third touchdown with 32 seconds before halftime for a 24-10 lead.
Jacksonville State pulled within 24-17 on Creel's 18-yard pass to Deondre Johnson, and Bryant's 43-yard field goal pushed it back to 27-17 heading into the fourth. That was the last Georgia Southern score. Lucas Farrington ran 26 yards for a touchdown at 11:17 to make it 27-24, and with 8:16 left Caleb Nix returned a punt 75 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. That was the only lead change of the day, and it was 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
The yardage actually favored the losers: Georgia Southern had 369 total yards to Jacksonville State's 306, and ran for 182 to 112. Georgia Southern threw an interception, Jacksonville State lost a fumble, and one of the game's biggest plays was on special teams. Take away the punt return and it is 24-27, a Georgia Southern win.
Fantasy takeaway: Creel led everyone at 23.6 points, but Bryan's three rushing touchdowns on six carries nearly matched it.