North Alabama Beats Samford 22-10 on Two Long Bombs
Samford rushed 25 times and finished with minus 8 yards. That is not a typo, and it goes a long way toward explaining why North Alabama walked out of the opener with a 22-10 win.
Nobody scored in the first quarter, and nobody scored in the third. Everything happened in the second, and it happened fast. Destin Wade found Xavier Johnson for a 95-yard touchdown with 8:44 left in the half, a safety followed a couple of minutes later, and it was 9-0 before Samford had done anything. Marquise Henderson answered with an 86-yarder from Gabarri Johnson to make it 9-7, but Roderick Taylor Jr. punched in a 3-yard run with 0:21 to go and the Lions took a 16-7 lead into the break.
Samford never got closer than six. A 26-yard field goal early in the fourth cut it to 16-10, and Ty Watkins scored from a yard out with 6:38 left to make it 22-10 (the two-point try failed, which ended up not mattering). North Alabama never trailed.
The totals are lopsided in a way the score is not. North Alabama had 394 yards to 237, ran 47 times for 165 yards, and sacked Samford six times. Samford threw for 245 yards and one interception, and that was the offense. Both teams' big plays were the same kind of play, a long catch, but only one side had a ground game to go with it.
North Alabama starts 1-0 and Samford starts 0-1. For fantasy, the story is receivers: the top two scorers here were both wideouts (Henderson for Samford, Johnson for North Alabama), and each of them had a touchdown of 86 yards or longer.