NEW ORLEANS—Everything seemed to be going so well for Southern. For the first time in Bryant Lee’s record-setting career, the senior entered the Bayou Classic healthy. The offensive line had only given up nine sacks all year, and Lee had consistently been provided time to find his receivers.
Yet, once the 36th annual State Farm Bayou Classic got under way
inside the Louisiana Superdome, all of that changed, and things went terribly wrong as Grambling emerged with a 31-13 victory.
“My worst nightmare came true,” SU coach Pete Richardson said. “We just couldn’t control them on the defensive line. They put a lot of pressure up front on us.”
Indeed.
Christian Anthony and his fellow defensive linemen wrecked Southern’s offense, stifled its run game and knocked out tight end Warren Matthews, its ever so valuable X-receiver.
“They just rushed four guys, we couldn’t block them,” Richardson said. “They just outmanned us up front and Christian is everything they said he was. He gave us fits.”
As it seemed, the Tigers’ defense appeared to spark its offense, in
They did so as Anthony and Co. held the Jaguars’ running game to only 95 yards, took standout receiver Juamorris Stewart out of the game with double and triple teams, and held Lee in check.
By contrast, Southern seemed to bend and finally break in the latter
“They did a good job of getting us out of rhythm,” said Stewart, who
From the opening kick when Corey Cushingberry returned a kick 74 yards, setting the Jaguars up with first-and-goal at the Grambling 10-yard line, the game seemed it may go Southern’s way. But, three plays later, SU emerged scoreless.
That trend repeated itself over and over as Southern went three-and-out repeatedly.
“We weren’t on the same page,” Curry Allen said. “We weren’t focused and executing like we should.”
Southern had four first half drives spilling into Grambling territory.
Two resulted in touchdowns. Two, which stalled inside the Grambling red zone, ended without points. Once more, Southern’s first drive, kick started by a 74-yard Corey Cushingberry kick return, setting the Jaguars up with first-and-10 at the Grambling 10-yard line, ended in a Josh Duran missed field goal.
That said, the Jaguars struggled getting things right in the first
“The defensive line pressure on us was so strong we couldn’t get anything started,” Lee said. “I’ve never seen anything like that this season. At first I thought it was linebackers blitzing, but it was their D-line getting in there, hitting me.”
After stuffing the Tigers’ first two drives, Southern crumbled as Grambling went to its run attack. The change in philosophy allowed the Tigers to score on their next two drives and race out to a 14-0 advantage early in the second quarter.
From there, Grambling never looked back. The Tigers controlled time of possession (37:01 to 22:59), gained more first downs (28 to 11) and never trailed. Once more, every Grambling score, besides Ari Johnson’s 24-yard field goal, came by rush.
“This game goes down in history as a loss but we’re going to bounce back,” Allen said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow but we can’t let it bring us down.”
Notes
Warren Matthew’s day was ended late in the first quarter as he made a 37-yard reception –Matthews took a shot to the leg.
“He’s a big asset to our team,” Lee said. “We really didn’t know who could come in and back him up.”
Said Allen, “When Warren went out we had to change personnel. We weren’t ready for that. That change a lot.”
Allen led all SU receivers with three catches for 49 yards and a touchdown. Lee finished 13-for-28 for 137 yards and a touchdown, by far his worst game of the season. Lee also led the Jaguars in rushing with 50 yards.