Mistakes, inconsistency, inexperience and missed opportunities all equaled up to another loss for the Southern University Football Team.
In the 19th annual Coca-Cola Circle City Classic held in Indianapolis a crowd of 47,598 witnessed the lack of offense, only 229 total yards, which attributed to the Jaguars fall to 1-5 on the season. Due to injury Southern started their third different quarterback of the year against Alabama A&M University.
In his first start of the season Kirby Sharp passed for only 120 yards and one touchdown. Sharp hit Michael Haynes in the endzone for Southern’s only offensive score of the game.
“We made mistakes that cost us on both sides of the ball, We’re still inconsistent on offense and we gotta deal with those types of growing pains”, said Head Coach Pete Richardson.
The offense fell apart after a 30 play 60 yard drive which took up 5:41 that ended on the A&M 1 yard line when a run up the middle by Marques Newman was shut down. On that drive Newman carried the ball 8 times for 39 yards but his last two attempts was stopped after no gain including the crucial 4 and 1 play.
“This loss is real frustrating,” said Sharp, “We ran a certain play that drive and it keep working and when we got to the goal line they just stopped it.”
Mistakes like a fumble, three interceptions a turnover on downs and a missed field goal on six straight possessions are the main reasons for the Southern loss.
“We gotta improve on the offensive line as far as protection goes, we had opportunities and we just could not finish them off,” said Richardson.
The Jaguars were forced to sit out Quincy Richard and Anthony Fisher, the top two quarterbacks, due to an ankle injury for Richard and cracked ribs for Fisher.
‘The focal point of our offense is to take what the defense gives us. Early on they tried to crowd the box against our run so the passing game was what they was giving us so we tried to take advantage of what they gave us,” said Haynes.
Hayes led the team with 5 catches for 78 yards and 1 touchdown. The defense scored 2 safeties when the punt snapper snapped the ball out of bounds near the end of the game.
“There’s no excuses we could make about that third and one and fourth and one that were plays we had to make. Until we step up and start making those play we are gonna continue to struggle,” said Hayes
The defense of Southern held the Bulldogs to a total of 210 yards but gave up three key touchdowns. The Bulldogs only had less total yardage that the Jaguars but it was the big plays of quarterback Keith Johnny, including two touchdown throws, that led to the A&M victory.
“The trouble was we didn’t look like we looked last year when we lost to them for their homecoming, we are a better team than last year,” said Keith.
