Ugly Saturday:Jaguars Dominated by Tigers in SWAC Opener

The heavily favored Jags took on SWAC Western Division rival Texas Southern in the Arlington Football Showdown.
Last time they met in October of 2021, for the first ever “Showdown”, Texas Southern came out on top in an emotional and dramatic competition as the Tigers knocked off Southern for the first time since 2011 with a 35-31 win. This year Texas Southern dominated the Jaguars with an ending score of 24-0.
In the first Conference game of the season for Southern University, the Jaguars put up a total of 189 yards of total offense with transfer quarterback Besean McCray leading with 106 yards rushing. He also passed 163 yards off 18-of-30 connecting with receivers the whole game. Offensively throughout the game, the Jaguars struggled heavily with keeping Texas Southern back. Within the first pass of the game, the ball was intercepted by a Tiger. In the third and fourth quarter, the Jaguars had an opportunity to score a touchdown, but in the third, it was not counted because of an illegal man downfield, and in the fourth, the pass from Besean to August Pitre III was incomplete. Despite struggling to get things going, wide receiver Chandler Whitfield led in receiving with 94 yards off six receptions.
Defense did more of a job in the slightest way, having a total of 19 tackles led by transfer Corione Harris. Two of Southern players, transfers Trey Laing and Jalan Campbell, were able to finish the game with one sack each. In the first half, the Jags gave up 21 points for the Tigers to score, but they came back in the second half with a little bit more momentum only allowing the Tigers to score three points for the rest of the game.
When asked why the Jaguars struggled so much in this game both ways, head coach Eric Dooley only went to say, “That’s something we have to make an assessment on,” he said. “We’ll get a chance to watch the tape and see what took place and why we played the way we played.”
After this week’s game against Texas Southern, the Jags will take a break from playing before hosting University of Arkansas of Pine Bluff on October 1st here in Baton Rouge.