Homecoming fall: SLU beats JSU at its own game

Oct. 22—JACKSONVILLE — Rich Rodriguez has every-game goals for Jacksonville State's offense, and Southeastern Louisiana came closest to reaching them Saturday.

The Lions limited JSU to 56 offensive snaps and wore down the Gamecocks' defense while spoiling JSU's homecoming, 31-14.

JSU fell to 6-2 in its first season under Rodriguez, who brought an offense designed to wear down opponents. The goals are 90 plays and 25 first downs a game.

JSU managed 56 and 14 and suffered three scoreless quarters. The Gamecocks managed 25 snaps in the first half.

"We looked poorly prepared at times, and that's on me," Rodriguez said. "We've got to get them ready, and we were outcoached. We've got to get our guys to play at a higher performance."

SLU (4-3) manufactured 13 first-half points with the help of a fake punt then brought the grind in the second half. The Lions finished with 84 plays and 23 first downs.

Here are three things observed during JSU's performance against SLU:

1. Big plays

JSU scored its first-half touchdowns on Anwar Lewis' 53-yard touchdown run and Zion Webb's 64-yard touchdown pass to Ahmad Edwards.

The Lewis run was a Lewis signature. He hid behind the line, waited for a hole to the left, squirted through it and hit full throttle for the finish.

"I've got to give all of the credit to the O-line," said Lewis, JSU's highlight of the day with 125 yards rushing and a touchdown. "Without them, it wouldn't be able to happen.

"I just had to set it up. When I seen the hole, I just had to hit it and try to get zero to a hundred quick."

Webb's pass, the highlight of an otherwise unspectacular half which included an interception, saw Webb float up in the pocket and spot Edwards on what appeared to be a scramble-drill deep break.

SLU hit its deep plays, as well, including Eli Sawyer's 25-yard pass to Gage Larvadain to set up Cephus Johnson's 6-yard touchdown pass to Jessie Britt.

Bauer Sharp's 55-yard run on a fake punt, after JSU called timeout with 45 seconds left in the second quarter, set up Riley Callaghan's 23-yard field goal to bring SLU within 14-13 on the half's final snap.

2. Quarterback questions

Until Webb uncorked his bomb to Edwards, JSU's quarterback looked still very much affected by what Rodriguezed called a foot injury after the UNA game. Webb seemed reluctant to keep on read options early in the game and threw passes into the turf.

Still, Aaron McLaughlin got one play in the first half. This a week after he spent a quarter and a half handing off in relief of Webb in the UNA game.

Just how affected is Webb, whose acknowledged ailments this season including stomach, shoulder and foot problems?

Rodriguez said an X-Ray and MRI were negative for fractures or tears in Webb's foot, calling it "a pain thing." The coach acknowledged that his quarterback wasn't a hundred percent.

"I don't think he was," Rodriguez said. "A couple of times he came out, and then he wanted to go right back in. I think, probably, it was a mistake on our part.

"He took some reps this week but not many, and you've got to practice to get ready for this game. That probably had something to do with it, but he's a competitive guy, and he wanted to be in there, and he did make some good plays."

Also, just how ready is McLaughlin to run the show with a full playbook? Rodriguez seems reluctant to go with him, even when Webb appears affected by nagging injuries.

"Rod (JSU offensive coordinator Smith) and I talked about it,"Rodriguez said. "Some of the issues that we had were, there were a couple of zone reads, and the snap pulled him off of his read, or something else happened. It was just stuff that hadn't happened all year kind of happened at the exact wrong time.

"Zion is our best quarterback. That's why he's the starter, but we'll assess that again this week and see. He's got to be able to practice more."

3. This and that

JSU's defense played a solid first half, including two highlight-reel hits by safety Deco Willson in run support. He dehelmeted SLU's Ivan Drobocky in the first quarter.

Markail Benton nearly came up with an interception ahead of SLU's half-ending field goal.

The second half was a different story. SLU sustained an 88-yard drive for Johnson's 5-yard touchdown pass to Drobocky and Larvadin's double-reverse conversion pass to Johnson for a 21-14 lead at 14:54 of the third quarter.

A 13-play, 51-yard drive ended in Callaghan's 31-yard field goal to make it 24-14 with 5:05 to play.

The Lions marched 63 yards in seven plays for Carlos Washington's 2-yard touchdown run with 15 seconds left.

"I feel like we came out strong and started fast," said safety Fred Perry, who led JSU with a career-high 13 tackles. "We had our foot on their neck, and then we came out in the second quarter and let up a little bit, and then they took revenge."

Safety Jeremiah Harris same the Gamecocks "had no type of energy" in the second half.

Special teams issues, however, continue. In a season that's seen JSU go through punt returners because of muffs, Sterling Galban fumbled on a first-quarter run back. He recovered his own fumble at the JSU 5-yard line.

Sharp gashed JSU on the fake punt and got 50 yards down field before Galban made contact. Sharp nearly lept Galban but lost his balance on the landing, sparing JSU an ugly touchdown.

"The fake punt should've never happened," Rodriguez said. "I told our guys to be prepared for it. When you bring a team like us that likes to bring pressure,their answer is going to be to try and fake one at that time.

"We had everybody assigned to a man. I'll have to watch the tape and see how exactly they got loose like that."

Sports Writer Joe Medley: 256-235-3576. On Twitter: @jmedley_star.