Key takeaways from the Georgia Southern football team's loss to Marshall on Saturday

STATESBORO — Georgia Southern, looking for a sixth victory to become bowl eligible, fell behind early and couldn't catch up to Marshall in a 23-10 defeat on Saturday night at Paulson Stadium.

The loss dropped the Eagles to 5-6 overall and 2-5 in the Sun Belt Conference. The Thundering Herd, which outgained the Eagles 529 to 384 total yards and limited their robust passing attack to 205 yards, is bowl eligible, improving to 7-4 overall and 4-3 in the SBC. They did not allow GS to score in the second half.

Here are some key takeaways:

One more shot at a bowl

The goal of making a bowl game hangs in the balance for Georgia Southern with only one regular-season contest remaining Nov. 26 at 6 p.m. against its biggest rival, Appalachian State, at Paulson Stadium.

The Eagles had started the season 3-1 and were 5-3 going into their bye week. They had won at Nebraska of the Big Ten, a Power 5 Conference team, and knocked off then-No. 25 James Madison. Two big highlights this season, certainly.

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However, consecutive losses at home to South Alabama, at Louisiana on a Thursday night and now at home to Marshall put more on the line against the Mountaineers (6-5, 3-4 Sun Belt).

Georgia Southern was not predicted to contend for a Sun Belt title in Clay Helton's first season as the head coach. In fact, the league coaches' preseason poll had the Eagles — who were 3-9 overall and 2-6 in the SBC in 2021 — finishing fifth in the seven-team East Division of the more buff Sun Belt.

Issues on third down

The Eagles were 0 for 9 on third-down conversions through three quarters. They finished 2 of 11.

Conversely, Marshall was 10 of 19 on third down.

As Helton has pointed out after recent losses, problems on third down not only end offensive possessions, they make life harder on the team's defense.

Avoiding third-and-long situations is a key, meaning the Eagles need to have productive plays on first and second down.

Play calling — taking what the defense is giving and executing on those plays — is critical.

That the Eagles would struggle against the Thundering Herd on third down means they reluctantly joined the club. Marshall entered the game No. 1 in FBS in third-down conversion percentage on defense. Opponents were just 32 of 148 on third down for 21.6%.

The Eagles had one of the better offenses on third down, going 77 of 156 for 49.4% (12th in FBS) before Saturday.

"That's the best third-down efficiency defense in the country, and they showed up tonight," Helton said of Marshall.

He noted that the Eagles were 2 of 14 on third down at Louisiana, and 2 of 11 on Saturday night against Marshall.

"We've got to go back to the drawing board," the coach said. "We've been really good. We've been a top 25 third-down efficiency unit all year."

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The Georgia Southern running game was productive on the legs of starter Jalen White (13 carries, 143 yards, 11.0 yards per carry). However, he left the game in the third quarter after making a nice catch and run, and getting hit high and low at the end of it. Helton said after the game that White suffered an ankle injury and the team would know more information by Monday.

"That's about as heroic an effort as I've seen in a long time," Helton said of White.

"That was as good a performance as I've seen by him. He tried to carry this team on his back."

White had six carries for 101 yards in the first quarter — including a 55-yard run. He's the first individual to run for 100 or more yards against the Marshall defense — for a game — this season.

True freshman OJ Arnold chipped in 50 yards on seven carries. Redshirt junior Gerald Green, a big part of the rotation at running back, was injured at practice during the week and is day to day for his availability, Helton said after the game.

Digging a hole in the first half

Georgia Southern's defense might have been so conscious of trying to put the clamps on Marshall's big run game led by Sun Belt rushing leader Khalan Laborn that it was more susceptible to the pass.

That was true on the Thundering Herd's first possession, when E.J. Horton was wide, wide open for a 65-yard touchdown pass. The extra-point attempt clanked off the left upright, but the first blow was dealt.

Shaheed Ahmed also was wide open for a 33-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter.

"We kind of started off slow," said GS linebacker Marques Watson-Trent, who finished with a game-high 12 total tackles (six solo, six assisted). "They got 20 points in the first half. The second half we kind of came back and saw what they were doing and adjusted, just played our game. We had a great second half. We've just got to start like that, how we started the second half, coming out fighting. I'm proud of the guys for finishing strong."

Quarterback Cam Fancher proved both adept at passing in the first half (11 of 17 for 208 yards, two TDs) and operating the run-pass option. He rushed for a team-high 58 yards in the first half, including a 19-yard touchdown in which was untouched. He averaged 7.2 yards per carry.

The Marshall run game was bolstered by the return of Rasheen Ali, a 1,400-yard rusher in 2021 who had been out this season due to injury. The opportunity to face Georgia Southern's porous run defense was well-timed for Ali.

Marshall finished the game with 529 total yards, 255 on the ground and 274 through the air. Laborn, who was averaging 125 yards rushing a game, had 17 carries for 70 yards, while Ali had 79 yards on 16 carries and Fancher ran 14 times for 53 yards.

Georgia Southern entered the game ranked 129th of 131 FBS teams in rushing defense, allowing 224.9 yards per game, including 5.66 yards per attempt and 22 touchdowns on the ground.

The Eagles ranked 128th in total defense (479.6 ypg). They were 103rd in passing yards allowed (253.7; with 28 TDs). They had yielded 6.53 yards per play. Marshall averaged 6.2 on Saturday.

Georgia Southern passing game can't keep up

With Marshall proving dangerous on offense, Georgia Southern's offense was going to have to keep up.

That hadn't been as much of an issue as quarterback Kyle Vantrease has operated one of the top passing games in the FBS. He entered the game ranked third in passing yards per game (330.20), fourth in yards (3,302 on 285-of-467 passing) and tied for 22nd in TD passes (21).

However, the usually robust passing game was generally under wraps. In the first half, Vantrease was 10 of 20 for 95 yards, including a 27-yard screen pass to Khaleb Hood for a touchdown with 2:16 left in the second quarter.

Hood was the most popular target with seven in the first half (three catches, 37 yards), and five targets each to redshirt senior Jeremy Singleton (two catches, 26 yards) and true freshman Marcus Sanders Jr. (four catches, 28 yards).

Tight end Evan Lester caught the only pass thrown his way for four yards.

Georgia Southern finished with 389 total yards, 205 passing and 179 rushing. Vantrease, who took several shots from Marshall rushers and stayed in the game, went 22 of 39 (56%) for 205 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He kept his program-record streak alive with 11 straight games with at least one TD pass.

For the game, Singleton caught eight of 14 targets for 73 yards, Sanders held on to five of eight targets for 32 yards and Hood snagged four of 10 targets for 40 yards.

The passing game seemed to miss the contributions of sophomore starter Derwin Burgess Jr., who suffered a season-ending leg bone injury in the previous game at Louisiana, as well as veteran wideout Amare Jones, out since Game 8.

Burgess had 58 catches for 717 yards and a team-high seven touchdowns in 10 games, while Jones had 35 receptions for 483 yards and six TDs in eight games.

Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Email him at ndominitz@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia Southern football team loses to Marshall Thundering Herd