Key takeaways from Georgia Southern's dramatic loss at rainy Coastal Carolina on Saturday

A back-and-forth game went to the team that scored last as CJ Beasley ran 24 yards with 38 seconds left to lift host Coastal Carolina past Georgia Southern 34-30 on what became a rainy Saturday night in Conway, S.C.

The Chanticleers improved to 5-0 overall, 2-0 in the Sun Belt Conference in handing the Eagles (3-2) a dramatic defeat in their conference opener.

Key takeaways from Saturday's game:

McCall comes through

Coastal Carolina's Grayson McCall has been the Sun Belt Conference's Player of the Year for two straight years for a reason.

The redshirt-junior quarterback makes big plays with his arm and big plays with his feet, but basically it's his head that determines the right play at the right time in running the Chanticleers' unique spread option offense.

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Down 27-21 with 7:56 left in the fourth quarter, McCall needed just four plays to cover 76 yards in 1:54. He had protection and launched a 61-yard touchdown pass on a slant to speedy receiver Jared Brown over the middle. Kade Hensley's extra point made it 28-27 for the Chants.

McCall finished 23 of 34 (68%) for 335 yards passing, three touchdowns and no interceptions for a 179.5 passer rating. He also rushed 4 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter.

Alex Raynor's clutch effort

The contest was setting up to make redshirt junior Alex Raynor a game-winning hero for the Eagles.

Raynor was 3-for-3 on field-goal attempts of 45, 30 and 20 yards — the last giving Georgia Southern a 30-28 edge over Coastal Carolina with 2:05 left in regulation.

He also made all three extra-point attempts, but the Chanticleers responded with three touchdowns in a 20-13 fourth quarter. CCU had no timeouts with 2:01 left and drove 82 yards, a key play being pass interference on Georgia Southern's Derrick Canteen on third-and-10 from the CCU 28 with 55 seconds left.

Not needing to go to fourth-and-10, the Chanticleers continued their march, with Beasley covering the last 24 yards on a dash to the end zone which included him hurdling over defensive back Justin Birdsong with 38 ticks left.

Containing the rushing game

Coastal Carolina entered the game ranked 27th in rushing offense (200.5 average) while Georgia Southern was 124th out of 131 FBS teams in rushing defense (218.8 yards per game). CCU also averaged 258.2 passing yards (57th) in its unique spread option offense.

After three quarters, the Chanticleers had just 77 yards rushing and, with 196 yards through the air, 273 total yards.

The Eagles were right there with 274 total yards, 166 passing and 105 rushing.

Both teams had 14 first downs at that juncture. GS was 8 of 13 on third-down conversions, CCU was 5 of 10.

Then it got wild in the fourth quarter, with CCU outscoring GS 20-13.

Coastal finished the game with 150 yards rushing and 335 passing for 485 total.

Georgia Southern totaled 462 yards, 284 through the air and 178 on the ground.

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Keeping it close

Both sides gave up a few explosive plays, but scoring was hard to come by in the first half as the teams were tied at 7.

The Chanticleers put together a 12-play, 89-yard scoring drive that chewed 7 minutes and 23 seconds off the clock. A lot has to go right to start at your 11 and move the chains the length of the field for 12 plays. Receiver Jared Brown proved to be tough to cover, and Beasley showed he is hard to bring down.

But it was the Chanticleers' scoring play that was designed to frustrate defenses. At third-and-2 at the GS 4, McCall appeared to hand off to Beasley, leaving the ball in his gut for an additional fraction of a second before pulling it back and keeping it himself. Beasley got smacked down by the defense and McCall used fast footwork to slip through to the end zone for a 7-0 lead with 58 seconds left in the first quarter.

Georgia Southern responded with a 10-play drive in the second quarter to tie the game.

The Eagles were seeing the Chants' defense play up at the line to cover the quick screens passes.

After four straight runs by Gerald Green, then an incomplete screen pass, Kyle Vantrease faced a big blitz and connected with Amare Jones on third-and-9 for a first down at the CCU 34. On the next play, Vantrease lofted a perfect pass to Derwin Burgess Jr. on a post pattern for a touchdown despite tight coverage with 12:31 left in the second quarter.

Coastal Carolina missed a 37-yard field-goal attempt with 1:40 left in the first half to leave the score 7-7.

Kyle Vantrease's revenge tour

A sixth-year player, Vantrease was a three-year starter at the University of Buffalo before transferring to Statesboro in January.

One of the nice wrinkles to his standout season has been getting to play opponents who had beaten his Buffalo team in their most recent meetings.

Vantrease had a huge game as Georgia Southern knocked off Nebraska, and he was stellar leading the Eagles past Ball State. Always all about the team, he also was 2-0 on this little revenge tour.

Coastal Carolina had beaten Buffalo and Vantrease 28-25 in 2021, but the Chants didn't add their name to those falling in 2022.

Vantrease finished 26 of 43 (60%) for 284 yards, two touchdowns and one interception for a 126.6 passer rating.

Teammate Jalen White rushed 18 times for 145 yards (an 8.1 average), including an 18-yard touchdown to give the Eagles a 24-14 lead with 12:09 left in the fourth quarter.

That wasn't enough of a cushion against the Chanticleers and McCall, who are 27-3 since the start of the 2020 season.

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 falls to Coastal Carolina, Grayson McCall