Southern Miss 56, Texas State 50: What We Learned

[caption id="attachment_17685" align="alignright" width="289"]Photo by Mary Scott McNabb Photo by Mary Scott McNabb[/caption] It was an awful day for the defense. Texas State doesn’t have the offense of TCU or Texas Tech, so of course it wasn’t keeping up with the points that its defense was allowing. The Bobcats’ defense allowed three consecutive touchdown drives to start the game and five consecutive after halftime. To top that, it allowed 233 yards in the first quarter, and 200 in the third. How is a team supposed to overcome two double-digit deficits (18 and 21) with all those factors involved? It’s amazing that the Bobcats were able to do it once, but you can’t expect them to do it again. I love the dual-threat capabilities of quarterback Tyler Jones, but his passing accuracy and running speed couldn’t keep up. The defense allowed three scoring plays of 50 yards or more in the second half. Two came from Jalen Richard, who scored from 53 yards out in the third and 64 yards out in the fourth. The Texas State defense has a lot of work to do heading into next week’s tough road test at Houston. After 613 yards allowed tonight, expect another five or six hundred yards against the high-powered Cougars’ offense. The Texas State turnaround was impressive. Texas State was dead in the water early in the second quarter. The Bobcats faced a 21-3 deficit after the first play of the second quarter. Neither the offense nor the defense was playing well, but that trend quickly changed. The Bobcats stormed a comeback in the second quarter, and points came aplenty. They backed their quarterback, who finished with 310 passing yards, 160 rushing yards and five total touchdowns. The Bobcats scored a touchdown on three of its four possessions, while the defense forced a late fumble and allowed 20 yards. Even a missed field goal by Lumi Kaba couldn’t slow down the team’s momentum. The Bobcats held the 25-21 halftime lead after the 22-point quarter.