The Red Wolves failed to score a TD on their first three trips to the end zone, but in the end, and dump pass over the middle to TE Tyler Little proved to be essential, putting Andel Van Clune in position to score the game winning field goal to give Arkansas State its first first win over South Alabama in five years

Despite gaining only 62 yards on the ground from running backs Zak Wallace and Ja’Quez Cross, the Red Wolves moved the ball fairly easily between the 20s on 345 yards passing (one TD) from Jaylen Raynor, who found Corey Rucker (172 yards) often for big plays. But this was a defensive battle with the halftime score 6-3 with the Red Wolves leads, even with a FG off the post from Van Clune that just slipped in.

The Jaguars, who notably scored 87 on Northwestern State, then humiliated Appalachian State before a crowd in Boone, seem flummoxed by the Red Wolves defense, which hurried QB Gio Lopez all evening. Lopez wasn’t ineffective – he finished with 292 passing yards and two TD passes – but it was incompletions at critical moments that gave the Red Wolves continued life.

“I felt like the preparation we had all we, studying our opponent, is the reason we got the result we got,” said hybrid linebacker Justin Parks, who had an interception tonight. “We just executed at a high level. We believed in the game plan.”

The game represented a bounce back for quarterback Jaylen Raynor, who had his struggles against Michigan and Iowa State. “You have to have a snap and clear mentality. But we learned from the experience and applied it to the bye week.

Raynor acknowledged that the struggles in the Red Zone were a problem. “Once we get inside the 20s we got to get touchdowns and take pressure off the defense.

The homecoming crowd, which was a bit tepid to open the game, became rabid in the second half. “Home field advantage is real,” said Parks. “The crowd really got into late fourth quarter and we really fed off of that.”

“We gave up a catastrophic play on third and 25,” said Butch Jones after the game, referring to the final Gio Lopez TD pass of the evening with only a 1:45 on the clock.. “And we didn’t finch, we didn’t panic.”

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