Georgia State takes down Army at Michie Stadium, 31-14

• Army lost the turnover battle, 3-1. As we mentioned last week, the team that wins the turnover battle wins 78% of all college football games. However, I bet if I looked it up, this % is even higher in Army games. With Army’s style of play and talent level, they simply can’t afford to lose the turnover battle and expect to win games.

• Army was outscored in the 4th quarter for the third time this year. In all their losses, Army has had chances in the 4th quarter but has not been able to finish.

• Army did dominate TOP 38:55 to 21:05, although most of this was in the 2nd half after Georgia State had built a 17-0 halftime lead.

• Georgia State ran for 299 yards and a whopping 6.5 yards per carry.

• Army also had success on the ground, rushing for 354 yards on 5.1 yards/carry.

• QB Tyhier Tyler led the team in rushing with 110 yards on 19 carries and scored both Army touchdowns.

• Army completed only 1 pass on 8 attempts with one interception. This will certainly not help the efficiency rating.

• Army was 0-4 on 4th down including a critical stop by Georgia State on the 1-foot line and an ill-fated fake punt on 4th and 11 in the 4th quarter.

• B-back Markel Johnson saw his first college action with 3 carries for 18 yards.

• S Marquel Broughton forced a key fumble in the 4th quarter that LB Leo Lowin recovered.

• Georgia State set the tone on their opening drive and let the Black Knights’ defense know they were going to be in for a challenge. The Panthers mixed runs and passes and missed a wide-open receiver in the end zone before the Black Knights’ defense stiffened in the red zone with the help of a holding call on Georgia State and a Leo Lowin sack and held the Panthers to a 46-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead.

• On Army’s first possession, the Black Knights mixed QB and B-Back runs to drive to the Georgia State 34-yard line before Tyson Riley fumbled a handoff and gave the ball back to the Panthers.

• On the ensuing possession, Georgia State continued to go through the Army defense like a knife through hot butter going 60 yards to the Army 6 before they bogged down in the red zone yet again. Army got a big stop on 4th and 1 and took over on their own 5-yard line.

• The Army offense was only able to muster one 1st down before Billy Boehlke’s punt went 21 yards and gave the Panthers the ball in plus-territory. Georgia State wasted no time expanding their lead to 10-0 on a 13-yard run by QB Darren Grainger where several Army players lost contain.

• Army’s offense moved the ball effectively again under QB Cade Ballard. Ballard looked pretty good running the ball on option plays, but the offense bogged down on the Georgia State 36 and Ballard was sacked on 4th and 8.

• Georgia State’s next scoring drive went 64 yards and was capped off by a 33-yard run by Jamyest Williams to make the score 17-0.

• With 6:03 left in the first half and the game not yet out of reach, Army drove effectively down to the Georgia State 22-yard line before Cade Ballard overthrew an open Isaiah Alston in the end zone; and on the next play, Tyrell Robinson fumbled a Ballard pitch that may have gone for a critical touchdown to cut the Panther lead to 10. Whether the pitch should have been caught or not is up for debate. The pitch was off target, but Robinson had his hands on it. Georgia State led 17-0 at halftime. In his post-game press conference, Coach Jeff Monken said Army “wasted the first half.” We agree.•

• It was a completely different Army team to start the second half. The Black Knights let the Panthers know they were going to need to play all 4 quarters to win this one right out of the gate. Their first scoring drive went 75 yards in 8 plays and was capped off by a Tyhier Tyler 1-yard touchdown run – 17-7 Georgia State.

• Georgia State moved the ball to Army’s 13-yard line before Army’s red zone defense rose to the occasion again and K Michael Hayes hit the upright and missed his 30-yard field goal attempt.

• Army then went 80 yards on 13 plays and ate 7:28 off the clock as the B-back trio of Hayden Reed, Markel Johnson, and Ja’Kobi Buchanan ran through gaping holes and Georgia State defenders. QB Tyhier Tyler capped the drive off with a 5-yard touchdown run to make the score 17-14.

• On the ensuing Georgia State drive, Williams ran through a gaping hole in the Army defense for 26 yards on the first play before S Marquel Broughton stripped the ball and LB Leo Lowin recovered. Army had the ball in great field position with a chance to take the lead with the whole 4th quarter ahead of them.

• Tyler and Buchanan continued to do damage on the ground and got Army into the red zone before Tyler had to leave to tape up an ankle injury. Army had 2nd and goal from the 3-yard line when momentum swung wildly back to Georgia State. Cade Ballard ran 2 yards on 2nd down and looked poised to score when he hit a “wall of white” who kept him out of the end zone. On 3rd and goal from the 1, Cade Ballard was again “stonewalled.” It brought up 4th and “Kobi” as the Army players say (from the 1-foot line), and to Georgia State’s credit, their defense did something not many defenses have been able to do. They stopped Buchanan cold and took over on their own 1.

• Army’s defense rose to the occasion again and forced their only 3 and out of the day. After a Georgia State punt and a near-disastrous Tyrell Robinson fumble that Army recovered, Army began their drive on their own 45-yard line with 6:51 left in the game and a chance to win it. After one first down to the Georgia State 39, Army’s offense went backwards. With 4th and 11 from the Georgia State 43-yard line and 3:14 left in the game, Coach Monken gambled, or in his words, “got desperate,” and called a fake punt that went 5 yards. Georgia State took over with a chance to put the game “on ice.”

• Army’s defense played well again on 1st and 2nd down and had the Panthers in a 3rd and 5. That’s when QB Darren Grainger hit WR Ja’Cyais Credle on a go route for a 57-yard touchdown to put the Panthers ahead 24-14 with 2:59 left and effectively put the game out of reach.

• After a Cade Ballard interception on Army’s first play, Georgia State scored one more touchdown on a 56-yard run by Tucker Gregg, which made him the all-time leading scorer in Georgia State history with 20 touchdowns.

Well, that game was for sure, a “tale of two halves.” Army couldn’t have looked worse in the 1st half. Just about everything that could go wrong went wrong. The offense was moving the ball effectively and opening holes, but drives would bog down and two drives ended in costly turnovers.

Defensively, you could tell Army was playing hard and they even had a couple good stops in the red zone, but eventually, due to the offense’s inability to sustain drives and score, they wore out and Georgia State scored on their final two possessions of the half to make it 17-0. With Army’s offense, that is pretty much an insurmountable lead. Army has come back from deficits that large in the past, but its razor-thin margin for error gets even thinner. At that point, they had to play a perfect second half to have a chance.

They almost did…almost. In his post-game press conference, Coach Monken mentioned how critical the 4th and goal stop on the 1-foot line was for Georgia State. If Army scores there, they go up 21-17 and have 100% of the momentum as they were dominating the second half. That’s when an 0-4 team like Georgia State can have their confidence shaken and things could have really gotten interesting down the stretch.

Instead, Georgia State stopped “Mr. Automatic” and the momentum swung back in their favor. One must wonder if a 100% Ja’Kobi Buchanan gets stopped there. He was clearly playing hurt (to his credit).

As Army prepares for its toughest game on the schedule against Top 25 Wake Forest (the team that ran up 70 last year on a much stronger Army defense), there are A LOT of problems to fix with this Army team. If I were to write about all of them, it would take an entirely separate article as the list is long.

So, I’ll keep it to what I see as the two most important factors:

1) Turnovers – I said it at the top of the article. Army MUST win the turnover battle if they want to win games. This is absolutely critical to their success.It’s also 100% in their control. Both fumbles today were non-contact fumbles and correctable errors.If Army wants any chance to stay in the Wake game and go bowling this year, they must get this corrected. Army is -3 in turnover margin this season.

2) Injuries – This one is less in Army’s control, and we’re not making excuses for the 1-3 start, but the truth of the matter at Army has always been that the depth isn’t strong enough to suffer too many injuries to key players. The injuries at B-back and on the offensive line are clearly hurting the Black Knights’ offense.There have been no significant injuries on the defensive side of the ball, but there are players on defense who are playing hurt as well; or are not at 100%. This is never a recipe for success at Army. Again, if the Black Knights want to go bowling, they’ll have to get healthy before the season spins out of control.

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