Arkansas-Pine Bluff dismantles Southern, 50-21
Ark.-Pine Bluff dismantles Southern
The story of Southern’s evening was written right on the front of its opponent’s jerseys.
UAPB: Unstoppable, and plainly better.
On a normal night, that acronym stands for Arkansas-Pine Bluff, but the Golden Lions were a step beyond their usual selves during the 50-21 smackdown they laid on the Jaguars in A.W. Mumford Stadium.
SU came in gunning for the lead in the Southwestern Athletic Conference West, but it was apparent from the get-go that Southern is a long way from any kind of title talk.
The Jaguars (3-4, 2-3 SWAC) were far from championship-caliber, and the raucous home atmosphere that was expected didn’t show up among a disappointing crowd of 13,500.
But those weren’t the main issues.
The Golden Lions (5-2, 4-1 SWAC) looked dominant, moving up and down the field at will during a first half in which they tallied 41 points and 320 yards (10 yards per play). They didn’t punt until the fourth quarter, turning all five first-half possessions into touchdowns, save for a clock-killer just before halftime.
“I don’t think we came out flat, I think the situations in the game created that,” interim Southern coach Dawson Odums said. “Once they got the momentum from that fast start, it took our guys a while. It was like you got hit, and by the time you realized it, you were already down 21-0.”
By the end, UAPB had 510 yards — the most Southern has allowed all year — and the most points against SU in a conference game since Texas Southern’s 54-7 win in 2010.
Quarterback Ben Anderson was machine-like, finding holes in Southern’s injury-riddled secondary and gliding past defenders when those holes weren’t there. The best example came in the first quarter, when he scrambled left, then sliced his way back toward the middle of the field and past the Jaguars for a 30-yard touchdown.
Anderson ran for a game-high 75 yards, and he was efficient on mostly short throws to finish with 296 yards and a touchdown on 15-of-20 passing. It wasn’t so much that Southern missed a slew of tackles, but the Golden Lions simply looked faster.
Receiver Ladarius Eckwood turned a short third-down pass into a 52-yard touchdown when he cut back all the way across the field, and running back Aaron Lagrone had two touchdown runs and three catches for 56 yards in the first half.
Southern contributed to the blowout — most obviously when quarterback Dray Joseph tried to hit running back Sylvester Nzekwe and was intercepted by Bill Ross, who ran it back 60 yards for a touchdown — but the offense had the same problem as the defense.
They just couldn’t keep up with UAPB, tallying 373 yards but turning the ball over four times.
Joseph was 28-of-52 for 255 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, and he also led the team with 34 rushing yards.
The Jaguars’ good moments were few and far between. Fullback Lee Mitchell capped a 78-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, Mike Berry made a juggling touchdown catch in the third, and Joseph found Charles Hawkins wide open for a score in the fourth.
Most of that was anticlimactic, as UAPB’s 41-6 halftime lead put the game out of reach.
“Everything was kind of a blur, the number of points we were able to put up early,” UAPB coach Monte Coleman said.
It was far from the kind of performance SU had in mind.
Coming off a 34-7 victory over Texas Southern on homecoming, this was supposed to be the night that the Jaguars announced themselves as legitimate contenders for the SWAC West crown, which they haven’t worn since 2004.
Instead, they nearly gave up as many points as they allowed during the past five games, when Mississippi Valley State, Jackson State, Florida A&M, Alcorn State and TSU combined to score 68.
“It’s real disappointing,” Joseph said. “We went out this week in practice, and I didn’t think we practiced well so you can’t be disappointed in the outcome.”
Now it’s back to the drawing board for Southern, which will head into next weekend’s Shreveport Classic against Prairie View hoping to keep its fleeting SWAC dreams alive. And it would appear the Jaguars are catching the Panthers at a bad time.
After starting the season 0-5, Prairie View (2-5, 2-3 SWAC) has won two straight, including a 52-37 win against Alcorn State on Saturday that represented the most points it has scored all season.
They’re now tied with Southern for second place behind UAPB, and both would need to win out and have the Golden Lions slip up — something SU would need them to do three times in four games.
That’s unlikely, especially if UAPB holds its current form.
And so, after a night that began with such promise, the Jaguars are faced with the troubling label that has haunted them in recent years: just not good enough.