:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/57661947/875933384.jpg.0.jpg)
I couldn’t have been more wrong in my prediction of the matchup between Georgia Southern and South Alabama.
The Eagles came out of the gate on fire, and found a way to sustain that offensive success throughout both halves of football, something it hasn’t been able to do through the first nine games of the year.
Oh, and the defense was pretty damn impressive as well.
GS played like a team possessed behind the effort of quarterbacks Shai Werts and Kado Brown.
Brown finished his night a perfect 4-4 through the air for 120 yards and a score, while Werts led all Eagle rushers with 113 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
Things turned in a hurry early on in the first quarter, as Georgia Southern found the end zone three times in the first frame alone to go up 21-0, leaving the Jaguars scrambling for answers. For reference, the Eagles were averaging just 16.3 points per game coming into this one.
Defensively, Southern limited South Alabama to just 195 yards of offense while racking up 583 of their own on the other side of the ball and kept the pressure on the Jags defense for all 60 minutes.
By halftime, Southern held a massive 31-0 lead and continued pouring it on in the second half.
At one point, ESPN flashed a statistic saying the Eagles were averaging 50 yards per drive, compared to just 13 per drive for the Jaguars. Just absolute video game numbers by Southern.
It was a complete domination in every sense of the word, something that seemed impossible under the “guidance” of former head coach Tyson Summers.
It’s too early to say whether Georgia Southern is going to play like this for the rest of the season, but this win was desperately needed to avoid going into the offseason trying to pitch potential recruits to commit to a completely winless team.
Either way, it looked like Southern released nine games worth of pent up frustration on a hapless South Alabama team, and it should be interesting to see how the Eagles close the season against a pair of squads not exactly tearing up the Sun Belt in UL-Lafayette and Coastal Carolina to end its 2017 campaign.