Georgia Southern’s offense explodes in 41-7 win over New Mexico State

Georgia Southern’s offense, defense and special teams were all clicking in the team’s 41-7 win over New Mexico State on an extremely wet Saturday afternoon.

After an Eagles’ fumble on the first series of the game led to 7 points and a short field for the Aggies, Southern dominated the remainder of the contest and rolled up 407 yards of total offense while limiting NMSU to just 264 yards on the defensive side of things.

Wesley Kennedy III and J.D. King each starred for GS in this one, running for 143 yards and two scores each on the ground. Kennedy also returned a punt 67 yards early in the third quarter, and should get a nod as the Sun Belt Conference player of the week.

GS quarterback Shai Werts was thankfully not asked to carry the load by himself to win this game with players stepping up on both sides of the ball for the Eagles. Werts threw the ball just twice with the running game picking up yards in bunches, and himself ran for 67 yards on just eight carries.

Aggies quarterback Josh Adkins had a rough outing with just 59 yards passing and two interceptions in the loss, as Adkins struggled to get a handle on the ball in the wet conditions and the Eagles got pressure on the signal-caller all day long.

The second of Adkins interceptions hit linebacker Rashad Byrd right between the numbers deep in NMSU’s own territory, and was returned 7 yards by Byrd for a pick-six to move the Eagles past the 40-plus points mark for the first time all year.

Running back Jason Huntley was one of the few bright spots in the New Mexico State loss, rushing for 129 yards and the team’s lone touchdown.

Coming into this game, Georgia Southern had only averaged 22 points per game offensively. By halftime, it had already topped that total, taking a 28-7 advantage into the break.

New Mexico State will take a week off and try to get its first win on the road Nov. 9 when the Aggies travel to Oxford to take on Ole Miss.

All-in-all, it was a dominating performance for Southern, which needed a confidence building win like this with an important Thursday night showdown against Appalachian State coming on Halloween night.