Georgia Southern blanks UMass in shutout win, 41-0

Georgia Southern made easy work of a Massachusetts team on Saturday in Statesboro, handing the Minutemen a 41-0 loss.

Shai Werts and Wesley Kennedy III each did whatever they wanted both through the air and on the ground in this one. Werts closed his day 11 of 16, completing a nice 69 percent of his passes for three first-half touchdowns in the win and added 76 yards and an additional TD with his legs.

Kennedy was able to show off his rushing chops in the victory, toting the ball just 6 times but for 106 yards and a score, including a 56-yard reverse for a touchdown. Fellow running back J.D. King was a bit quiet (53 yards) but the Eagles were able to spread the ball around, with five different Georgia Southern players recording three or more carries.

From a play calling perspective, this is what Southern fans have been clamoring for. Bob DeBesse did a good job mixing up the passes and runs. Now if we could just see some of that diversity leak into Sun Belt contests; say next week’s game against Coastal Carolina for instance.

Photo by Chris Thelen/Getty Images

This will likely go down as the most complete defensive performance that Southern will turn in all season, limiting UMass to just 191 total yards and forcing a pair of interceptions that Derrick Canteen and Darrell Baker Jr. were able to come down with.

To put just into perspective how dominant this defensive performance by Southern was, Massachusetts finished with more yards punting (230) than offensive yards.

For the Minutemen, there isn’t much to glean from a game like this one, especially in a season when just one game is on the docket. Neither quarterback in Mike Fallon nor Josiah Johnson were overly effective.

If you combined both UMass signal callers’ numbers, they reached a total of 80 yards and a pair of picks in a game where they were trailing from 3 minutes into the first quarter until the final buzzer sounded.

Rushing-wise, things weren’t much better as Will Koch paced the team with 41 yards on the ground and Fallon added 31 of his own.

As it stands today, this will mark the end of the UMass football season, and Georgia Southern will look to rebound in conference play when they travel to Conway to take on the 4-0 Chanticleers.