Georgia Southern dominates Louisiana Tech in 38-3 New Orleans Bowl win

It had been a turbulent season for the team from Statesboro, but Georgia Southern played its most complete game of the year and ran through Louisiana Tech by a 38-3 margin in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.

The return of previously injured starting quarterback Shai Werts was huge for the Eagles, as the senior signal-caller rushed for 71 yards and 3 touchdowns, while adding 126 passing yards and a score through the air.

The entire offense ran like a well-oiled unit, as GS ran for 322 yards and four touchdowns as a team, paced by leading rusher Gerald Green, who ran for 108 and a TD of his own.

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Defensively, Georgia Southern put together a complete game, restricting Louisiana Tech to just 232 total yards and picking off four passes.

By the time Bulldogs’ head coach Skip Holtz decided to make the switch from starting QB Aaron Allen (41 yards, 3 INTs), this game was essentially a wrap. Holtz deserves any and all criticism coming his way for not making the switch to backup JD Head earlier.

While Head was not worlds better than Allen, the second-stringer turned the ball over just once and completed 64 percent of his pass attempts for 78 yards in limited action.

Weirdly enough, it was the rushing attack of Tech that was actually giving Southern issues early in this one, as Israel Tucker tallied up 123 yards on 20 touches before the contest got out of hand and he was game-scripted out as the game got out of hand early.

The Eagles kicked off this game with a rushing touchdown by Werts five minutes into the first quarter, and followed up with second quarter scores by Khaleb Hood (pass from Werts) and Werts’ second rushing touchdown of the day.

By that point, the game was 21-3 heading into halftime and the rout was on, as Allen and a porous offensive line killed any chances of Louisiana Tech competing with the Eagles, and Holtz waited entirely too long to put the backup in the game.

When it was all said and done, Georgia Southern hoisted its first bowl trophy since winning the Camellia Bowl over Eastern Michigan in 2018.

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Good thing Conference USA never wanted to merge with the Sun Belt, huh? The Sun Belt wouldn’t want to sacrifice our bowl winning percentage thanks to lesser teams, now would we?