by T. Scott Boatright
GRAMBLING — In an old-fashioned, Southwestern Athletic Conference smashmouth slugfest, Alcorn State landed the last punch against Grambling State Saturday afternoon at Eddie G. Robinson Stadium.
That blow came as the Braves’ Noah Kiani nailed a 27-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining to propel Alcorn State to a 17-15 win over the Tigers to hand GSU its second straight loss.
Making things ever more frustrating for Grambling, those two losses have come by a combined four points. The loss came after a bye weekend following a GSU game in which the G-Men fell to Prairie View 36-34 in five overtimes on Sept. 28 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
“That was a tough one, another two-point loss,” said GSU coach Mickey Joseph. “I’ve got to figure out how to fix this. I’ve got to do a better job as a head coach. Our offense wasn’t very good today. We didn’t execute
“I was surprised because we had a good week of practice. I was surprised that we didn’t execute (in the red zone). You’re not going to win anywhere kicking field goals in this day and time. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s you could kick field goals and win games. But here in 2024, you have to score touchdowns to win games. You can’t kick field goals. You’ve got to score touchdowns.”
Alcorn State got the first knockdown of the game on a 63-yard scoring scamper by Jacorian Sewell, who burst through a hole off tackle right and was gone to put the Braves on top 7-0 at the 6:21 mark of the opening stanza.
But the G-Men bounced back to their feet and jabbed their way to the Alcorn 13-yard line before the Braves held Grambling to a 30-yard field goal by Reed Harradine that cut the ASU advantage to 7-3 with 1:58 remaining in the first quarter.
Grambling then counterpunched to take the lead on a 22-yard Harradine field goal to cut the Alcorn State lead to 7-6 with 10:58 left in the second quarter on a short drive set up by Jalen Johnson’s 20-yard punt return to the ASU 20-yard line.
But Alcorn responded with its second knockdown of the Tigers as quarterback Xzavier Vaughn connected with receiver Stermarion Edwards on a 73-yard scoring strike that extended the Alcorn advantage to 14-6 at the 9:32 mark of the second stanza.
The G-Men again bounced back up on their feet and had a chance to tie the contest with 38 seconds left in the third quarter as running back Dedrick Talbert powered his way through the defensive line before twisting and falling backward into the end zone on a three-yard run.
But GSU quarterback Myles Crawley, who faced a relentless Alcorn State pass rush throughout the contest, failed to complete a two-point after touchdown pass attempt, allowing the Braves to hold onto a 14-12 lead.
Joseph admitted watching Crawley, who was sacked four times, have to scramble for his life so often wasn’t a good look for his Tigers.
“They (the Braves) were adding three and bringing four on (blitzes),” Joseph said. “We had five in there. Sometimes we had six. Sometimes we had seven. So we have to go back and see where we had the breakdown at and see what we’re doing and make sure (the GSU players) are doing what we want them to do upfront because they looked confused at times, and they didn’t look confused this week, but they looked confused today.”
Joseph also admitted he considered going to a new quarterback to try and change things up.
“I thought about taking (Crawley) out,” Joseph said. “I usually take him out when he’s not being protected. It wasn’t only the sacks. It was all the hurries and hits that he was taking that made him look jittery in the pocket.
“So I thought about taking him out and putting (redshirt sophomore quarterback Ashton) Frye in just to get some quarterback run game in. But we’ll see. We’ll see what we have to do. We might have to start playing two quarterbacks to get some quarterback run game going, because (Crawley) is getting beat up. So we’ll see. We’ll figure it out tomorrow.”
The next knockdown belonged to GSU and Harradine as Grambling started a drive at the Alcorn State 48-yard line and drove down to the Braves’ 27-yard line to set up a 44-yard field goal by Grambling’s freshman kicker — his third of the game — that put the Tigers on top 15-14 with 10:58 remaining in the contest.
Taking over on their final possession at their own 38 with 3:26 remaining, the Braves marched 52 yards on nine plays to set up Kiani’s game-winning field goal.
On the game’s final play, Crawley fired a 10-yard pass to Julien Lewis at the GSU 35-yard line. Lewis lateralled the ball, but after two more dish-offs the Tigers’ fumbled the ball away as Alcorn State began its victory celebration.
Bradford led the Tigers with 58 yards on 12 carries while Talbert added 52 yards on 11 rushing attempts and Ke’Travion Hargrove pitched in with 50 yards on nine totes.
Joseph said that Grambling now finds itself with a three-headed rushing monster with the way Talbert has been upping his game in recent contests.
“The kid runs hard,” Joseph said. “The kid gets downfield. I thought they all ran hard today. But (Talbert) ran exceptionally hard. So we’ll get the three-headed monster going.”
Crawley connected on 16 of his 28 attempted passes for 149 yards with one interception while Javon Robinson led GSU receivers with four catches for 42 yards.
As has become the norm this season, Grambling’s Andrew Jones led the Tigers with 11 tackles while Blake Davis added eight takedowns, including one sack.
Next up for Grambling, now 3-3 overall and 0-2 in the SWAC West, will be its Homecoming game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, which stands at 2-4 and 1-1 in divisional play after going on the road and defeating Prairie View A&M 21-17 Friday night.
“You’ve got to put your head down and keep fighting,” Joseph said. “You can’t hope and wish someone else will do something, you’ve got to do your part. You had a chance — you dropped two games by two points. You had your opportunity. When you get an opportunity in this conference, you’ve got to take advantage of it.”
