By T. Scott Boatright
GRAMBLING — Missteps, miscues and missed opportunities led to postgame misery Saturday night as Grambling State fell 21-20 to Texas Southern on Homecoming at Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium.
Even Texas Southern’s final margin of victory came from a Grambling misfire — a failed two-point conversion attempt after the G-Men scored the game’s first touchdown on a 15-yard run by Ashton Frye, who started at quarterback playing in place of C’zavian Teasett, who was nursing an ankle injury.
The missed opportunities for Grambling came in the form of three red-zone fumbles.
“I’m disappointed,” Joseph said. “I think we had three turnovers inside the 10- or 15-yardline. We just didn’t play well in spurts. When Ash went down, we were already playing with our backup, and then we tried to go with the third guy (Teasett). It was a very disappointing game.
“We’ll go back and watch the film. I’ll be able to tell you more on Monday.”
When Frye went down in the third quarter with an injury of his own, he was replaced by true freshman A’myne Darensburg, who lasted three series that resulted in a pair of punts and an interception on his final play of the night.
After Frye was injured, Teasett went to the locker room and suited up before turning to the GSU sideline.
And after Darensburg was picked off, Teasett ended up taking the field for GSU’s next possession with 11:52 remaining in the contest.
Joseph said putting Teasett into the game was about trying to pull out a win.
“He’s still hurting,” Joseph said about Teasett. “We thought we could have gotten by today without him because Ash is capable of winning games for us. So, it was like he was going to be an emergency quarterback anyway. I didn’t think we were going to get to him, but we had to get to him.”
And it almost paid off as Teasett directed an 11-play drive, connecting on 4-of-4 pass attempts for 62 yards, that moved to the G-Men down to the Texas Southern 4-yard line before Clyde McClendon, Jr. gave up Grambling’s third red zone fumble of the game as TSU took over with 5:40 remaining.
TSU was able to milk the clock by earning one first down and then a second on a third-and-eight situation in which Kerien Charlo took an end around to the first down marker, with the referees ruling it a first down at the two-minute warning.
Joseph challenged the call of Charlo getting the first down, but after a lengthy review the referees’ ruling was confirmed, with the failed challenge costing Grambling its final time out.
With a first down on its 25-yard line, TSU simply knelt on the ball and ran out the clock.
Joseph said he is still unsure of Grambling’s quarterback situation heading into next week.
“I’ve got to talk to the doctors,” Joseph said. “I’ve got to talk to the doctors, and I’ll know more about what’s going on Monday. I haven’t talked to the doctors about Teasett or Ash. After I speak to the doctors, I’ll be able to say more about the injuries.”
The mishandling on fumbles by Grambling’s young running backs spoiled a solid performance by Tre Bradford, who ran for 120 yards on 11 carries.
“We’ve got to ride Bradford,” Joseph said. “We’ve got to keep Bradford in there. The other guys are young. If we stay in the tight end gap, he walks in the end zone. But they try to bounce it. They’re going back to their high school days, so we’ve got to do a better job with our rotation.”
Texas Southern led 14-13 at halftime, but Grambling came out and regained the lead on the opening play of the second half as Jay’Shaun Johnson returned the kickoff 95 yards for a score to put the G-Men on top 20-14.
Set up by a kickoff return to midfield, TSU responded with its rushing attack that totaled 238 yards on the night, using six straight carries including a 29-yard breakaway by Jacob Washington down to the GSU 3.
Three plays later KJ Cooper powered his way to paydirt from 1-yard out to put Texas Southern back on top with the final score of the game.
Struggling to stop the run has become a problem for the G-Men, much to Joseph’s chagrin.
“I’ll go back and watch the film, but I know we’re not in our gaps,” Joseph said. “And we have to have the right rotation. We have to have the right guys in there at the right time. They’ve got to do what I asked them to do.”
Irking Joseph even more is the fact that Grambling is now 4-6 in one-score games since he took over as head coach.
“We’re not winning them,” Joseph said of those tight losses. “You’ve got to be You’ve got to (take care of) the little things. You’ve got to do the small things, like you’ve got to be in your gap, if we say step with your inside foot, you’ve got to step with your inside foot. If you’re a receiver and we say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to push crack (a block where a wide receiver attacks a defender, usually a linebacker or safety, by pushing off the line with their feet and then ‘cracking — blocking — the defender in the side), you’ve got to push crack.
“It’s just the small things. You can’t leave things out, especially when you’re in tight games. When you’re in tight games, you’ve got to play your way out of them. We haven’t done that since I’ve been here.”
Next up for Grambling (3-3 overall and 0-2 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference) will be a SWAC road game next Saturday at Arkansas-Pine Bluff (3-3, 1-1), which defeated Westgate Christian Saturday afternoon in the Golden Lions’ Homecoming game.
“We still have got a lot of football left,” Joseph said. “We still have got a lot of ball left — you don’t know what’s going to happen. You just have to keep playing. You’ve got to be able to win these close games. We can’t keep losing close games. We’ve got to figure out how to win these close games.”
