Georgia Southern falls 35-10 in Conference Opener

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WTOC) - Georgia Southern begins conference play with an ugly 35-10 road loss to a very good James Madison bunch.

With rain falling for most of the game and the scouting report being that JMU has been very effective running the football, we expected a healhty dose of the ground game. Despite that, Georgia Southern continues to struggle in filling gaps and making tackles. The Dukes ran for 331 rushing yards compared to Georgia Southern’s 27. Linebacker Brendan Harrington stated afterwards “I think we played better we just have to keep executing at the highest level. Keep attacking and keep tackling at the highest level. I believe in my teammates, I believe in our defense. I believe in all our coaches and I know we have some good ball players.” Georgia Southern offensivley, despite the rain, when to an air raid type of approach with Quarterback JC French going 14-24 through the air for 165 yards and a touchdown. The lone Eagles touchdown came late in the 3rd quarter to Taylor Bradshaw for his first career TD. “Just not our best outing, we did not play great team football today” said Head Coach Clay Helton.

Georgia Southern had two key offensive drives that reached the red zone and came up empty handed, both ending with a turnover-on-downs. “I credit James Madison, I thought they won the one-on-one battles. It wasn’t an assignment, it wasn’t an alignment, we lost our one-on-one battles.

Georgia Southern falls to 2-3 overall, 0-1 in Sun Belt play and now 0-3 on the road this season. Next up, the Eagles have a much needed bye week before hosting Southern Miss on Thursday, October 9th from Paulson Stadium.