They had another impressive, wet, victory on Saturday. This time it was against an overmatched Wyoming team which was able to tally some yards, but gave up too many big plays in the 31-13 loss. The Mountaineers can feel secure in knowing they won’t have to deal with rain this week as they head into the Georgia Dome to face Georgia State in App’s Sun Belt conference opener.
Appalachian State Sun Belt Week
The Week That Was:
The tone was set early in the Wyoming victory as Marcus Cox took the handoff on the first play from scrimmage and raced 59 yards to the end zone. This was just the start of his most impressive outing of the year and a strong signal the Mountaineers will be able to rely on him as they head into conference play. Cox ended the day with 15 carries for 178 yards (11.9 average per carry), and the touchdown. This was his seventh straight game over 100 yards rushing and the 18th of his career. Despite maintaining his 100 yards per game streak, there have been games this season where he hadn’t appeared as dominant as late last campaign. In fact much of the team’s success in last year’s six game winning streak to end the year was due to focusing on getting Cox going, and taking pressure off of then freshman quarterback Taylor Lamb. Cox’s performance against Wyoming should put the rest of the conference on alert that the Cox express is headed their way.
It was fortunate for the offense to get big plays in this one as well (both passing and rushing), because they had trouble sustaining drives. The team was 0 for 8 on third down conversions, and Wyoming won the time of possession battle by a large margin (37:54-22:06). Taylor Lamb will have to play better as the team heads into the meat of the Sun Belt schedule.
The defensive side of the ball also made big plays, but struggled against the run game. Cornerback Latrell Gibbs had a 91-yard touchdown return on an interception early in the first quarter to make it 14-0. In all, Appalachian forced three turnovers and had four sacks in the contest to go with 10 tackles for loss. However, they also gave up 208 yards rushing to Wyoming’s Brian Hill, and the Cowboys outgained the Mountaineers on the day by a 373-314 margin.
Despite moving to 3-1 on the year and having some highlight plays, there are definitely some things the coaches will have to work on as they head towards Saturday’s contest against the Panthers in the dome. Consistency and third down conversions on both sides of the ball will be a concern as they play tougher competition over time.
The Week to Come:
Georgia State is 1-3 on the year with their only win coming against New Mexico State. Their losses were not all against quality opponents either. They have gone down to UNC-Charlotte and last week to FCS competition, Liberty (also having lost to Oregon). They dropped the game last week in the Georgia Dome, while coming off a bye. They were unable to sustain any drives with consistency as the Flames controlled the ball for 43:33 of the game. Their inability to sustain drives had a lot to do with virtually no attempt to run the ball. They only had 11 yards rushing. That type of attack will not work well against the Mountaineers, who are currently sporting the best scoring defense in the Sun Belt at 13.5 points per game. This game could get ugly if Georgia State attempts to be one dimensional, which would allow Ronald Blair to tee off in pass rush and you really don’t want to target Gibbs in the passing game. Appalachian will be the favorite in this one and should be able to stick a loss on their former athletic director, Charlie Cobb.
The strength of the Panthers offense is the passing game. Last week against Liberty they were able to tally 394 yards and 33 points despite the lack of a run game and only having the ball for about 16 minutes. The team from the peach state had four receivers with catches for over 30 yards, so they like to move the ball in chunks. It will be on App’s secondary to keep the ball in front of them and cause turnovers when the opportunities show themselves.
Defensively, Georgia State had an issue with tackling coming off their bye week. They better straighten that out, because I would expect App to attempt to take control of this game with a strong dose of Marcus Cox early (the Mountaineers currently have the second best rushing team in the Sun Belt), which will open things up for the passing game, and bigger plays to Shaedon Meadors/Simms Mcelfresh later on.
This game for the men from the mountain should be a good road tune-up game, and a chance to put up their first conference win of the season without much difficulty.
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