A Battle of Land Grants
Prairie View A&M came into Spartan Stadium as massive 40 1/2-point underdogs today. A FCS, late-schedule replacement for the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, the (1-1) Panthers suffered a season-opening thumping by SWAC-West rival Texas Southern before rebounding for a close win over Northwestern State (LA) last week. Pundits looked at the talent difference with MSU along with the Spartan *Will to win* on show last week to write down the Panthers.
Meanwhile the Spartans themselves saw PVAM’s decent passing game and defensive backfield, and weren’t planning to write anyone off. Our guys in green found a way to take seriously the challenge of an underdog team on the field balanced with the opportunity to tune-up and get some experience for depth players who will be needed late season (or sooner, with a matchup at top-20 Boston College looming next weekend).
Photo by Adam Ruff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
First Quarter
The Spartans won the toss and elected to hold PVAM to -6 yards and a punt. The team’s choice to hold off on any penalties for both the initial offense and defensive series also seemed wise. For the first score the Spartans really pushed the run game with decent gashes by both Carter and Kay’Ron, setting up the naked boot for Chiles to run it to the corner. Aziah Johnson breaking through two tackles to reach the endzone on a short cross from Aiden seemed to erase memories of his over-eagerness to run kickoffs out of the end zone last week.
Second Quarter
With the Panthers still held scoreless, MSU opted to challenge themselves with a 98-yard field in front of them to start their first series with the ball. Charles Brantley would later prove that distance no match for his feet en route to a pick-six score – his (almost) second of the quarter, save for a roughing the passer penalty on Angelo Grosse. However, in this case the Spartans were held to a 9-yard three-and-out and the crowd murmured briefly, then watched Eckley in hopes of a boomer. It was a decent boot – 55 yards.
The Spartan D allowed passes of 9, 17, and 26 yards on the subsequent series to get Prairie View in range for their Field Goal miss. Kay’Ron, Chiles, and Marsh then setup Nate Carter’s response of 60 Yards to the end-zone. 21-0.
MSU then unfortunately, penaltied the Panthers out of another three-and-out and/or Brantley pick-six, and dragged their opponent downfield for them. With the shutout nearly falling, Brantley took the real pick-six 100 yards to boost the differential to 4 TDs going into Halftime – though Spartan fans suffered a brief jolt watching Jonathan Kim get his one allowed miss out of the way for the year.
Third and Fourth Quarters
With Nate Carter picking his way for yardage and a gash from Aziah Johnson for 33, among others. MSU set themselves up to go up 5-scores. Penalties seemed to feel otherwise as first-and-goal from the three turned into first-and-twenty from the 27! After some progress to make up for the transgressions, Kim booted a FG. Another Field Goal a series and change later, and a scrapyard-time TD rounded out the scoring. Unfortunately, folks looking to cover the spread, even with the shutout, fell a point short. I hope they don’t take it out on Kim’s twitter.
A few folks were surprised to see Aiden and some of the others still playing the second half, looking for QB Tommy Schuster early, and maybe even Ryland Jessee or Milivojevic for a series or two before game’s end. Schuster did come in for a very respectable 8/10 for 97 yards (and his rushing TD), though the freshmen did not.
Several of youngsters got some play on defense as well with names like Stone Chaney (Fr – DL), Mikeshun Beeler (Fr – DL), and Marcellius Pulliam (So – LB) getting some run on the stat sheet.
What did you think of the youngsters and did the Spartans live up to your expectations overall (assuming you didn’t bet the cover or the over 😉
Big game next week.
Go Green.