By T. SCOTT BOATRIGHT, Lincoln Parish Journal
GRAMBLING – In a game that at times resembled a heavyweight slugfest, Grambling State won by unanimous decision.
The G-Men kept swinging — and scoring — until the very end and held on for a 35-23 Southwestern Athletic Conference win over Texas Southern Saturday afternoon at Eddie G. Robinson Stadium.
While it certainly didn’t come easily, GSU head coach Hue Jackson was simply pleased to outlast the winless visitors.
“I’m excited for our players, our fans, our supporters to be able to watch us get the first (SWAC) win against Texas Southern at home,” Jackson said. “We knew it was going to be a dogfight. That’s a good football team regardless of what their record is. I think our guys battled extremely hard. We understand the momentum in games and how it comes and goes.
“There are some things we know we have to continue to clean up and get better at, but I’m excited because we’re winning. We’re starting to stack wins together and that’s what you have to do in this conference. These conference games mean a lot, so to open at home with a victory was very important.”
Winning at home for the second straight week, Grambling went to a double-barrelled ground-and-pound offensive attack with sophomore running backs Chance Williams and Floyd Chalk IV attacking the TSU defense right from the opening kickoff.
The G-Men took their second possession and marched 49 yards on seven plays with Chalk plunging to paydirt from one yard out to put Grambling up 7-0 midway through the first quarter.
Grambling went on top 14-7 at intermission thanks to quarterback Myles Crawley firing a 17-yard touchdown to Lyndon Rash, who outbattled a TSU defensive back for the ball, with seven seconds left in the second quarter. He added a second-half TD catch.
“Lyndon is one of those guys who doesn’t complain, doesn’t say ‘give me the ball,’” Jackson said. “He’s always about the team. Every now and then I want him to be selfish, because he’s that kind of player.”
Texas Southern (0-4, 0-1) battled back to open the second half, marching 49 yards and kicking a 41-yard field goal that cut Grambling’s lead to 14-10 only 4:09 into the third quarter.
Grambling quickly landed a counterpunch, pushing its advantage to 21-10 on an 11-yard scoring scamper by Williams at the 7:27 mark of the third stanza.
Williams finished the day with 174 yards on 19 rushing attempts as part of a GSU rushing attack that totaled 282 yards on 48 carries. Chalk also had a strong game, totalling 88 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 17 touches.
“I think we can run the football,” Jackson said. “I’ve always said that. We have good backs. We have a good offensive line. We work at it. But we miss some things, too, at times, but we have some good runners and they know how to run the football and I think we’ll continue to get better at it.”
Texas Southern battled back with Wilson hitting Eyan Means on a 34-yard touchdown pass that cut GSU’s lead to 21-17 with 1:37 left in the third quarter.
But once again GSU quickly responded as Crawley connected with Rash on a 10-yard scoring strike to put the G-Men up 28-17 with 11:27 to go.
Texas Southern followed that blow with one of its own as Wilson fired his third scoring pass of the game, hitting Jyrin Johnson on a 25-yarder to shrink Grambling’s lead to 28-23 (TSU missed the point after) with 8:12 left on the clock.
Then Grambling delivered the knockout, as Chalk again scored on a 1-yard run with 3:25 remaining to seal up the win and move the G-Men to 2-2 overall in the SWAC lidlifter for both clubs.
Jackson was pleased to see how his team consistently responded to TSU scores, crediting Crawley for leading that charge.
“Those were very important,” Jackson said of GSU’s last two touchdown drives. “When you have an offense that can answer, a quarterback with that kind of calmness. His whole thing was, ‘Don’t worry about it Coach, we’ll take care of it.’ And that’s what you want. There was never any doubt on our sideline, and that’s because we have a quarterback that you believe and who’s going to go and take the team down the field.”
Contact Scott at tscottboatright@gmail.com