By T. SCOTT BOATRIGHT, Lincoln Parish Journal
GRAMBLING — Missteps, miscues and missed opportunities led to postgame misery Saturday night as Grambling State fell 21-20 to Texas Southern at Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium in a Southwestern Athletic Conference outcome that dampened Homecoming.
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 and was not dressed out pregame – but wound up playing.
The missed opportunities for Grambling came in the form of three red zone fumbles.
“I’m disappointed,” Tigers’ second-year head coach Mickey Joseph said. “I think we had three turnovers inside the 10- or 15-yard lines. 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.”
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.
After Darensburg was picked off, Teasett hit the field for GSU’s next possession with 11:52 remaining in the contest.
“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.”
It almost paid off as Teasett directed an 11-play drive, connecting on 4-of-4 pass attempts for 62 yards, reaching the Texas Southern 4-yard line before Clyde McClendon, Jr. gave up Grambling’s third red zone fumble of the game. 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.
The fumbles by Grambling’s young running backs spoiled a solid performance by Tre Bradford, who ran for 120 yards on 11 carries.
Texas Southern led 14-13 at halftime, but Grambling regained the lead on the opening play of the second half as Jay’Shaun Johnson returned the kickoff 95 yards.
Started 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. Neither team scored again.
Not being able to stop the visitors’ running game was a continuing problem for Grambling. 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. “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 SWAC) will be a conference road game next Saturday at Arkansas-Pine Bluff (3-3, 1-1).
“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. We can’t keep losing close games. We’ve got to figure out how to win these close games.”
Contact Scott at tscottboatright@gmail.com