By T. SCOTT BOATRIGHT, Lincoln Parish Journal
GRAMBLING — Offense was as scarce as a snowball in summertime, but the Grambling State Tigers found a special way to win Saturday as they edged past Alabama A&M 13-10 at Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium.
Special teams were the difference in the contest, with Grambling’s scoring coming on a pair of Josh McCormick field goals and Delano Franklin’s 64-yard punt return to paydirt midway through the fourth quarter.
The win keeps Grambling’s slight postseason hopes alive as the Tigers moved to 6-3 overall and 3-2 in the SWAC West. The Bulldogs fell to 4-5 and 1-4 in conference games.
The Tigers escaped with the win despite trailing since early in the first quarter when Alabama A&M scored on a David Faulk field goal on the Bulldogs’ first possession.
GSU coach Mickey Joseph admitted it had been a tough week for the Tigers after last weekend’s injury of starting quarterback C’zavian Teasett, who remains hospitalized in Las Vegas, where Grambling defeated Jackson State 26-24.
“My kids played with heavy hearts today,” Joseph said. “With what happened to C’za last week, they haven’t been the same. They’ve been messed up this week. This whole staff has been messed up. We went out there today and we played our hearts out. But these kids, these coaches, had a rough week.
“If you’re associated with us, you had a rough week. I knew it was going to be like this. To pull this one out, I take my hat off to these players and to these coaches.”
Teasett’s status has not been updated by his family, so GSU is unable to release additional information.
With No. 2 quarterback Ashton Frye also out with a much less serious injury, the Tigers turned to third-stringer A’Myne Darensbourg, a true freshman, to start the contest.
When Darensbourg went down with a leg injury and had to be helped off the field late the opening stanza, Joseph was forced to turn to fourth-team quarterback Hayden Benoit, another true freshman.
Alabama A&M was also without its starting quarterback, and the stats told the story of how both offenses struggled.
Grambling totaled only 175 yards of offense while Alabama A&M managed only 143. The Tigers rushed for only 51 yards on 44 attempts, averaging a meager 1.2 yards per carry while the Bulldogs ran for 52 yards on 29 carries.
The teams combined to convert only 1-of-26 combined third-down conversion attempts, with GSU’s Andre Crews rushing for two yards on a third-and-one early in the third quarter for the lone successful try.
“It wasn’t great,” Joseph said. “But we knew going in playing with those young quarterbacks that we had to try to establish the run game and slow them down on offense and defense. We lost Darrensbourg, and then Benoit went in, another young kid.
“He’s our fourth guy but now he’s our first guy. We just have a saying around here — we put 11 on the field and we fight like Tigers. They had each other’s back.”
After Alabama A&M jumped out to a 10-0 advantage by the end of the first quarter, Grambling tightened things up in the second.
Jalen Guilliard’s interception and 27-yard return early in the second quarter gave the Tigers the ball at the Bulldogs’ 43-yard line. McCormick booted a 40-yard field goal to put Grambling on the scoreboard with 6:06 remaining in the first half.
McCormick’s 30-yard field goal with 23 seconds left in the second quarter cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 10-6 at halftime.
The tide finally turned in GSU’s favor midway through the final stanza, when Franklin’s punt return gave the Tigers their first lead, and it stood up thanks to a defense that recorded eight sacks.
“We needed a play,” Joseph said. “We were not moving the ball. And he took advantage of the opportunity when we needed it.”
Next up for the Tigers will be a home game next weekend against Bethune Cookman, which stands at 5-4 and 4-1 in the SWAC East after defeating Mississippi Valley State 42-34 on Saturday.
Contact Scott at tscottboatright@gmail.com