The Red Wolves Beat the Trojans and It Was a Thriller
Thursday night the Arkansas State University Red Wolves pulled off a big win over a Sun Belt Conference opponent, the Troy Trojans. For anyone who watched the game on television or for the 26,000 fans in the stands, it was one of the more entertaining games of the season, with big plays on both sides of the ball for both teams. The final score was 41-34 and the back-and-forth battle was another classic between these two schools.
Below is a brief roundup of what some of the sportswriters who covered the game had to report upon it’s conclusion.
Maybe it was the four turnovers to Arkansas State’s none.
Maybe it was the third-down defense allowing nine conversions.
Maybe it was the two crucial penalties on plays that would have otherwise been key first downs that kept the Trojans from winning another close ball game.
What it definitely was, though, was another close loss for the Troy Trojans in a game full of excitement and “oh-so-close” moments – something the Trojans know all too well.
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“ You could take any one of those things and say it broke our backs,” Trojans head coach Larry Blakeney said. “I know I’m not going to quit, and I don’t think these (players) will either. We gotta find a way to do things better.”
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Jeremy Wise, in a column for the Dothan Eagle, wrote:
Trojans fans have almost gotten used to this heart-wrenching style of football. Over the past three years, Troy’s offense has provided plenty of fireworks, while the defense, well… they provided plenty of fireworks by allowing big plays from the opponents.
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Building great units, and depth, has always taken time – longer than a day. And the reality is, in college football, more than eight months and more than a year. Truthfully, it may take a few recruiting cycles to restock the defensive talent at Troy so that when the bad breaks hit, the next guy is completely capable of stepping in and performing well.
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Tim Gayle of the Montgomery Advertiser wrote:
“No turnovers, and we gave up how many?” Troy coach Larry Blakeney asked. “A fumble and three interceptions. Missed a PAT. I knew coming up here was going to be a tough outing, and we had to play good, and we couldn’t do those things and win. And I was right.”
The Troy defense repeatedly struggled on third down, especially in the first half, allowing the Red Wolves to convert four third-down plays at one point and allowing nine third-down conversions in 17 attempts for the game.
“There are a lot of things that go on,” Blakeney said. “You’ve got some pretty good third-down offensive plays, probably, but we’ve got to stop them. We didn’t do it too well.”
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The Troy Messenger had this to report:
Numbers don’t lie but they don’t always tell the whole story.
In Thursday night’s 41-34 loss to the Arkansas State Red Wolves, the Troy Trojans managed 614 yards of total offense, but the biggest numbers in the game were actually some of the smallest in the final stats.
Four turnovers, including three interceptions thrown by Corey Robinson, and three penalties, all in the fourth quarter, proved to be much of the difference in the game.
“No way you can overcome that much negativity in your offense,” head coach Larry Blakeney said. “Everybody knows it, you can’t do that and win a game.”
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“When it goes south, sometimes it all goes south,” Blakeney said.
The top two offenses in the Sun Belt were on the field Thursday night, but though the Trojans put up more yards, it was the Red Wolves who made the most of their opportunities.
“I feel like we should have won the game,” defensive tackle Shermane TeArt said. “I feel like we beat ourselves.”
Arkansas State finished with 539 total on offense.
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