It was again one of those odd games. Back and forth. Ying and yang. Give and take.
Swag would score. Then so would App State. Swag would grab a goal line INT. Then so would App State. Swag calls timeout with less than a minute to go and game done. Well, of course, so would App State.
The edge went to which team could score twice in a row, and that team was the good guys. Jamal Jackson hit Andrew Peacock for a 25-yard TD to end the third quarter App up, 21-17. That was followed by a Jackson to Steven Miller 23-yard pass that put App State up for good.
Final, 35-23, Black and Gold. App State goes to 4-2, and stays steady with three other one-loss SoCon teams. Wofford remains perfect.
DON’T WORRY, OFFENSE – Jamal Jackson
He’s got an arm, no doubt. He finished with 304 passing yards on 20 completions among 29 throws. But today he also had the legs of ZZ Top. He knew how to use them, running for a game – and career – high 94 yards on 17 carries. His total offensive output was 398 yards of offense, 5 total TDs, and 66% of the App State snaps. Three of his four passing TDs went for 23 or more yards, including a 54-yard reception by Tony Washington.
BE HAPPY, OFFENSE – Wide world of receivers
Five Mountaineers caught two or more passes – three caught a TD pass – and all had at least 37 yards. Steve Miller had 97 yards on 5 catches, including a 48-yarder. Peacock caught 7 for 71. Malachi Jones and Sean Price each caught three for 38 and 37, respectively. Washington caught two for 61. That’s depth.
MAYBE WORRY, DEFENSE – Hot receiver
Swag’s Aaron Mellette finished with 13 catches for 237 yards and 3TDs, one of which he ripped from the hands of an App defender. He’s not the first foe to get big receiving numbers. Montana had two 100-yard receivers, led by 145 by Dan Moore on just 3 catches. Citadel also had a 100-yard receiver (123 on 3 catches). Then again ….
BE HAPPY, DEFENSE – Sticky Fingers
Three Mountaineers were credited with interceptions – Jeremy Kimbrough, Demetrius McCray and Jamill Lott. Kimbrough snagged his on the goal line, and ran it back 36 yards. Two plays later Washington finished his 54-yard dash to paint. McCray also nabbed one when the birds were in App State land, picking it off on the 12. Lott’s steal basically ended the game, coming with 2:49 left.
HERE’S A FEW MORE NOTES WE WROTE.
- Steven Miller matched Jackson with 17 carries, but gained just 75 yards. He longest went for 37, on App’s second to last possession of the game. He also lined up as a receiver on a few possessions.
- For some stupid reason, Swag felt the need to burn a time out with 56 seconds to go and the game decided. Crowd couldn’t boo loud enough.
- App State retaliated with a timeout and 8 seconds left on the clock. But they had a reason. Should we let Sam Martin try a field goal from 61 yards out? OH YES WE WILL! It sadly fell j-u-s-t short of crossing the upright, but it was probably the most exciting play we’ve seen this season.
- App State has broken 400 yards of offense in all six games this season, the first time it’s done that since becoming D1 in 1972.
- The announced attendance was a generous 29,073.
- Next up is a trip to Lil Sammy, which had 5,872 on hand for the big win over The Citadel today. Like Elon, the Bulldogs have never beaten App State in a SoCon game.
* photo stolen from the twitters
This week at practice……again……the solution for the TO and mr. britenstein (sp)…….
Why not experiment using Tacoi Sumler as a DB (as suggested in previous posts). He is a four star recruit with tremendous speed; and it seems we could use that in secondary. It appears he will not be used as a receiver.
Thank you BOD……..No purple flags.
YES! My wish was granted!
The coach used the timeout to continue jawwing at the official – he was still pissed over Kimbrough's hit on the QB after his slide. Didn't think it was a big deal. Good win for App!
like Eloan has never put a hit on our QB's
This was my first game this season. Enjoyed seeing many old friends I went to school with, and having stories that I don’t remember brought to my attention. The tailgate atmosphere has not changed since I graduated (09) and I love it. If I didn’t live 5-6 hours away I would have season tickets. Hopefully App will host some playoff games for me to attend.
As for the game. Our secondary needs some help. A pass happy team which we wouldn’t meet until the playoffs will throw for 500 plus against that secondary. Still need some work on the run game, but our air attack looks stellar.
As expect. As always. I enjoyed my time in boone
I think it was as much the pass rush (or lack thereof) as it was the secondary. I believe coming into the game we were last in the SoCon in sacks.
Interesting anomaly…Wilson and JJ have both thrown for 1581 yards on the season.
Great game. And sadly – lots of students still left in droves at half-time. Where are they going??? It was a close game at half-time. I don't remember them doing this years back.
http://www.thetimesnews.com/sports/app-state-perk…
Elon’s coach was whining about the refs. Apparently he missed the blatant helment to helment their o lineman put on McCray after his INT. I dislike them more every year. I will say melette seemed like a classy guy. He put up monster numbers and never showed off and even helped our guys up. I remember him doing the same last year. Maybe somone from fElon will make it more than a day in the NFL.
This is the only good thing I'll say about Elon, but I like Mellette. He's a strong, fast, physical receiver. He has talent by the bucket, and he can flat out catch. He's a very classy guy, and I think he knows that he's the playmaker of the Elon team. He shoulders that load, doesn't show off, and still manages to make good defenses look silly. I really like this kid, and I wish him nothing but the best going forward.
Not that anybody really cares now. But, it looks like things have worked out for Lanston Tanyi. He's a DL for Colorado State #91. Maybe it was the strength coach connection. He's listed as a grad student. Maybe this was well known and I've been in the dark.
Maybe I missed it but any word on Deuce’s injury?
saw on Twitter this morning that he's having surgery
Mellette is better than Hudgins.
But, that was a very Appalachian defensive performance. Gave up a lot of yards and some big plays, but forced enough mistakes to help us win.
I think this was the first step backwards for the D since Cid. We were the Kimbrough INT away from this game needing a pretty good comeback to win. That is just too many yards.
This weeks game is huge. We've played well at Samford, but they should win 80-21 if the Cid game is any indication.
The weakest link in the secondary is blalock. McCray did a decent job most of the time this weekend on mellete. We all knew he wasn’t going to shut him down. Mellete is really good. With that being said our problem game when we were playing zone and blalock had to pick up mellete.
When the offense is clicking, we are hard to beat. The secondary scares me, as well as how quickly things go south on this team when things aren't going well. On another note, I realize the homecoming crowd is always a bit apathetic about the game, but come on people, we are up by five in the second half and people were leaving in droves. That was very disappointing.