A bye week didn’t seem to help Georgia State completely solve all of its problems.
Many of the same errors — poor special teams, an inconsistent offense and an overall lack of discipline — that have stymied the Panthers contributed to a 48-24 loss to Murray State in a mostly empty Georgia Dome on Saturday. The Panthers have lost four consecutive games, each by at least 16 points, since winning their season opener against Clark Atlanta.
“If I had a rational explanation for what you’ve seen the last four weeks I would certainly offer it,” Georgia State coach Bill Curry said. “I don’t.”
It’s rare that Curry is at a loss for words. The stats tell an all-too-familiar story.
The Panthers were called for 10 penalties for 61 yards, perhaps the biggest worry for Curry, who has stressed discipline all season. The running game averaged 2.53 yards on 34 carries, and the special teams gave up an average of 21.2 yards on seven punt and kickoff returns, which gave the Racers great field position most of the game.
Lastly, in a somewhat new problem, the Panthers couldn’t stop the Racers on third down. Murray State converted 11 of its 16 third downs.
It was an all-too-familiar recipe for trouble, one that Curry thought they had thrown away after two good weeks of practices that focused on all those issues.
“We practice long and hard, the staff works long and hard, but that’s not good enough,” he said. “The results have to be displayed when the lights come on. We aren’t connecting.”
After falling behind 35-10 early in the third quarter, the Panthers cut the Racers’ advantage to 35-24 on a 43-yard touchdown pass from Kelton Hill to Danny Williams with 9:23 remaining in the third quarter. Donald Russell added a 9-yard touchdown run, his second of the game, on the next series.
But Christian Benvenuto missed a short field-goal attempt later that would have cut Murray State’s lead to a touchdown.
“In that third quarter we were coming together, that was probably the best we’ve played all year,” Williams said.
Georgia State’s energy seemed to disappear after that missed opportunity. The Racers added two more touchdowns, one on a well-designed 36-yard pass play and another that was set up by a tackle-breaking run after a short pass.
“We just missed tackles. We need to work on wrapping up more,” defensive end Christo Bilukidi said. “Every single game there’s one thing that makes us a better defense and a consistent defense. Today it was wrapping up and the screen passes.”
The Panthers took a brief lead in the first half, 10-7, on a 45-yard field by Benvenuto with 15 seconds remaining in the first quarter. It was Georgia State’s first lead since Week 1.
But then things went familiarly wrong for the Panthers.
The Racers converted three long third downs on their next drive to take a 14-10 lead. They made the score 21-10 on an 8-yard touchdown run up the middle by Duane Brady and tacked on another touchdown just before a halftime to make the score 28-10.
The last scoring play started as a simple screen pass to the left. However, Panthers defenders overran the play, and Brady cut back across the field, broke tackles and finished the 46-yard play.
After the game, Curry sounded like a man who isn’t close to being ready to give up.
“All I know to do is to keep working, keep doing my best,” Curry said. “I do that everyday, with everything I have, and that’s not close to get the job done. But I will keep doing that as long as I’m here.
“I would give anything if this were not happening, but it is. All we can do is use these situations to teach and somehow get our men to understand what we are doing to ourselves and correct it. It will be a great day when that happens.”
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