Georgia State got beat at its own game on Wednesday night.
Pass-happy Appalachian State flipped the script and committed to the run in the final three quarters, took advantage of two third-quarter turnovers, and scored 28 unanswered points en route to a 42-17 win over Georgia State in Boone, N.C.
Appalachian State (4-3. 2-2) had only 63 total yards and 46 yards rushing in the first quarter. The Mountaineers finished with 454 total yards and 392 yards rushing – far exceeding their season high of 288 yards on the ground. Georgia State, the No. 1 rushing team in the Sun Belt, ran for 132 yards in the first quarter, but finished with only 242 rushing yards and 315 total yards.
“They figured out, hey, let’s just go play big-boy football and just hand the ball off,” Georgia State coach Shawn Elliott said. “And we played hard. Played with great effort. Just couldn’t hold up. Just could not hold up.”
Elliott wasn’t shocked that Appalachian State was able to effectively alter their game plan.
“Anybody that’s covered Appalachian football and seen these guys, they know what they’re capable of,” Elliott said. “They have the backs and their offensive line and tight ends do a good job. It was just a situation where they figured it out and why go away from something that was working.”
Georgia State (2-5, 1-2 Sun Belt) is now 0-9 against Appalachian State. The Panthers must win four of their final five games to become bowl eligible for the fourth straight year.
“If you look at our season thus far, I think we’ve put ourselves in this situation by penalties, turnovers, special team’s blocked kicks or something like that,” Elliott said. “We have to clean that stuff up.”
After an outstanding first quarter, Georgia State quarterback Darren Grainger had trouble with ball security. He fumbled three times, lost two, and threw an interception. Grainger was 8-for-21 for 72 yards and ran 18 times for 105 yards and one touchdown.
GSU’s Tucker Gregg ran 11 times for 107 yards and one touchdown, the 21st of his career.
Appalachian State’s Camerun Peoples, who missed last week’s game and entered Wednesday’s contest as a game-time decision, carried 23 times for 168 yards and two touchdowns.
Georgia State dominated the first quarter with its running game. Gregg was featured on the first drive and scored the first touchdown on a 4-yard run. Grainger, who went over the career 1,000-yard mark at GSU on the second drive, scored on a 26-yard run for a 14-0 lead.
But App State made adjustments and put the clamps on Grainger, who had trouble connecting with receivers on the cold night. The Panthers had to punt on their final four possessions of the first half.
“A couple of drops, a couple of forced passes,” Elliott said. “The second-quarter possessions there just put us in a rut.”
The Georgia State defense forced App State to punt on its first five possessions before the Mountaineers produced their first touchdown. Facing fourth-and-1, Peoples escaped at the line and scored from the 16.
The third quarter was disastrous for Georgia State. The Panthers took the second-half kickoff and immediately turned it over. Grainger was sacked and fumbled. App State’s Hansky Paillant recovered and the Mountaineers scored on Ahmani Marshall’s 37-yard run.
“You come out and get a false-start penalty and you’ve got first-and-15 and that leads to a doggone fumble and they take advantage of it. I try to tell these guys, you can’t give a good football team hope and we gave them momentum and they took advantage of it.”
GSU had to punt on its next possession and the Mountaineers drove 67 yards for a touchdown, with quarterback Chase Brice running it in from the 1-yard line to give App State its first lead at 21-14.
Georgia State gave it back to App again when Grainger was intercepted by linebacker Tyler Bird. Five plays later – and after a fumble call was overturned – Brice scored again from the 1 for a 28-14 lead.
The Panthers stopped the slide with a career-long 47-yard field goal from Michael Hayes, but App State regained the momentum with Milan Tucker’s 63-yard kickoff return and scored eight plays later on Peoples’ 7-yard run.
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