Red Wolves upended by James Madison 42-20

Dukes invade Jonesboro, come away with win over A- State

Special to the Times JONESBORO — Arkansas State entered Saturday's game against James Madison as one of the Football Bowl Subdivision leaders in time of possession, keeping the ball for an average of 35 minutes per game to rank fourth.

The Red Wolves learned that the Dukes are pretty good in that regard, too, and JMU often made the

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Photo by Carla Weyhemer A-STATE (cont.)

most of its possessions in the first-ever meeting of the teams.

After punting on its first two drives, JMU scored a touchdown on six of the next eight to defeat the Red Wolves 42-20 at Centennial Bank Stadium. The Dukes (5-0, 3-0 Sun Belt) scored the final 14 points to seal the victory.

'With everything that went on, with 14 minutes to go in the fourth quarter it's a one-score game. They go down and score,' ASU head coach Butch Jones said. 'Ten minutes to go, it's a one-score game again.

I thought our kids competed against a very, very good football team, a very developed football team.

'At the end of the day, I think what we saw, and it's pretty evident, is it's a line of scrimmage game. They dominated the line of scrimmage. They were able to possess the ball.

Offensively we had five three-and-outs. That's really hard. Defensively we had zero three-and-outs.'

The Dukes more than doubled the Red Wolves' yardage output with a 598267 advantage as they kept the football for 36 minutes, 45 seconds. They gained 516 yards to ASU's 212 over the final three quarters.

JMU quarterback Todd Centeio picked apart ASU's pass defense, completing 28 of 37 passes for 394 yards and four touchdowns. Kris Thornton was the Dukes' primary target with nine receptions for 173 yards, although the receiving touchdowns went to four of his teammates.

Jones pointed to the difference in big plays offensively and defensively. JMU sacked ASU quarterback James Blackman six times among nine tackles for loss, while the Red Wolves (2-4, 1-2 Sun Belt) had no sacks of Centeio and only three tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

'When I talk about a line of scrimmage game, everything is about negative yardage plays,' Jones said.

'We were behind the sticks most of the game, as evidenced on third down.

Third down, we were four out of 13 and a lot of those were third-and-long situations.

'I think the other thing is we're not generating any turnovers defensively. That again continues to be emphasized. I think there's a lot of things that goes into creating turnovers defensively. We've not been able to do that.'

Under constant pressure, Blackman was 16-of-26 passing for 247 yards and two touchdowns.

Tight end Seydou Traore caught three passes for a team-high 73 yards, with Jeff Foreman and Te’Vailance Hunt catching touchdown passes for ASU. Champ Flemings caught four passes for 56 yards.

Jones said ASU running back Johnnie Lang, who entered the game as the nation's leader in all-purpose yardage, was limited because of an injury. Lang had one rushing attempt and four touches on special teams, including three kickoff returns for 98 yards.

Thanks to JMU's tackles for loss, ASU had just 20 net rushing yards. Brian Snead led the Red Wolves with 38 yards on 15 carries. Percy Agyei-Obese led the Dukes with 158 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries. JMU had 204 rushing yards as a team.

'When we look back at the film, we're going to look back and see there were a lot of plays that were left out there. We had a couple of times we got in the red zone and didn't score (touchdowns),' Blackman said. 'The defense was doing good at first and we have to go make something happen on those drives and get points. We get three on two drives, but we really want seven. We've got to go put the ball in the end zone and score touchdowns, especially in games like this.' A-STATE (cont.)

ASU was first on the scoreboard after neither team could put up points in the first quarter. Blackman's 47-yard pass to Traore set up a 25-yard field goal by Dominic Zvada, who made a pair of field goals to improve to 9-for-9 on the year.

James Madison answered with an eight-play scoring drive capped by a 13-yard pass from Centeio to Solomon Vanhorse with 7:40 left in the half.

Centeio added another touchdown pass with 26 seconds remaining, finding Devin Ravenel on a 10yard toss to give JMU a 14-3 halftime lead.

'From an offensive standpoint, we only had the ball four times in the first half, but three of them were three-and-outs,' Jones said. 'When you say what's the difference between the first half and the second half, it's explosive plays. We gave up seven and it's hard in a game to overcome seven, let alone (a half).

'When I'm talking about explosive plays, I'm talking about plays of 20 yards or more. It's hard to overcome seven in a game, let alone in a half. I think the other thing is they scored four out of five of their possessions in the second half. A lot of that is a byproduct of being in third-and-1, fourth-and-1, third-and-2, the ability to establish and run the football at the line of scrimmage. When you give up some of the plays A-STATE (cont.)

that we gave up, it's catastrophic to you, but to our kids' credit, we kept fighting. We kept competing.'

ASU began the second half with a 13-play drive that produced Zvada’s second field goal, this one from 37 yards. James Madison came back with a 17-yard touchdown run by Agyei-Obese, but the Red Wolves countered with a 13-yard pass from Blackman to Jeff Foreman to make it 21-13 with 6:13 left in the third.

With 11:39 remaining in the game, the Dukes scored on a 9-yard pass from Centeio to Zach Horton. The Red Wolves responded with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Blackman to Te'Vailance Hunt to make the score 28-20 with 10:21 remaining James Madison closed the game with the last 14 points, starting with a 31yard touchdown run by Agyei-Obese. After JMU recovered a fumble for the game's lone turnover, Centeio found Drew Painter on a 28-yard touchdown pass.

ASU's next two games are on the road, starting with next Saturday's game at Southern Mississippi.

'We have a lot of football left with this football team,' Jones said. 'I love our guys; I love our team. We need to continue to move forward.'