In the past, if you had told me that Georgia Southern had rushed for just 115 yards, I wouldn’t have even asked you what the score was. I would have just known it was a really, really bad day for the Eagles.
Obviously that was the case in the triple-option days, and even Chris Hatcher discovered how effective a potent running game could be in 2007 with Jayson Foster and Lamar Lewis in the backfield.
The point is, GSU has always had to run the football to win.
Not so much on Saturday.
The game was all but lost with under six minutes to go, and when Henton threw an incomplete pass to Raja Andrews on fourth down, the light at the end of the tunnel was getting pretty dim.
The defense stepped up in a huge way — after Northeastern quarterback Anthony Orio pretty much did whatever he wanted to for three quarters — and put the ball back in the hands of the offense.
All Henton did was throw up a pretty looking ball to Tim Camp for 65 yards with 1:01 to go in the game for the tying score. Give Camp a little credit too, because after he caught the pass, he made two Huskies miss and it was a horserace to the end zone from there.
The Eagles hadn’t led at all the entire game, so it was only fitting that the extra point was blocked and the score remained tied.
After another big defensive stand (you read that right — two in a row), the Eagles got the ball back and actually had a chance to win it in regulation.
Henton stepped up again, just as poised as if he were tossing around the pigskin in the back yard on Thanksgiving with the family, and connected with Raja Andrews (who caught seven balls for 123 yards) to set up the potential game-winning field goal.
Of course, after what appeared to be another bad snap, the attempt sailed wide left and the game went to overtime.
Henton — in just his third game as an Eagle — had his team in a position to win (twice) after the Eagles were pretty much dominated by the Husky offense for more than three quarters.
And he did it through the air.
Bad snaps, bad holds, bad kicks — whatever the problem is — the kicking game simply has to improve. But I digress.
Henton has made a statement - the Eagles’ air attack is a force to be reckoned with.
Because the young quarterback led his young team down the field while looking adversity straight in the eye, Georgia Southern may have found the offensive leader it so desperately needed.
Oh, and rest easy Eagle fans, because Henton can run a little bit, too. It was his 25-yard run in overtime that finally gave GSU the lead and turned out to be the game winner. Now that’s the Georgia Southern I know.
It’s pretty obvious that the Eagles are not a complete team right now. They’re still working their way to finding an identity. The offense is well on its way, and it seems to have a leader, but the defense and kicking game have a lot of work to do.
With all of the issues that Georgia Southern has, and there’s more than a few, at least they have a two-game winning streak to build on. Hatcher was 0-2 in overtime games heading in to Saturday, and he got that monkey off his back. Henton has emerged to lead an extremely talented group of wide receivers, and there’s a group of at least four running backs who can grind it out and move the chains.
Considering the age and level of experience of this group of Eagles, I’d say they’re off to a pretty good start.
Now it’s time for the conference schedule. Georgia Southern has come a long way in the past three weeks. Now let’s see if the defense can show up in the first half and the kicking game can fix whatever the heck is wrong with it.
If those issues get worked out, there’s no telling how far this group could go.
But it’s going to take a lot of work.
Oh, and one more thing. I wonder if Hatcher will keep running that screen pass on the first play of the game. I think the opposition may have caught on.
Matt Yogus can be reached at (912) 489-9404.
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