After being up 17-7 at halftime, the Marshall Thundering Herd falls to 0-2 on the season to the Missouri State Bears 21-20 in the home opener for Marshall on Saturday, Sept. 6 at the Joan C. Edwards stadium. The recorded attendance was 28,564.
It’s the first time Marshall lost a home opener since the 2010 season when the Herd lost to the WVU Mountaineers 24-21 in overtime.
“First off, want to think our fans coming out supporting us tonight. It was great crowd, great night for football, and you’re very, very, very disheartening and disappointed in the outcome,” head coach Tony Gibson said. “I want to give Coach Beard and his staff and team a lot of credit. They outplayed us – out coached us.”
Zion Turner, who led Marshall to its only touchdown during the game against Georgia, started for the Herd and completed 13-of-24 passes for 83 yards and added 60 ground yards for the Herd.
“We got to finish drives in the red zone,” Turner said. “We got to be 100%, and we weren’t today, and that’s something we harped on all week, and we didn’t get the job done, but there’s a lot to work off of.”
Coming off of a career year, Missouri State quarterback Jason Clark continues his momentum from last year finishing 22-of-32 with three touchdown passes and rushing for a net of 30 rushing yards (57 positive yards).
“That quarterback (Jason Clark), he’s a good player,” Gibson said. “He’s really good, sees the field really well and made some really nice throws.”
Both teams’ offense started out slow with the Bears striking first in the second quarter when Ramone Green Jr. caught a 57 yard pass from Clark, giving the Bears the first lead of the game.
Marshall then scored 20 points in a row from two rushing touchdowns, one from Turner and another one from running back Justin Williams-Thomas, and two field goals from Lorcan Quinn: a 50-yard field goal and a 32-yard field goal.
However, the Bears then scored 14 points in the second half to complete the comeback and win the game.
The Herd out-rushed the Bears 200 positive yards to 131 positive yards, but the Bears completed more passing yards 388 yards to 83 yards.
In total, Missouri State outgained Marshall 474-274 in total yards on the night, with the Bears converting 18 first downs to 12 by the Herd.
The play to swing the momentum in the Bears favor happened in the fourth quarter.
At third down and 1 yard at its own 8-yard line, the Herd failed to convert the first down, so on fourth-and-1, the Herd brought out its kicker for a 26-yard field goal to have a two-score game, but the Herd missed, giving the ball back to the Bears, which led them to score the winning drive.
“It changed everything, and that’s on coaching,” Gibson said. “That’s not on Zion. We had an RPO (Rush-pass option). We should’ve locked it and ran the ball. He pulled it out and thought he saw something, and we need to run the ball. We had some momentum right there.“
“There’s a lot of mistakes – a lot of plays we left out on the field, especially in the red zone,” Turner said. “A lot mistakes were made – a lot of bad, especially by me, and we gotta come out here and in this next week at work cause we can’t get that game back, and it hurts. It does, but we gotta work hard. Nobody’s gonna care for – nobody’s gonna pat us on the back now. We got to work harder.”
The win over Marshall gives Missouri State its first win as an FBS program. It also marked the Bears’ first win over an FBS opponent since 1990 when Missouri State beat the UNLV Rebels 31-24.
The Bears continue non-conference play against the SMU Mustangs at Robert W. Plaster Stadium in Springfield, Missouri Saturday, Sept. 13, at 3:30 p.m.
The Herd looks to bounce back with its final home non-conference match-up against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels at the Joan C. Edwards Stadium, Saturday, Sept. 6, with the game starting at 6 p.m.
Nate Harrah can be contacted at [email protected].
