Week 8 Recap: Argonauts Muscle Past Delta State on the Road
Dominating an Elite Offense
It is important to set the context for how good this Delta State offense has been so far this year. Coming into the weekend, the undefeated Statesmen were 7th nationally in scoring offense, 5th in total offense, 6th in yards per play, and the 9th ranked offense in D2 in Bill Connelly’s SP+. They were scoring 46.6 per game, had scored at least 35 in every game this season, and topped 40 against every D2 opponent they’d faced. Delta had scored 41 TDs out of 84 offensive drives (48% of drives ending in a TD) in their first seven games and only had 8 three and outs all season (9.5% of drives), including a streak of 30 straight drives without going three and out. Against UWF, however, all of that changed.
The Statesmen were held to a season low 21 points, all in the first half. They were also held to season lows for rushing yards (109), yards per carry (3.3), total offense (295 yards), time of possession (19:21), while having their least successful night passing (more on that below). On 13 true offensive drives, the 14th consisted of one play as time expired, the Statesmen scored 3 TDs (23% TD drives) and UWF forced them into 5 three and outs (38% of drives). One of the more impressive things about the defensive performance is that Coach Conners’ unit didn’t get rich off of negative plays, they forced no turnovers, had no sacks, and scored just 3 TFL for a total loss of just 4 yards. What they did do was strangle the line of scrimmage, allowing just 2 runs of over 10 yards and 8 more runs that gained five or more yards. This limited the remaining 70% of Delta’s rushing attempts to just 35 yards, a stunning 1.5 yards per rushing attempt. This was the top rushing team in the conference, averaging 250 yards per game on the ground up to this point, and hadn’t been held to under 133 yards for the season.
When you start to dissect the game, 14 of the points allowed by UWF came as the result of a muffed punt inside the 10 yard line and a 55 yard TD reception. Delta really only sustained one scoring drive, an 8 play 80 yarder to go up 21-10 just before halftime, otherwise they punted nine times and turned it over on downs another. That one big passing play, 55 yards, accounted for 18.6% of their total yardage, if you add in the other 44 yard reception in the 2nd half, those two plays were just over 1/3 of Delta State’s overall offensive output. The other 64 offensive plays they ran statesmen gained just 196 yards, just over 3 yards per play, by far their worst of the season.
The biggest task for the defense was going to be containing Patrick Shegog, who is a dangerous dual threat player. While they weren’t able to get home for a sack, I’m not sure that was a big part of the game plan. It appeared to me that they were content to push the pocket, keep the edge contained, and force him to beat the Argos’ defensive backfield from the pocket. As a result he had his worst night passing of the year, the 3 passing TD aside, he had his worst yards per attempt (5.6), the 2nd most throws he has taken this season (33), and by far his worst completion percentage (39.4%). In fact, looking back across his career (that stretches back to 2018), it is the second worst completion percentage he has had in a game (Jackson State 2021) and the worst against a D2 opponent.
All things considered, this was the most impressive defensive performance the Argonauts have had this season and among the top, if not the top, performances in school history defensively.
Peewee, Run Game Shoulder the Load in a Grinding Game
A week after being unable to find an answer for a suffocating West Alabama defense, UWF faced another high level defensive foe. We have seen UWF win via explosive passing game, we have seen them win with a dominating run performance, they’ve also had a game or two where the short pass and the yards after catch were the best weapon, but last week they seemingly could not come up with a strategy that worked against the Tigers. This week against Delta they tried something completely different, grind out a win 3 or 4 yards at a time, control the clock, keep a potent Statesmen offense off the field, and aside from a few hiccups in the first half it worked.
The run game, particularly Peewee Jarrett and CJ Wilson, shouldered the load on Saturday, finishing the game with a combined 46 carries for 133 yards. This included 4 sacks for -30 yards against Peewee, so on true run plays the QB/RB duo finished with 42 carries and 163 yards. The team’s combined 53 rushing attempts is the most in school history, just edging out 51 attempts last year in a double OT loss to Delta State back in Pensacola and 52 attempts in the inaugural Argonaut football game against Ave Maria back in 2016.
By not relying so heavily on the pass game, the offense was definitely less explosive, but they were opportunistic. Peewee finished 13/21 (61.9%) 205 yards (9.8 ypa) and 3 TD. On the offensive possession, UWF had a nice drive and Peewee connected first with Caden Leggett on a 10 yard curl and the Senior pass catcher broke a couple tackles before taking it the rest of the way for a 26 yard TD. The next two TDs went to John Jiles, the first a fade from 19 yards out to bring UWF within a score late in the 3rd quarter, then again on a slant where Jiles called his shot presnap.
Quick Hitters
Shegog was noticeably ineffective watching the game, and the stats back it up this game lowered his season average passing yards per attempt 9.6 now 8.9.
The hidden victory for the Argonauts was a +21 minutes time of possession margin. UWF and Delta State had the same number of true possessions (13), the Argos ran 8 more plays (74), however UWF had nine drives that took at least 2 minutes off the clock compared to just three for Delta.
The Argos were trying to gain the edge early on in the run game, they also ran some pitch option. They utilized QB power quite a bit especially down the line.
RS Freshman Linebacker Walker Robinson is having quite a season filling in for Will Breland. He is 1st on the team in tackles (45) solo tackles (33), he lead the team an 8 tackle night and has had at least 6 tackles in each game since becoming the starter week 4.
John Jiles is on a 1st team All American pace to the season. He had 7 catches for 108 yards and 2 TD, his fifth 100+ yard game on the season and his fourth multiple TD game. He is second in the D2 in receiving yards (925) and receiving TD (11). He’s on pace for over 1250 yards and 15 TD in the regular season.
UWF Players of the Week
Offense: QB Peewee Jarrett (13/21 205 yards 3 TD 0 INT 27 carries 63 yards)
Peewee was pretty good throwing the ball, but he really carried a heavy load in the run game. Down the stretch was no different, with 8 fourth quarter carries. He had some pretty good throws, but most importantly was pretty safe with the ball. His 23 rushing attempts, minus sacks, certainly is the most by an Argonaut QB in school history.
Defense: LB Walker Robinson (8 tackles (5 solo) 0.5 TFL)
Robinson was all over the field on Saturday and was tied for the team lead with Jake Dorn. The Argonauts DL definitely seemed like they were in contain mode, so that gave the RS Freshman plenty of opportunities to mop up.
Special Teams: P Logan Gregory (8 punts 356 yards (44.5/punt) 58 long 4 inside the 20 1 50+)
Gregory has become a real weapon for UWF. He had another busy night of work with 8 punts, four of which were fair caught, four were dropped inside the 20 yard line, including one that was blown dead at the Delta State 1” line. His 58 yarder is his long of the season, and his 39 yard punt fair caught at the 9 yard line with 0:06 left effectively sealed the game.
From Around the League
Shorter (3-5, 1-4)unable to get their second GSC win of 2023 on the road at Valdosta State (7-1, 4-1) 42-14.
West Georgia (5-2, 4-1) puts up a 38-14 win against North Greenville (3-5, 2-4)
Chowan (0-8, 0-6) remains winless after a 38-21 defeat against MC (3-4, 2-3)
GSC Offensive Player of the Week
RB Rajaez Mosley West Georgia (12 carries 130 yards 2 TD 1 reception 49 yards 1 TD)
GSC Defensive Player of the Week
DL Jake Dorn West Florida (8 tackles (6 solo) 1 PBU)
GSC ST Player of of the Week
KR Marcus Williams (4 returns 156 yards 1 TD)
GSC Freshman of the Week
QB Cameran Brown West Georgia (11/19 142 yards 1 TD 0 INT 13 carries 64 yards)
Coming up This Week
Another HUGE game coming up for the Argonauts this weekend as they return home to face a 7-1 Valdosta State squad who are among the teams in a four way tie for 1st place in the GSC standings. Valdosta State boasts one of the top QBs in the league, Sammy Edwards, who leads the conference in passing yards and completion %. While they’re very strong offensively, 458 yards per game, they’re also giving up quite a few yards (351 per game) defensively. They’ve been able to outscore opponents so far this season by double digits all but twice (win against Albany State, loss against Delta). Valdosta State was a bit of a white whale for the Argonauts, winning the first four meetings, but UWF has gotten the better of the Blazers in each of the last three years.
