Prairie View offense grounded

By CHARLES SALZER, Special to The Advocate

Photo: PVAMU Head Coach Henry Frazier

Throughout its 3-7 campaign last season, Prairie View had a stalwart defense that seldom let it down.

Saturday night at Southern, the defense was there once again keeping the Panthers in the hunt throughout the game. But an improved Prairie View offense found the going tough against an equally improved Southern defense in a 12-2 loss at A.W. Mumford stadium.

In a game dominated by defense, Prairie View was able to move inside the SU 30 three times, but came away empty on each drive.

“You move the ball down the field, but you’ve still got to execute,” PVAM quarterback Chris Gibson said. “We’ve got to go over the X and O’s because when it came down to it we didn’t execute.”

Gibson finished the game with only 8 yards rushing, and completed 11 of 26 passes for 69 yards with two interceptions. In three games against Southern, Gibson was 15 for 42 for 110 yards with four interceptions and no touchdowns.

Prairie View coach Henry Frazier was frustrated with the lack of offensive production, and the fact the Panthers’ headsets were non-operational. It didn’t keep Frazier from praising the Southern defense.

“We didn’t have the answers, and our headphones didn’t work for whatever reason,” Frazier said. “When you take the coordinator out of the booth, its hard to see some of the things they’re doing from the sideline.

“I don’t want to make excuses because Southern was flying around, and they got turnovers. Throwing three interceptions doesn’t have anything to do with headsets.”

One of Prairie View’s best scoring chances came on the game’s opening possession. From the PVAM 37, Gibson directed the Panthers to a first at the SU 26. Three plays later, Gibson was stopped short on a fourth-and-2 quarterback sneak.

“(Gibson) was supposed to pull that back so we could kick a field goal,” Frazier said. “He said he saw a gap, and he thought he could get it. When you’ve got a senior quarterback that likes to run the ball you’re going to hang your hat on that.”

Prairie View only crossed midfield once more before halftime, initially gaining a first at the SU 34 before stalling. After a penalty, the Panthers gained just 1 yard on three downs and were forced to punt.

The third quarter began with promise as Prairie View used a field position advantage to force Southern to punt from its own end zone. With a drive that began at the SU 35, Prairie View eventually faced a fourth-and-3, but Gibson’s fourth down pass off a roll out fell incomplete.

“We wanted to get (Gibson) on the edge so he’d have a run-pass option,” Frazier said. “Southern did a good job of bringing the strong safety up to stop the run. They took that away so we had the tight end dragging across the backside and tried to lob it over. They were in a perfect defense, once again.”

The lack of offense eventually began to add pressure to the Panthers defense, but the most it could muster was a safety when Southern was flagged for holding in the end zone on a fourth-quarter punt.

“We played as hard as we could,” senior linebacker Zach East said. “As a defense I think we should have gotten more turnovers, and scored for our offense. Anytime our offense doesn’t score I feel like our defense should. We should score once in any game.

“We had a lot of pressure on us to score, get turnovers or give our offense good field position.”

It was pressure created by an opportunistic Southern team that made all the plays it had to.