By Mike Marzelli/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
ITTA BENA, Miss. - Any bad dreams Mo Forte may have had during Arkansas-Pine Bluff's preseason camp surely resembled his team's season-opening performance on Saturday.
The Golden Lions struggled mightily for much of the afternoon against cross-river rival Mississippi Valley State, shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly with poor blocking and execution, untimely fumbles and missed opportunities in a 16-9 loss at Rice-Totten Stadium.
UAPB's rebuilt offensive line was the most egregious culprit. With four new starters seeing their first action, it was unable to hold the line of scrimmage in the passing game and generated little push in the run game. As a result, the Lions' attack was stagnant and unable to develop any semblance of a rhythm.
To make matters worse for Forte and Co., they have just two full days of practice to patch up the leaks before they return to action Thursday night at Alcorn State.
"The biggest concern I had to begin the season was the offensive line and that concern was realized," Forte said. "I'm not going to pin all the blame on those guys because they're just young kids but we just can't allow a defense to penetrate our line like that. It kept us from developing any continuity on offense and we just weren't able to sustain anything."
The Golden Lions (0-1 0-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference) pinned much of their optimism for this season on the backfield duo of SWAC rushing champion Martell Mallett and former SWAC Newcomer of the Year Mickey Dean, but the tandem never got off the ground in the sweltering Delta heat.
Mallett left the game early in the first quarter with an undisclosed hip injury after picking up just 23 yards and Dean gained just 19 yards on eight carries before leaving with cramps in the third quarter.
As a result, UAPB averaged less than two yards per carry and got no rush of more than 10 yards from a running back.
"Mickey really just had cramps but Mallett has something with his hip and I don't know what it is," Forte said. "Not having them hurt us and we never developed any kind of rhythm with the offense."
The Golden Lions had some golden opportunities to steal the game in the second half but couldn't convert. After junior defensive lineman John Sibley recovered a Valley fumble at the Devils' 3-yard line and UAPB took over 1st-and-goal towards the end of the third quarter, Dean was eventually stopped short on 4th-and-goal from the 1-yard line.
Two possessions later UAPB had a 1st-and-goal from the 9-yard line and botched a field goal snap on fourth down from the 4-yard line to again come away with nothing.
The Lions finally scored with just over nine minutes left in the game when reserve tailback Kenneth Esaw ripped off a five-yard touchdown run.
"We had a lot of opportunities and just weren't able to get it done," Forte said. "You can't play sloppy offense like we did and then not take advantage of the chances you finally do get."
Senior quarterback Chris Wallace, the reigning SWAC Offensive Player of the Year, was forced to dodge and weave his way past defenders in his backfield all game long and never got his feet under him in the passing game.
Wallace finished 14-of-27 for 154 yards.
"Things just didn't flow our way," he said. "We got some calls mixed up and blew some assignments and it was just one of those games, but we're not going to give up.
"As a quarterback and a leader I'll take responsibility for this one. It's just our first game and we're going to get back to practice and get it together."
Things began rolling downhill from the get-go for the Lions in the first half, as Jason Jones fumbled away the opening kickoff and Valley converted the turnover into a Ronald Brewer touchdown run.
UAPB endured three botched snaps, another fumble and four motion penalties before finally driving into Devils territory on its last possession of the half, but when Dean finally broke through with a seven-yard touchdown run it was called back on a holding penalty and UAPB had to settle for a 22-yard Brodie Heflin field goal.
The Delta Devils (1-0 1-0 SWAC) punched in the eventual game-winning touchdown with three seconds left in the first half when quarterback Paul Roberts hit Abner Brown with a 15-yard strike.
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