Photo: Prairie View's Chris Gibson runs past Alabama State's Adrian Hardy during the game Saturday at Cramton Bowl. By Josh Moon, Montgomery Advertiser
There have been many firsts in Reggie Barlow's brief tenure as Alabama State's head coach. He would just as soon forget those that came on Saturday.
Offensive problems and the complete lack of a kicking game set the Hornets up. Prairie View A&M, for the first time in 76 years, knocked them down.
Barlow lost his first game at Cramton Bowl and ASU dropped its third straight, 17-6 to Prairie View.
"It's tough when you lose, especially at home," Barlow said. "We just didn't do enough to win. I think we've got good players here, but I think we need to go back, regroup and figure out what we can do better, because we've got to play better than this. This was pretty pitiful."
The Hornets couldn't play much worse offensively.
They had just 251 yards of total offense for the game and only 101 in the second half.
"This is a situation now where we're going to have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what we're doing wrong as coaches," Barlow said. "Maybe we need to stop worrying about what we, as coaches, are wanting from the players and worry more about what's best for those players. Something's got to change, I'll say that."
Again, the ASU passing game struggled.
A combo of Chris Mitchell and Alex Engram completed just 10 of 27 pass attempts for 98 yards and an interception. That included Engram missing six of his final seven passes and Mitchell hitting only seven of his 17 attempts in the game.
"I don't know what the issue is," Engram said. "We certainly want to play better, it's just not happening."
In the meantime, ASU's offensive ineptitude has allowed opponents to pound away at the Hornets' defense early and control the clock. Then they take advantage of a tired defense late in game.
Photo: Alabama State's Joel Raggins is brought down by Prairie View's Yavarian Richardson."It is frustrating, because we're losing and that's always going to be frustrating," cornerback Brandon Averett said. "I think we're playing OK as a defense, but as long as the offense is scoring, we could do more."
That's a tough standard, especially considering the way Saturday's game played out.
Up until the final minutes of the third quarter, Prairie View had one successful drive in the game that came on its first possession and resulted in a Brady Faggard 44-yard field goal.
ASU answered that score on its next possession when Jay Peck capped an 11-play, 76-yard drive with a one-yard TD run. With no reliable place-kicker, the Hornets were forced to attempt a two-point conversion, but a Jason Bruce pass fell incomplete.
ASU led 6-3 until the 3:02 mark of the third quarter, when Golden Lions QB Mark Spivey connected with Gabriel Osaze-Ediae on a 14-yard scoring play. That wrapped up a 6-play, 64-yard drive and gave Prairie View a 10-6 lead.
Desperately searching for offense at that point, Barlow pulled his starter Mitchell and inserted Engram. The results were the same. ASU failed to pick up a first down and had to punt. After getting the ball back from the Golden Lions, ASU mounted its only serious threat of the half.
After a 20-yard completion from Engram to Steve Briggs and a couple of timely Prairie View penalties, the Hornets found themselves on the Golden Lions 33, facing third and two. The coaches called a run-pass option play for Engram, who sprinted out to his right and launched a pass toward the end zone and over the head of wideout Fred Ragdale.
Barlow was livid on the sideline. He jerked his headset off and began yelling at pretty much everyone.
"We wanted Alex to turn the ball upfield and get the first down," Barlow said. "I've got to learn to control my emotions a little better and remember that we're dealing with kids here. I just felt like he could've picked up the first down."
Engram later explained to Barlow that he didn't know it was third down. He thought the penalty on the previous play had given the Hornets a first down, and that's why he threw deep.
On fourth down, the coaches gave him another shot. This time, he turned it upfield. And went nowhere.
Prairie View took over on downs and marched down the field for the game-clinching score, a 7-yard Donald Babers run.
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