Dwight Floyd: Recap of Saturday's Most Exciting Games

DWIGHT FLOYD
sportsedit.org

There Were No Upsets on This Saturday

TALLAHASSEE, Florida  -  There were some big wins in the SWAC, MEAC and OVC, but clearly no upsets. At this stage of the season a win is a win. The contenders separated themselves from the pretenders demonstrating a shift in power. If you like football then you should be excited about these games.

Perhaps the most exciting win was made by Tennessee State.  At the start of the 4th quarter they were behind by 10 with their conference nemeses and FCS #16 ranked Eastern Kentucky leading 17-10.  By the 13:49 mark of the 4th quarter Eastern Kentucky had punched in a field goal and appeared to be in control leading 20-10.

The Tennessee State Tigers wouldn’t have it. At the 8:49 mark they scored a touchdown to make it 20-16, but the extra point kick was blocked. At that point a field goal would do the Tigers no good. They needed another touchdown, which all game was hard to come by. From the 8:49 mark the Eastern Kentucky Colonels held the ball for almost six minutes before being stopped on a 4th down play at the Tigers’ 32 yard line.

 That is where the Tigers started their final make or break drive with 2:44 left in the game.

Judiciously using their timeouts and converting on 4th down when they had to, the Tigers marched to the Colonels 3 yard line with 16 seconds left. After an Eastern Kentucky timeout the Tigers moved the ball 2 yards to the Colonels’ 1 yard line. Tennessee State used their last timeout before lining up for the final play.

That play was delayed when the Colonels chose to call a time out.

With nearly the entire team in the huddle, the Eastern Kentucky Colonels scripted their strategy for the final stand with 8 seconds left.

Both teams line up on the ball and the referee blew the whistle to start play. With ease, the Tigers simply smash mouthed their way across the goal line on a quarterback sneak right up the middle. With that the Tigers would not be denied winning 23-20.

Only 6,000 plus attended the game. That means that the other 25,000 that attended the week before missed a historic win at the Tigers home field.

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