HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Being back at Renasant Stadium, aka "The Rock," for the first time in nearly a month, Southern Miss was looking to achieve its first victory over an FBS opponent this season and end a four-game losing skid with the Arkansas State Red Wolves in town.
Unfortunately for the Golden Eagles, their season-long trend of missed opportunities and self-inflicted mistakes did them is, as they lost to the Red Wolves 23-13, dropping to 1-5 overall and 0-2 in Sun Belt play.
Lack of Consistency Continues to Plauge Golden Eagles
No matter how many occasional flashes Southern Miss football shows us, those moments ultimately won't amount to much if the Golden Eagles can't find a way to play consistently in all three phases.
A few weeks ago at Tulane, Southern Miss' offense and defense played well enough to win, but two missed field goals in the fourth quarter proved costly. Last week at Troy, the offense racked up over 500 yards despite three red-zone turnovers, but the defense gave up nearly 700 yards and couldn't stop a nosebleed.
Tonight against Arkansas State, the defense played very well for most of the game and gave Southern Miss plenty of chances to stay in the game, but the offense couldn't finish drives, and special teams made a plethora of mistakes.
An offside penalty on a fourth-and-four that prevented the Golden Eagles' defense from getting a three-and-out on its first defensive possession. A roughing-the-punter call on a fourth-and-a-mile that extended an Arkansas State drive. False starts that put the offense back. First-down play calls that resulted in several yards lost, putting the offense back. Mishandling the snap on a field goal attempt that could've made it a one-possession game at halftime. Missing a 34-yard field goal coming out of halftime. Throwing two interceptions.
It was a new week, but a familiar trend continued: Southern Miss playing from behind and not being able to capitalize on opportunities to give itself a chance to win. Any positive play was usually followed by a critical mistake. It's a troubling and undoubtedly frustrating recurring issue that head coach Blake Anderson and his staff haven't been able to address yet.
"I’ve never been through quite what we’re going through at the level that we’re going through. And so figuring out what to fix next ... there’s just so many things. And a lot of it’s just inexperience and needing to grow up," Anderson said. "Man, those are some really ugly lessons to learn, and nobody wants to learn them out there, and we will hopefully speed that up. But it’s taking longer than we want."
Out of all the issues the Golden Eagles are experiencing, Anderson figured the offense would be further along, at least from a consistency standpoint, than it is right now.
"Did not see the offense playing the way they did. .... They’ve been so much more consistent than that, and you've got to give their defense credit. They played really poorly last week, and they responded just like our defense did," Anderson said.
"We can go in there, watch the tape, see where we can control what we can control, and fix it and play better. That’s really the only answer. But to have the special teams issues, to have the offensive issues that we had, and even probably a few defensive issues that didn’t probably show as much. There’s always something to fix. So that’s frustrating. It’s a challenge."
Six Games Left to Find Some Answers
Despite all the things that went wrong, there were still some individual positives. Junior running back Steven Robinson continued to give Southern Miss productive touches, senior receiver Mario Sanders, as he usually does, found a way to break off some big plays, and the defense's response after the Troy loss was encouraging.
But halfway through this football seasson, it's fair to expect those positives to start translating into wins.
Anderson and his staff are working through their first season with a heavily rebuilt roster. That at least provides a little context for the inconsistencies we've seen. However, it also doesn't make the repeated penalties, wasted possessions and special teams mistakes any less costly.
The responsibility falls on the coaches to get those issues corrected and on the players to execute when opportunities are there. Southern Miss has now lost five consecutive games, and the ways those losses have unfolded are becoming all too familiar.
"Our staff’s working their tails off. Just taking a lot longer than we want it to. It is not pleasant. It is not fun. It is a grueling grind. But there’s only one way, and that’s through it," Anderson said. "So we’re going to keep fighting our tails off, and I trust the process, trust it completely. I really do. I know we’ll see a breakthrough at some point in the win, and hopefully sooner rather than later for these guys more than anybody."
As hard as it might be for a long-suffering fan base to hear, there may not be any amount of coaching that can get this current roster over the hump. It may be one of those situations where you "can't get blood out of a turnip," so to speak. And if that is the case, it will be up to Anderson to address those roster shortcomings in the offseason to make sure significant progress is made next season.
With all that being said, though, there are still six games remaining, which means there is time to give this season a better ending. The defensive improvement on Saturday showed how the group can respond from a poor performance, but as we've seen recently, one good performance in one area doesn't always carry over from week to week. Southern Miss will have to figure out how to be on point in all three phases if it wants to win again.
Tough Homecoming Awaits
Next up is homecoming against Louisiana next Saturday. The Ragin' Cajuns will arrive after beating Troy 33-6, the same team that put up 55 points against Southern Miss in its previous outing.
The Golden Eagles will have another opportunity at home to change the direction of a season that is already dangerously close to going off the rails. As of right now, though, Southern Miss has yet to show that it can make the most of a new opportunity. Stay tuned to Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI for more football coverage going into a new week.
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