The Georgia Southern Eagles rested on a bye three weeks ago with a record of 3-4 and despite a couple of Sun Belt victories, they hadn’t played a complete game.
Coming off the bye week coach Clay Helton said how productive it had been from a rest and recovery standpoint as well as on the field, making adjustments on offense, defense and special teams.
Since then, the Eagles have put together two impressive wins with a 19-3 victory over Appalachian State and Saturday’s 49-13 win over a Marshall team who came into Paulson with a 5-4 record having won their last two games.
“Having 16 days between games gave us the ability to get healthy and to work on some things on the field,” Helton said. "I think it put something back in our bodies as far as strength and conditioning and to get rid of some bumps of bruises. I think we’ve really played fast because of that. We also had time to look in the mirror. We were playing okay but we knew we had to play at a higher level against some teams that were coming down the stretch. We looked at our self really hard and made some adjustments that I think helped us on offense, defense and special teams. Now it’s about keeping that consistent style of play that we’re playing right now and I feel like we will because we are a mature football team.”
The Eagles are now 5-4 and more importantly 4-1 in Sun Belt play. One of the keys for their success has been the play of quarterback Max Johnson who was named the Sun Belt offensive player of the week.
Johnson’s road to playing this year has been well documented, but what he’s done on the field has been just as impressive. Despite previous GS quarterbacks putting up big numbers, it has come with interception issues. Not this year as Johnson has 15 touchdowns and only two interceptions.
“As a quarterback coach, you’re always trying to do a ratio of one interception for every one hundred passes.” Helton said. “That’s a hard number to hit but you look at Max right now and he has 302 passes with only two interceptions. He’s doing a really good job of finding and diagnosing the one-on-one opportunities and not forcing it. His accuracy and his decision-making right now is at an elite level and his timing has been awesome.”
This week it’s another rivalry matchup for the Eagles as they travel to Atlanta to take on Georgia State-. The Panthers are currently 5-4 and are coming off an impressive 39-23 win in Boone, N.C. over Appalachian State.
“I think this is the most improved football team in our conference,” Helton said. “Their strength is rushing the ball and playing great defense. Defensively they do a tremendous job getting off the field. Their third down efficiency in our league is 29 percent and they lead in sacks right now with 29. They have been successful with a backup quarterback, which is impressive to me so we’ve got a huge challenge ahead of us. Playing for the Georgia Grown trophy has been really special. I think it’s made the game even more significant and we are looking forward to the opportunity to compete on Saturday.”
Georgia State is ranked No. 19 nationally in rushing offense at over 200 yards per game. Helton believes one of the keys to victory is for the Eagles is to find a way to get the Panthers off the field and give the offense a chance.
“We’ve had a blueprint right now of trying to win the rushing battle which will be hard,” Helton said. “This is this is one of the best rushing teams in our conference but they also play really clean football. They are plus-seven in turnover margin and played really clean football last week. I think they do a great job of trying to rip the ball and punch the ball out. They also do a good job of tipping balls on the defensive front, causing three interceptions in the past two games. I think it’s going to be really important to slow down their run game and create third and shorts on offense is going to be another key.”
The Eagles and Panthers are set for a 3:30 kickoff Saturday in Atlanta.
