Coastal Carolina gets a bitter taste of the top of the Sun Belt Conference

Coastal Carolina got a taste of what the top of the Sun Belt Conference is like Saturday night in Jonesboro, Ark., and it left a bitter aftertaste.

Arkansas State, which has won at least a share of the Sun Belt championship in five of the past six years, outscored CCU by 24 points in the second half and defeated the Chanticleers 51-17 at Centennial Bank Stadium.

The loss is the fifth in a row for Coastal (1-5) in its first year as a Football Bowl Subdivision program, which sets a new school record for consecutive losses. The Chants fell to 0-3 in their new conference.

“I thought we had chances to keep the game close but again it comes down to some plays we need to make on both sides of the ball and we’re not able to do those right now,” CCU offensive coordinator and interim head coach Jamey Chadwell told WRNN-FM following the game. “Until we do that we’re going to end up like this because the teams we play are good and take advantage of your mistakes. We made some and they jumped all over it and that’s why it ends up the way it does.”

Arkansas State (3-2) improved to 2-0 in the Sun Belt and has won 17 of its past 18 conference games since the start of the 2015 season.

Red Wolves quarterback Justice Hansen threw for 286 yards and five touchdowns, completing 24 of 37 passes, and also rushed for a team-high 68 yards on nine carries.

Arkansas State converted nine of 15 third downs while CCU was just three of 11, and the Chants lost the turnover battle 1-0 with a late fumble that was returned for a touchdown.

“It’s frustrating right now and I think it’s frustrating for everybody,” Chadwell said. “We continue to make progress. It’s not showing where we’d like for it to show but we are making progress.”

Arkansas State defensive end Ja’Von Rolland-Jones knocked CCU starting quarterback Tyler Keane from the game in the second quarter with a sack that injured Keane’s shoulder, and backup quarterback Dalton Demos was also knocked out of the game in the first quarter. Keane was 8 of 13 for 98 yards before the injury and was replaced by Kilton Anderson, who got his first action as a Chant.

The junior and former Fresno State starting quarterback got into the quarterback rotation following Arkansas State’s opening touchdown in the first quarter and played the remainder of the game after replacing Keane.

Anderson finished 5 of 16 for 133 yards and a touchdown and lost a late fumble that was returned for a touchdown.

“I thought Kilton came in and did some decent things for us and competed and gave us a chance there to try to get back in the football game,” Chadwell said. “He made some good plays. There’s a couple things we’d like to have back obviously, but that was to be expected. It’s the first time he’s played in a competitive college football game in about two years.”

Chadwell said Keane “had a lot of weakness in [the shoulder] at halftime. … .How bad it is we’ll find out.”

The Chants controlled Rolland-Jones for much of the first half, but the senior’s sack was his third sack of the season to stall a CCU drive that reached Red Wolves territory in the second quarter. It gave him 33.5 sacks in his career to move into the top 10 all-time in NCAA FBS.

Senior running back Osharmar Abercrombie recorded his second 100-yard rushing game of the season, gaining 102 yards on 10 carries, including a 55-yard gain on Coastal’s first play from scrimmage. The opening drive reached the ASU 3-yard line following a 16-yard reception by Omar Black, but it ended with a missed 25-yard field goal by Evan Rabon, the shortest of his two misses in the game.

The Red Wolves drove 80 yards on 12 plays on its first possession to score on a 12-yard reception by Chris Murray. The Chants tied the score on a Demos 1-yard touchdown run on the opening play of the second quarter that capped a nine-play, 84-yard drive.

Arkansas State had another long scoring drive to take a 14-7 lead, covering 66 yards in nine plays including a 10-yard touchdown reception by tight end Blake Mack, who has scored a touchdown in all five Arkansas State games this season. His TD was the first of five consecutive scores by Arkansas State that put the game away.

Arkansas State led 17-7 at halftime and its three scoring drives were between nine and 12 plays each, yet none took more than 3:22 off the game clock because of the speed in which it runs plays. ASU outscored Coastal 34-10 in the second half, and for the game, no ASU scoring drives took longer than 3:50.

“In the second half they turned it up and we could not get them off the field when we needed to,” Chadwell said. “They’re good. That’s what they do. We were hoping for some turnovers and turnovers didn’t come our way. And when a team like that is better than you, you’d better get some turnovers and we didn’t get them.”

The Red Wolves opened the second half with a six-play, 75-yard scoring drive that took just 1:49 and culminated with a 17-yard Dijon Paschal reception. Sawyer Williams added a 22-yard field goal and Kendrick Edwards added a 5-yard touchdown reception to give ASU a 34-7 lead through three quarters.

Coastal got a 51-yard TD reception by Chris Jones and 37-yard field goal by Rabon in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t think the scoreboard honestly reflects the way we played,” Anderson said. “There was a lot of effort there. You can tell the guys are playing for each other and that’s the most important thing. … I ask people not to give up on us because I think some good things are starting to come.”

This story was originally published October 14, 2017 at 11:12 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina gets a bitter taste of the top of the Sun Belt Conference."