Coastal Carolina Football Week in Review

Coastal Carolina got its toughest challenge of the young season Saturday night from Western Illinois and shook off four deficits to stay unbeaten.

The Chanticleers also overcame a shaky defensive performance in the 34-27 win, but big plays on special teams and another huge performance from junior running back De’Angelo Henderson were enough to make the difference.

Not only did the Chants improve to 3-0, they pulled out a tough win in front of a Brooks Stadium record crowd of 10,311 while debuting their new teal “Surf Turf.”

Here’s a breakdown of the highlights, stars, stats and commentary to come out of week three.

Game balls

1. Devin Brown: Coastal Carolina’s game-breaking kick returner finished with 195 return yards Saturday night, including a 93-yard touchdown and a 46-yard return to set up the Chants’ go-ahead touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. Brown now has five career kickoff returns for touchdown, putting him one shy of tying the FCS record.

2. De’Angelo Henderson: “Hop” makes this list for the third time in three games after rushing for 165 yards and two touchdowns in 24 carries and catching six passes for 40 yards. He ranks second in the FCS in rushing (396 yards) and all-purpose yards (609).

3. Chris Jones: The sophomore made his mark on special teams and on offense, totaling 88 yards on four punt returns and catching two passes for 31 yards – including a nice 19-yard touchdown strike.

Ranking the top plays from the game

1. Devin Brown’s 93-yard kickoff return for touchdown early in the third quarter was the ultimate indicator that Coastal Carolina was going to keep responding no matter how many leads Western Illinois took. The Leathernecks had just gone up 14-10 for their second lead of the game when Brown changed that 13 seconds later, putting the Chants ahead 17-14.

2. Brown sparked another quick response in the fourth quarter with a 46-yard kickoff return right after Western Illinois had taken its fourth lead of the game, 27-26. That set up Coastal Carolina for a four-play scoring drive as Alex Ross hit Tyrell Blanks for a 34-yard gain and De’Angelo Henderson did the rest, soon scoring on a 3-yard run to put the Chants up for good, 34-27. It happened so fast it might as well count all together here.

3. After Coastal Carolina scored its final touchdown, the Leathernecks were threatening again as they drove to the Chants’ 35. But Kelvin Deveaux pressured Western Illinois quarterback Trenton Norvell into a third-down incompletion and then broke up his fourth-down pass, just getting a hand on the ball deep near the goal line for a key stop late in the game.

4. The Chants needed one more defensive stand after Western Illinois regained possession with 1:27 remaining. The Leathernecks quickly moved from their own 15 to the Coastal Carolina 36. But on second down, the visitors were called for offensive pass interference to push them back 15 yards and wouldn’t get any closer than the 35 after that. Kerron Johnson knocked down Norvell’s final deep pass to preserve the win.

5. Give Norvell credit, though. He passed for 370 yards and two touchdowns and continually put the Leathernecks in position to win – such as his 5-yard touchdown pass to Stacey Smith with 9:08 remaining that capped an 85-yard drive and put Western Illinois ahead 27-26 for the time being.

6. The big play that got Western Illinois going in the game came midway through the second quarter when Norvell found J’Vaughn Williams wide open behind the defense for a 38-yard gain to the Chants’ 2. Cornerback Samson Baldwin looked to get mixed up on the play, leaving Williams all alone, and that set up Nikko Watson’s 1-yard touchdown run for an early 7-3 lead.

7. Coastal Carolina quarterback Alex Ross was sacked and lost a fumble late in the second quarter that Western Illinois recovered at the Chants’ 27, but the Leathernecks would come away with no points from that turnover as Anthony Chesley blocked Nathan Knuffman’s 41-yard field goal try, at that point protecting a 10-7 lead.

8. Ross was noticeably hobbled for much of the game with an ankle injury, but he played through it and threw a pretty 19-yard touchdown pass to Chris Jones early in the fourth quarter for a 26-21 lead at the time.

9. Henderson is probably too low on this list in terms of individual highlights, but he spread his big plays around throughout the game. He was especially impressive, though, on a nine-play, 78-yard scoring drive in the second quarter in which he rushed for gains of 11, 4, 13 and 18 yards before scoring on a 1-yard run to give Coastal Carolina a 10-7 lead.

10. Norvell had 61 of his passing yards on one drive in the third quarter that he capped with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Joey Borsellino for a 21-17 lead – the Leathernecks’ third of the game. But, in the end, all for naught.

What it means

Coastal Carolina should remain No. 1 in the FCS Coaches poll and No. 2 in the STATS media poll with the win.

Moving forward, though, the Chants have to be more consistent on defense. They were downright dominant in week two at South Carolina State, but both Furman (525) and Western Illinois (546) managed to accumulate more yards than any opponent last season.

Overall, Coastal Carolina ranks 80th at the FCS level in total defense through three games.

Looking ahead

The Chants continue a stretch of four straight home games next week as Bryant visits Brooks Stadium.

Bryant is off to a 2-0 start, but that doesn’t indicate much. The Bulldogs beat Division II American International, 27-3, had a bye week and then topped Brown , 20-16.

That said, they were 8-3 last season.

By the numbers

5 | Devin Brown’s five career kickoff returns for touchdown put him one behind the all-time FCS record of six, set by Hampton’s Jerome Mathis from 2001-04.

16 | Coastal Carolina has won 16 straight regular-season non-conference FCS games, dating back to Joe Moglia’s first season in 2012.

17 | De’Angelo Henderson has scored a rushing touchdown in 17 straight games, one off the Big South record.

41.6 | Brown is averaging 41.6 yards on eight kickoff returns this season, including his two long touchdowns. That ranks third in the FCS, although the players ahead of him have only three and four attempts, respectively.

203 | Henderson is averaging 203 all-purpose yards per game, putting him on pace for 2,233 for the 11-game regular season. That would well surpass Lorenzo Taliaferro’s single-season program record 1,882.

They said it

Coastal Carolina coach Joe Moglia on his team’s resilience:

“Everything we talk about is sort of character, everything we talk about is our mission, everything we talk about is ‘BAM.’ So the one thing I know, we may not have a great night, we may not play as well as we should all the time, we may make some mistakes, but there is not a chance we’re going to lay down. That is not going to happen.”

Moglia on quarterback Alex Ross:

“I think it was pretty noticeable that Alex’s ankle was bothering him a little bit, and again, he’s certainly not just a leader, he’s a warrior. And when he had to run the ball, he ran the ball. He may have been a little off in some of his throws, but he did a great job managing the team on the field and I was certainly pleased with him and that effort.”

Safety Kelvin Deveaux on the challenge Western Illinois posed:

“They were a good team, but we were just well prepared and we just relied on our preparation. And that’s what got us the W.”

Devin Brown on when he knew he was going all the way for his 93-yard kickoff return touchdown:

“From the beginning. ... After the first two returns we all noticed how the back side off the kickoff return team was coming down, so we had a perfect return for that. And once we called it I knew from the beginning from what they were doing and what we could do on that return that it was going to be there, and it happened to be there.”

Running back De’Angelo Henderson on Brown’s return:

“I called it on the sideline.”

This story was originally published September 20, 2015 at 5:35 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina Football Week in Review."