Coastal Carolina Football Week in Review

The Coastal Carolina football team lost its perfect record and will surely lose its No. 1 national ranking in the FCS Coaches Poll after stumbling at Charleston Southern on Saturday night.

The Chanticleers fell behind by 12 points at halftime and trailed by 15 early in the fourth quarter before launching a comeback that took them all the way to the Buccaneers’ 8 in the final minute with a chance at a potential game-tying touchdown and two-point conversion.

Senior quarterback Alex Ross’ fourth-down pass fell incomplete to junior Bruce Mapp in the left side of the end zone, though, as the Bucs held on for a 33-25 win.

It’s the second time in three seasons that Coastal Carolina has been handed its first loss late in the season at Charleston Southern, and the Chants will try to regroup now with their overall season goals still very much alive.

Game balls

Austin Brown: Charleston Southern’s senior quarterback gave depth to the Bucs’ offensive attack by completing 13-of-21 passes for 252 yards and two touchdowns and also rushed for 30 yards.

Alex Ross: Coastal Carolina’s senior quarterback tried to will the Chants to a win, shaking off what looked to be a bad ankle injury to nearly rally his team back from a 15-point deficit. He completed 28-of-46 passes for 274 yards and rushed for 50 yards and a touchdown.

Mike Holloway: The Charleston Southern running back totaled 73 rushing yards and a touchdown in 12 carries and caught a team-high four passes for 60 yards.

Ranking the top plays from the game

1. The Chants came close to erasing a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit and it came down to one final pass play. Facing fourth-and-4 from the Charleston Southern 8 in the final minute, quarterback Alex Ross identified Bruce Mapp in one-on-one coverage and threw toward him on the left side of the end zone. Mapp turned back for the ball and had it just glance off his fingers to end the comeback bid.

2. The Coastal Carolina defense had a down and up evening. After getting trounced in the first half by the Buccaneers, the Chants made adjustments and held Charleston Southern to just two field goals after halftime. And they came up with a huge stop late in the fourth quarter to at least give the offense a chance with that final drive. Defensive end Roderick Holder pulled down running back Ben Robinson for a loss on third-and-1 to force the Bucs to punt, giving the Chants possession at their own 30 with 5:28 remaining.

3. The Chants actually had two chances to launch a potential game-tying drive. After they scored to cut the Bucs’ lead to 33-25 midway through the fourth quarter, Dontay Hears recovered an onside kick to give the offense the ball right back. But Coastal Carolina started with a devastating 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and would go three-and-out.

4. Again, credit Coastal Carolina for giving itself a chance in the end after so much went wrong for much of the game. That final drive stretched a program-record 19 plays and included three third-down conversions and a big fourth-down pickup as Mapp made a tough 4-yard reception on a poised pass from Ross on fourth-and-3 from the Bucs’ 28.

5. The Chants were down 33-18 early in the fourth quarter when they started their comeback bid, responding with an 8-play, 67-yard touchdown drive in just 2:16. Ross, playing on a hobbled ankle he reinjured earlier in the second half, rushed for a 9-yard gain on third-and-6 and De’Angelo Henderson followed immediately with a 9-yard touchdown run to make it a one-score game at 33-25.

6. One of the big regrets Coastal Carolina surely felt after the loss was a missed red zone opportunity in the second quarter. The Chants were up 15-13 and looking to score on three straight possessions to open the game as they set up second-and-6 from the Bucs’ 14. Ross had wide receiver Frankie Richardson open near the goal line, but he overthrew the pass, and the Chants then fumbled and recovered the third-down snap. They’d end up with no points on the drive when Ryan Granger missed a 37-yard field goal.

7. The defense is going to take a lot of criticism for giving up more than 300 yards in the first half and allowing the Bucs to convert on all eight of their third-down attempts before halftime. But the Chants wouldn’t have been in the game in the end if not for the unit’s stout play after halftime. Charleston Southern had first-and-goal from the Coastal Carolina 8 early in the fourth quarter and had to settle for a field goal as the defense kept it a two-score game at that point.

8. After Coastal Carolina came up empty on that red zone chance in the second quarter, Charleston Southern seized the momentum and soon the lead. On the ensuing series, the Bucs went 80 yards in 12 plays and scored on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Austin Brown to Darius Hammond while going up 20-15.

9. And on their next series, the Bucs gained the first separation on the scoreboard with a 9-play, 85-yard drive capped by a 13-yard touchdown pass from Brown to Nathan Perera on third-and-11. That made it a 27-15 game.

10. Ross had a nice game in the loss and looked to be setting the tone early for the Chants against the Bucs’ top-rated FCS defense. On Coastal Carolina’s second series, he found a lane and outran the defense for a career-long 35-yard touchdown run to give the visitors a 15-6 lead at the time. Unfortunately for the Chants, though, it would be their last lead of the game.

What it means

The Chants and their supporters have known for a while this team has vulnerabilities and most of those came to light Saturday night.

The defense was uneven again, unable to stop Charleston Southern at all in the first half before playing rather well after halftime. The Jekyll and Hyde routine must be a continued source of frustration for the coaches, who believe the unit has the potential to play better across the board.

The offense, meanwhile, actually had a nice game against the FCS’s top-ranked defense, totaling 426 yards, but it could have been an even better performance if not for a squandered red zone opportunity in the first half that involved missing an open receiver and fumbling a snap, and later a painful 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to undermine a potential game-tying penultimate drive in the fourth quarter.

So the loss only reiterated the flaws the Chants already knew could be cost them a game at some point. That said, Coastal Carolina had a chance in the end to tie the game and should bounce back the rest of the way.

Looking ahead

Coastal Carolina has three games remaining, and as the Chants have learned in the past, nothing is decided in the Big South standings until the final week.

They’ll need some help now if they are going to earn a share of the conference championship, but more than anything, they just need to focus on winning out to ensure their place in the FCS playoffs and maximize their seeding potential.

Next up is a home game Saturday against Gardner-Webb, which is 3-5 overall and 2-2 in the conference.

The Runnin’ Bulldogs earned a 14-10 win at Presbyterian this past weekend and earlier in the fall upset Liberty (34-20), but they’ve also been shutout twice this season in losses to Wofford and Charleston Southern.

By the numbers

8/8 | Charleston Southern was 8-for-8 on third-down conversions in the first half while piling up 313 yards of offense before halftime.

19 | Coastal Carolina’s final drive Saturday night stretched 19 plays, setting a program record. The Chants’ previous longest drive was 17 plays.

22 | De’Angelo Henderson has now scored a touchdown in 22 straight games, extending his FCS record.

35-3 | Coastal Carolina is now 33-3 over its last 36 regular-season FCS games with two of those losses coming at Charleston Southern.

143 | The Buccaneers managed only 143 yards and just six points in the second half as Coastal Carolina adjusted defensively.

426 | Coastal Carolina’s 426 yards Saturday night were 52 more than any other team has mustered against Charleston Southern this fall.

They said it

Chants head coach Joe Moglia on the loss:

“We gave it our best. That’s all I ask our guys to do. We did a good job of that, but we lost the game. There’s probably 300 college football games that took place today – 150 teams won, 150 teams lost. Today we were one of the teams that lost. So we need to learn from that and we need to be able to come back.”

Quarterback Alex Ross on final pass attempt to Bruce Mapp in the end zone:

“We had an idea they were going to come out in man coverage and they were going to heat us. They didn’t want us to get the easy three or four yards on the ground, so we had man routes called. Bruce one-on-one, that’s a good shot right there. Pre-snap I had what I wanted. Bruce ran a hitch, I pump-faked it and got the guy to bite, he turned it into a wheel [route] and I ultimately missed the throw wide.”

Wide receiver Bruce Mapp on that play:

“It was just man-to-man coverage, it was one of our man-beater routes and I’ve just got to help Alex out more. ... I know it hit my finger tips so I should have caught it.”

Ross on re-injuring his ankle in the third quarter:

“He wrapped me up by my legs, he tweaked it a little bit, he had a few words for me, but that’s football.”

Moglia on Ross returning to the game the next series:

“He clearly was hurt. I was surprised that he was able to come back in, so hopefully it’s not going to be as serious as we might have thought originally.”

Cornerback Dontay Hears on the loss:

“It hurts. It really cuts deep because this is the seniors’ last time playing these guys, but you either win or you learn. So we’re going to take it and learn from it, get better and regroup and attack next week even harder.”

Defensive end Roderick Holder on moving forward:

“I feel like we still have a great chance to make our dreams come true, so we just have to keep working.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina Football Week in Review."