Panthers overwhelmed by mistakes in a 40-17 loss to Old Dominion

The Georgia State Panthers (1-1) were plagued by turnovers and penalties and was overwhelmed on defense as they fell to Old Dominion (2- 0) at home 40-17 in what was a sloppy performance from both teams. "It's obvious that what happened today was a failure of leadership by all of us. I've seldom felt better about preparation, and I've seldom been more disappointed with a result," said Head Coach Bill Curry. The Old Dominion offense ran all over the Georgia State defense as they netted 277 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. Meanwhile Georgia State couldn't get it's own run game going, and couldn't even reach triple digit in yardage, although running backs Donald Russell and Travis Evans each had a touchdown to their credit each had a touchdown to their credit. Bo Schlechter didn't show any signs of the quarterbacking skills that earned him FCS Independent Player of the Week honors last week, and failed to find a rhythm. It was a bad omen of things to come when early in the game he had to change from his usual No. 12 jersey to No. 15 after a uniform

malfunction, and

he soon found his jersey

as not the only thing being

replaced as he was

replaced by last year's

starter Drew Little towards

the end of the third

quarter.

Schlechter never

looked comfortable

under center and

seldom had room to

breathe as he was sacked

four times by Old Dominion's

vicious defensive

line.

Schlechter ended his

day 9 of 27 for 147 yards

with no touchdowns and

a pick, but Little didn't

offer Georgia State any

improvement.

Little, who scorched

Old Dominion for 414

yards in a losing effort

last season, couldn't find

a solution to Old Dominion

defense this go round,

as he threw two interceptions

and failed to achieve

a 50% completion rate.

Neither quarterback

could orchestrate a scoring

drive in the second

half and Georgia State was shutout for the last 30 minutes of regulation. Old Dominion's despite jumping to an early 6-0 lead presented Georgia State with plenty of opportunities to gain some momentum and get back in the mix of things. A fumble by Old Dominion's Antonio Vaughn on a punt return allowed Georgia State to get on the board with a 26-yard field goal in the first quarter. Another first quarter Old Dominion fumble recovered by Demazio Skelton and taken 93 yards set up a 4-yard touchdown run by Russell. Yet, every time the momentum started to shift in Georgia States favor a mental error would soon eliminate it in an instant. Whether a blocked punt, there were two, or one of Georgia State's seven penalties for 98 yards (compare that to their 85 rushing yards), field position and any glimpse of taking control of the game was being destroyed left and right. Old Dominion was far from perfect, they had six penalties of their own for 52 yards, but they were able to do what Georgia State could not, capitalize on their opponent's mistakes. "I would love to play a good game against Old Dominion someday, but we seem to save our worst for Old Dominion. So hat's off to a good job by that team," said Curry. Georgia State will be seeing a lot more of Old Dominion over the coming seasons as they join them in the Colonial Athletic Association next year. Georgia State will look to bounce back on the road next Saturday at 3:30 when they head to Alabama to take on Jacksonville State.