Marshall football: Late errors costly as Herd falls to Missouri State

“I want to thank our fans for coming out and supporting us tonight. Great crowd,� Gibson said. “Very, very, very disheartened and disappointed in the outcome. I want to give [Missouri State] coach [Ryan] Beard, his staff and team a lot of credit. They outplayed us and outcoached us.�

Marshall led 20-7 with nine minutes remaining in the third quarter before a string of miscues unraveled the twine to a split end.

Bears quarterback Jacob Clark picked Marshall’s offense apart all night despite being sacked six times. He totaled 359 yards and three touchdowns.

“They had us off-balance a few times. That quarterback is a good player. He’s really good, and he sees the field really well,� Gibson said. “He made some really nice throws.�

Multiple screen passes were again taken for big gains, a lingering trait from the Herd’s opener against Georgia. On the Bears’ game-winning drive, Clark found Ramone Green for a 55-yard gain on a screen in which he reversed the entire field midway through it.

“The disappointing one was the two screens,� Gibson said. “We knew they were a screen team coming in. We worked it, worked it and worked it. Just disappointed that those were the two big plays that really took the air out of us.�

Zion Turner was Marshall’s starting, and only, quarterback. He totaled 83 passing yards. He and Justin Williams-Thomas scored rushing touchdowns. The Herd’s run-first identity brought together 191 rushing yards on the ground.

“We gotta finish drives,� Turner said. “In the red zone, we’ve got to be 100% scoring. We weren’t today. That’s something we harped on all week. We didn’t get the job done. There’s a lot to work off of. A lot of mistakes and a lot of plays we left out on the field, especially in the red zone. A lot of mistakes were made. A lot of bad reads, especially by me. We got to come out here in this next week and work. We can’t get that game back. It hurts.�

The Herd was held to 7 yards in the first quarter while the Bears surpassed 100. Marshall was without a first down entering the second quarter, but the game stayed scoreless.

Missouri State struck first in the second. A 57-yard touchdown to Green in which he beat defenders to the sideline and scored gave the Bears a 7-0 lead.

The Herd then found momentum. A chunk gain of 17 yards to Ben Turner on a run-pass option in which he made a turnaround grab while falling for his only catch of the night started a fireball drive.

Jo’Shon Barbie exploded for a 28-yard gain seconds later before Zion Turner scored on a 14-yard keeper to tie the game 7-7 with 11:07 left in the first half.

The Bears gave Marshall plenty of chances with three total offensive pass interference calls. Marshall capitalized on one of those bobbled drives with a 37-yard rushing touchdown from Williams-Thomas, the longest gain of the night for the Herd.

“As much as I want the credit, the [offensive] line gave me the hole to score,� Williams-Thomas said. “It’s just as much my first touchdown as theirs. Without them, it’s not possible.�

An interception by Marvae Myers gave the Herd good enough field position for a 50-yard field goal attempt from Lorcan Quinn to end the drive. While Quinn’s missed field goal in the fourth quarter will be remembered, Quinn had an otherwise impressive night, drilling his second-quarter look for a 17-7 halftime lead.

After just 7 yards in the first frame, Marshall had 152 by halftime.

“We had a big second quarter with a lot of momentum,� Gibson said. “This game, as we all know, is a momentum game. We just didn’t have enough. Very, very, very disappointed for our team. The locker room is hurting.�

In the third, a 41-yard punt return from Floyd Lacey set Marshall up at the Bears’ 19-yard line, but the drive stalled. Quinn drilled a 33-yard field goal to give the Herd its biggest lead, 20-7.

Marshall fans were brought to their feet as they watched West Virginia lose its game to Ohio in real time. Missouri State then began to bring the same outcome in a cruel twist of fate.

Another explosion came for Clark. Breaking from pressure, he found Jmariyae Robinson for a 52-yard bolt to bring the Bears within six points, 20-14.

Marshall faked a punt on fourth-and-1 with 6:13 left in the third and failed at its 34. Reggie Branch then completed a double-pass to Clark that he took for a 29-yard gain. The trick play set up the Bears on the goal line, but another offensive pass interference call bailed Marshall out of a touchdown. Instead, the Bears missed a second field goal.

Entering the fourth, the Herd marched to Missouri State’s 8. Potential rose to ice the game on third-and-1, but a decision to go for the end zone rather than the first down failed.

Quinn, perfect on the day, was left with a 26-yard field goal that he missed by hitting the right upright. Gibson took immediate blame for the play call.

“Changed everything. That’s on coaching. That’s not on Zion,� Gibson said. “We had an RPO called. We should have locked it and ran the ball. He pulled it out and thought he saw something. We need to run the ball. We had momentum there with some big chunk plays to get us down in that situation.�

The 55-yard runaway screen that led to the final scoring play came on third-and-14. An 8-yard touchdown pass to Jeron Askren to give the Bears the final margin.

“Other than [the screen], I felt that we had an opportunity,� Gibson said. “We played too many snaps, though. That goes back to the other side of the ball not being able to sustain drives and keep us off the field.�

The Bears then got an interception on Marshall’s last drive to secure the win.

The Herd is 0-2 for the first time since 2010. It has Eastern Kentucky at home at 6 p.m. on Sept. 13, with a chance to right the ship.

Missouri State (1-1) got its first win as a member of Conference USA and hosts No. 17 SMU on the same date at 3:30 p.m.