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Dominant defense keeps Southeast Missouri State football team around after shaky start
The Southeast Missouri State defense lines up against Memphis during Saturday's game in Memphis, Tennessee. The host Tigers won 35-17.
Andrew Breig ~ Special to Southeast Missourian
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The first play of the game was a 17-yard pass from Memphis quarterback Riley Ferguson to Anthony Miller. The first drive of the game went 75 yards on eight plays and saw the host Tigers in the end zone. There were five passing plays of 13 yards or longer in the series.
Not even three minutes in to the season opener at the Liberty Bowl, and Southeast Missouri State was down 8-0. By the end of the first quarter, that deficit was 22-0.
This is not typically how you go about getting a pat on the back.
But by the end of the night, it was hard to ignore a strong effort by the Redhawks defense.
Southeast Missouri State's Fernando Whigham battles with Memphis' Lio Lafaele on Saturday, September 3, 2016 in Memphis, Tennessee.
Andrew Breig ~ Special to the Southeast Missourian
Against a tough Football Bowl Subdivision opponent which SEMO coach Tom Matukewicz called "the best we've played since I've been here," the Southeast stopping unit stuffed the Tiger offense the rest of the way, allowing the Redhawks to outscore the home side 17-13 in the final three quarters, finding the end zone only once. Despite a 35-17 final score, Memphis didn't score a touchdown in the game's final 37:45.
"I couldn't be any more proud of our defense," Matukewicz said. " They got takeaways, they stopped the run; we had a blocked punt, Dante [Vandeven] threw the pick -- all of those are on our end. It could have been 50 to nothing if it wasn't for our defense."
Trailing 29-0, the Redhawks' defense, at one point, forced Memphis to punt on four straight possessions, then held it to just a field goal on the next two.
On that side of the ball, Southeast got stronger as the game went on. After conceding 153 total yards of offense in the first quarter, the Redhawks cut that to 85 in the second and then just 49 in the third.
And while the Memphis passing attack caused some problems early on, the Redhawks were stiff against the run all day, holding the hosts to 111 yards on 33 carries.
"We played our hearts out, man, you know," Southeast linebacker Chad Meredith said. "On the run game, which was our big key point, we killed it stopping the run. I'm real proud of the guys for coming out and doing that, from that aspect.
"We came out in the first quarter and I think they scored [22] points in the first quarter. We had to kind of gather up on the sideline and say, 'Listen, this isn't how it's going to go down.' We had to knuckle up and go out there and do what we could."
The defense wasn't getting much help from the offense early on, either, as Southeast struggled to find any rhythm moving the football. That left the defense on the field a lot and trying to keep up with the uptempo pace of Memphis' offensive scheme.
"That's what a good team does. You just can't worry about it," Matukewicz said. "You've got to just go and find a way to stop them. That's why I was excited for this team. We showed a lot of resilience there. That was rough, there, that first quarter. They were able to calm the storm, settle in a little bit and get back in the game."
Meredith led Southeast with eight tackles and a sack. Defensive lineman Joshua Wilson had seven tackles and a sack, and a trio of defensive backs -- JJ Flye, Ryan Moore and Jamarl Holloway -- notched six stops. Flye had a team-high two pass breakups.
"You take away the first quarter and I feel like we played a great game," Flye said. "The first quarter, we were a little jittery. After that, we did what we usually do. But overall, I felt like we did a great job on defense."
On a day when the offense or special teams occasionally put the Redhawks in a hole, the defensive unit did its part to try to return the favor, as Roper Garrett and Mike Ford each snagged an interception and Fletcher Evans recovered a fumble. Southeast's turnover margin was plus-2 for the game.
At the end of the night, Memphis had 35 points on the scoreboard, but nobody in a Redhawks uniform seemed to believe that was truly indicative of the level at which their defense played and the resilience it showed.
"It's always disappointing seeing that amount of points put on the board, but the majority came in the first quarter," Meredith said. "Just watching our team bounce back and be able to adjust was real exciting."
That should be good news against the slate of Football Championship Subdivision teams Southeast has remaining on its schedule.
"We just had to keep our heads up and play the game we usually do," Flye said. "We have a very good defense -- tops in the FCS -- so we just have to keep our heads up and fight for the guy beside us.
"We feel very confident. This is the first game and you can't expect too much, but at the end of the day I thought we did a good job overall and we'll be ready for the next game."
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