This Saturday the Albany State Golden Rams will tangle with the Maroon Tigers of Morehouse College. While the game has clear conference implication for both teams, Morehouse looks to remain a division contender and ASU looks to solidify their stranglehold on the Eastern division. Additionally for Albany State, who now find themselves ranked in the AFCA polls, every game now holds potential postseason ramifications.
After an atrocious start to the season that saw them stumble out of the gates 0-5, getting outscored 198-44, with their closest game during that span being a 29-10 loss at Savannah State. The pardon Tigers have bounced back, winning their next three games. Albany State comes rolling into the matchup fresh off a 30-0 beat down of Savannah State and winners of five in a row overall steamrolling their opponents 168-9.
The Maroon Tigers return to winning ways has coincided with the play of quarterback Michael Sims, who to put it succinctly, was not good during their first five games , completing just 43 of his 114 (38% completion rate) pass attempts for 344 yards and 6 interceptions. Over the past three games Sims seems to settled in and more competent play has come from the senior signal caller, going 33/63 for 489 yards two touchdowns and an interception.
For the Golden Rams, quarterback Dionte Bonneau has, for the most part, offered solid quarterback play, completing 52 % of his passes( a number that needs to be much higher), throwing for 802 yards i8 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. The Albany State running game has outgained their passing offense accounting for 1416 to 1089. Sophomore back Marcuis Fulks leads the team with 511 yards and 8 touchdowns and is averaging a robust 4.7 yards per carry.
The Morehouse defense is giving up 27.63 points per game. But those numbers are slightly skewed by the thrashings of the first five games, where the allowed 39.6 points per contest. Over the course of their three-game winning streak , the Maroon Tiger defense has significantly tightened up averaging just 6.67 points per contest and not allowing more than as yards rushing in any of the last three ballgames. Their run defense will be severely tested against Fulks and an Albany State run game that averages nearly 4 yards per attempt and 144.3 yards per game.
Prediction
The Albany State defense has been lights -out all season and it will be anything but a walk-in-the park for Sims and the Maroon Tiger offense. Opportunistic and aggressive play by the Albany State defense will lead to mistakes by the Morehouse offense, which will allow Bonneau and the Golden Rams offense to be gifted short fields and extra possessions, which will open up a gap in the score the Morehouse offense will simply be unable to overcome.
