Title image via Tennessee State football
In my preview of Tennessee State and UT Martin, I outlined a plethora of factors that could either be deleterious to TSU’s aspirations for victory or bolster their chances to win.
Unfortunately for Tennessee State, too many times they were befallen by the former- Draylen Ellis was intercepted a season-high three times, and the Tigers had difficulty early with the Martin running game, while never being able to ignite their own. The slow start that has hampered the Tigers in previous conference games reared its ugly head once more, as Tennessee State quickly found themselves in a 21-0 hole in the first quarter, with strikes coming through the air of 35, 33, and yards.
Special teams got Tennessee State their first score of the evening. Following Martin’s last touchdown of the first quarter, a 33/yard scoring pass from Kinkead Dent to Scottie Alexander, CJ Evans took the ensuing kickoff 98 yards to the house. It was the second consecutive game Evans returned a kickoff for a touchdown.
Late in the first quarter, Draylen Ellis connected with Bryant Williams on a 43-yard scoring strike that trimmed the UT Martin lead to 21-14 heading into the second quarter.
The game’s next score would not come until less than a minute in the first half, when Dent called his number and ran it in from 3 yards out, completing an 11-play, 91-yard drive that extended the UT Martin lead to 28-14 as the contest moved into halftime.
TSU trimmed the lead to 28-21 with the lone score of the third quarter, and ultimately the second half, when a 5-play, 32-yard drive culminated in Ellis finding Jalal Dean on a 2-yard scoring toss.
Tennessee State took control of the ball with 4:55 left in the contest at their 28-yard line and drove to the UTM 6-yard line with less than 30 seconds to go and seemed poised for the potential game-tying score. However, they were but were unable to get in the endzone as his attempt to pass to Karate Brenson fell incomplete on 4th and 11, handing the ball, and the game to the Skyhawks.
The loss ends the Tigers’ 4-game winning streak, dropping them to 6-3 overall and 3-2 in the Big South-OVC. Unfortunately for Tennessee State, the potential path to playing for a conference championship has become a lot less straightforward, as they will need others to fall.
Up next for Tennessee State is a matchup with Western Illinois in the first-ever meeting between the schools.
