Texas State knows it can’t keep repeating the same mistakes.
The Bobcats had chances in their 40-13 loss to James Madison on Oct. 1 to keep themselves in the game. Graduate linebacker Sione Tupou recovered a fumble at the 2:44 mark in the second quarter when the maroon and gold were trailing only 12-0 — but redshirt junior quarterback Layne Hatcher had a pass tipped, intercepted and then returned for a touchdown on the next play to give JMU all the momentum heading into halftime.
“Like I’ve said before, you look at about three to five plays that truly dictated the outcome of the game — and if you look at the five plays that we had with the four turnovers and a snap over our punters’ head — that’s a 26-point swing almost,” head coach Jake Spavital said. “And there’s one (play that affected) the field position on one of the turnovers that ended up being a field goal off of that. But, it’s a 26-point swing. A lot of that occurred in the fourth quarter, and that was something that was very difficult for us because our mistakes right now are magnified at a catastrophic level. You know, and that’s where we’ve got to turn to and focus in on just trying to minimize the damage when these things occur.”
