COMMENTARY: Texas State left frustrated after heartbreaking loss to Southern Miss

For a brief moment Texas State overcame its failures.

The Bobcat offense battled through its inconsistencies to send a rowdy crowd of 16,318 inside Bobcat Stadium for its Homecoming contest into a frenzy. A 74-yard touchdown pass from redshirt junior quarterback Layne Hatcher to sophomore wide receiver Ashtyn Hawkins nearly erased a 58-minute blunder as Texas State went on top 14-13 over Southern Miss with 1:21 left in Saturday’s game.

But a defensive breakdown proved costly as the Golden Eagles scored a game-winning touchdown in the final moments when USM freshman quarterback Zach Wilcke found sophomore running back Chandler Pittman, who hauled in his only target of the game 53 yards for the score.

Southern Miss 20, Texas State 14 — a heartbreaker the Bobcats are all too familiar with.

“I felt so bad for the defense because they played phenomenal,” head coach Jake Spavital said. “They got to a 4th down and 5 and then that’s a tough scramble. It just was kind of one of those deals where the offense was just getting destroyed the entire game, and finally, we kind of sparked it and Ashytn made a play. That was an unbelievable play there.

“I thought we got out of that one after playing extremely sloppy on two phases of the game, and then you put the defense out there again and we had one of those short kicks that put them in some favorable field position,” Spavital added. “It was just unfortunate, man. It’s just dragging everyone. This one hurts probably worse than any one that I’ve been part of. You see it in the locker room because those kids fight.”

Texas State’s offense failed to succeed for most of Saturday’s game. The running game never got going, finishing with -6 yards on the ground. Spavital said he couldn’t get Hatcher into a rhythm behind center as Southern Miss’ defense swarmed the Bobcats.

“Defensively, they dominated our offense in all phases,” Spavital said. “We literally threw every single type of play at them from screening it, to run RPO on it, to double-check protection and slide protection to spread it out. [Southern Miss] dominated the line of scrimmage is what it came down to. That’s why we were 2-of-16 on critical downs. That’s terrible.”

The fourth-year coach also acknowledged that his special teams unit was also inconsistent Saturday.

“[We] had opportunities to block a lot of their kicks. You know, there were just some things that we just didn’t do well,” Spavital said. “There were just some things that we just didn’t do well. We got pinned back on field position at times.”

Despite the late-game breakdown, Texas State’s defense did more than enough to put the Bobcats in position to win. Three turnovers gave Texas State opportunities to pull past the Golden Eagles.

“The defense is playing very well,” Spavital said. “They were on the field the entire game but [Southern Miss] threw everything at them as well. They went spread. They went with 10 different quarterbacks and they went Wildcat. It went to the last plays of the game and the defense gave us multiple opportunities. It’s frustrating.”

It was Texas State’s offensive inconsistencies, however, that doomed the Bobcats. The team failed to score off any of the defense’s three turnovers, converted only 14% of their third downs and was stuffed twice on fourth down.

“It’s frustrating,” Spavital said. “It’s just that you get to that point where the defense plays phenomenal for us. And then they’re down and they’re kind of beating themselves up on the last play of the game and it had nothing to do with the outcome of the game. It was four quarters of [Southern Miss] just getting completely after us.”

Spavital said his team will have to regroup as the bye week arrives. But the Bobcats enter a week off in a familiar spot —  coming off a heartbreaker where they couldn’t overcome their own mistakes and are left searching for answers they just can’t seem to find.

“That’s why it hurts the most is because they know we’re capable of winning,” Spavital said. “Even just being at home and just being around a lot of family and a lot of former players coming back, [the team] just wants to make this place proud. It’s unfortunate the way that game ended for them because the defense played well enough to win that game. It’s about understanding that we got to regroup and we got to go take a shot at it. We can’t completely dwell on it. But I know there’s a lot of frustration.”