TXST’s losing streak continues with loss to South Alabama

For the eighth straight season, Texas State will stay at home come December as the Bobcats dropped their fourth straight game against the South Alabama Jaguars in a 38-21 loss to knock themselves out of bowl eligibility.

The game was compounded by the woes of the Texas State offense which was shut out in the first half and the struggles of the Bobcat defense in the second half.

“It’s a tale of two games in my mind,” Spavital said. “When you look at it, the offense couldn’t do anything and we struggled in the first  half but we got better in the second (half). Then the defense had its struggles more in the second half, but it’s the name  of the game. You got to play complementary football and you got to have all three phases of the game playing well  together, and we just didn’t do that. (South Alabama) did that a lot better than we did.”

As has been par for the season since the win against App State, Texas State’s offense failed to get off the ground against a tough Jaguar defense which saw the Bobcats not only get shut out in the first half but only converted two first downs.

The key for the Bobcats offensive success in the success was simply trying to find their own rhythm.

“Nothing really (changed in the second half), ‘’ Spavital said. “We just finally got into a rhythm of things. And the rhythm of things was we  established the run game a little bit better. We had 17 plays in the first half, and we could never get the rhythm that was  needed. I think what really happened in the second half was our kids kind of settled down. Layne (Hatcher) was seeing a  lot better. The run game started popping way better for us, which allows us to keep the momentum on the drives so we  can be more aggressive with the play calls.”

Texas State returns to play next Saturday as it hosts Arkansas State  at 4 p.m.