FIU Football Blazed By Jacksonville State in 41-16 Rout

MIAMI, FL – The FIU Panthers turned back into the Sunblazers for one night and looked to rebound off their first conference win of the season a week ago, but fell flat early on once again, this time to the Jacksonville State Gamecocks.

Despite the theatrics and impressive performances by the offense and defense against Sam Houston State, FIU instead recreated their game against UTEP by giving up 21 straight points to begin the contest.

As a result, the Sunblazers had to try and fight their way back into this game, but just like against the Miners, it was an impossible hill to climb as they fell by a score of 41-16.

Double The Threat, Double The Problem

JSU quarterback Zion Webb took advantage of FIU’s defense early on as he succeeded in 10-20-yard passes in the middle of the field and doubled down on the ground. Once again, the front and backfield of their defense struggled against a dual-threat quarterback, which led to three straight touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Sunblazers quarterback Keyone Jenkins had possibly his worst game as a Panther in the first half. After one first down on their opening drive, they were forced to punt four straight times, setting up the Gamecocks in fabulous field positioning – another reason their offense had success.

The lone positive for FIU’s offense was a solid 10-play, 48-yard drive that was capped off with a 50-yard field goal by Chase Gabriel. But after that, four straight punts by both teams and one more field goal for JSU meant the Sunblazers were down 24-3 at halftime.

A Comeback Derailed By Outside Forces

In a shocking move to some, head coach Mike MacIntyre swapped out Jenkins (2/8 with 18 yards in the first half) for Grayson James. The QB room has come full circle, as James replaced the same quarterback who replaced him after the Week 0 loss vs LA Tech.

“We felt like we needed a change, and Grayson came in and gave us a spark,” said MacIntyre postgame. “Keyone wasn’t in rhythm, and sometimes that happens with a quarterback…especially a young quarterback. He’ll bounce back.”

In the driving rain, there was an initial setback with a fumble on their first drive, gifting Jax State a field goal. But after that, two straight touchdowns by FIU put the lead down to 27-16, a two-possession game.

A 60-yard bomb from James to Kris Mitchell set up running back Shomari Lawrence to inch the ball closer to the goal line. James cleaned up with a QB sneak to guarantee the points.

James showed off his arm on their next drive, including completed passes to Mitchell, Eric Rivers, Rocky Beers, Jackson McDonald, and Mitchell once more in the end zone thanks to a one-handed grab that ended up being the highlight on the night.

After a punt by both JSU and FIU, the Sunblazers though they caught another break when the punt returned for the Gamecocks muffled the catch, making it a live ball that FIU fell on. This would have been a turnover giving the Sunblazers a premium field position.

But a fair catch interference penalty was called on FIU. The explanation was that the returner was touched before making the fair catch, which is illegal. But one look at the replay reveals that the returner wasn’t touched at all.

The reaction from the FIU faithful was extremely negative, but the game continued. Unfortunately for the Sunblazers, the Gamecocks scored 14 unanswered points to put the game away. The offense had no response, and Jacksonville State won by a massive score of 41-16.

Closer Than What The Score Says?

Despite the final score of this game, FIU had a real shot of either tying or taking the lead in the second half, being down by 11 at one point.

Did the phantom penalty on that punt derail the Sunblazers? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, FIU made life difficult for themselves by giving up three straight touchdowns in the first quarter. No matter how good they played from there on out, limiting Jax State turned out to be too much for them.

“We played well enough on defense to get us back in the game, and then the offense got caught,” said MacIntyre.

James still had a solid performance, going 12-20 with 200 yards and a touchdown in just two quarters of work.

Now the Sunblazers have a tough question ahead of them – do they give the ball back to Jenkins next week, or do they keep going with Grayson?

They’ll have some time to figure that out as they’ll have the upcoming week off. FIU will then travel to Murfreesboro to take on the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders on Saturday, November 11th at 3:30pm.