ATLANTA -- Georgia State fell 42-14 to No. 23 James Madison Saturday afternoon at Center Parc Stadium.
The Dukes won their 12th straight game and improved to 9-0 on the year and 6-0 in Sun Belt Conference play, while the Panthers fell to 6-3 overall, 3-3 in the Sun Belt.
"James Madison deserves all the credit; that is a really good football team. They came in here undefeated, best defense in the league and all that; you would have thought we would have doggone showed up to the party to fight this team. We fought for a little bit, but we didn't fight for four quarters," head coach Shawn Elliott said. "I can't put my finger on it, but it was poor execution by me as a head coach, poor execution by our entire staff, poor execution by our entire football program. I felt like we had the team who could defeat these guys, but we didn't have the team to do it today."
Georgia State quarterback Darren Grainger rushed for 103 yards with two long touchdown runs, but the GSU offense managed just 228 yards.Â
After JMU scored a touchdown on its opening possession, the Panthers answered on Grainger's 30-yard touchdown to knot the game at 7-all midway through the first quarter.
Then Bryquice Brown intercepted JMU quarterback Jordan McCloud and returned it 43-yards to the JMU 22. But the Panthers had to settle for a 33-yard field goal attempt, and Liam Rickman's attempt hit the upright.
James Madison missed a field goal, also hitting the upright, on its next possession and the game remained tied at 7-all until late in the second quarter. The Dukes took over at their own 14-yard line with nine minutes in the half and put together a 15-play, 86-yard drive that ate up 7:49, capped by McCloud's 5-yard scoring run with 1:09 left for a 14-7 halftime lead.
The Dukes scored on their first two possessions of the second half to build a 24-7 lead before the Panthers answered on another long run by Grainger, this time a 58-yard scoring play that made it 28-14 with 2:43 left in the third quarter.
But JMU drove for another touchdown, extending its lead to 35-14 earlyin the fourth.
JMU quarterback Jordan McCloud accounted for six touchdowns. He passed for 307 yards and four scores while rushing for 104 yards and two touchdowns.
Georgia State plays its final home game next Saturday, hosting Appalachian State at 2 p.m. for Senior Day at Center Parc Stadium. For tickets, visit GeorgiaStateSports.com/tix.
