By Andrew Holtan
The Brookings Beacon
South Dakota State put together its most impressive performance of the season on Saturday night as the Jackrabbits beat No. 10 ranked Illinois State 31-14 on the road.
It was SDSU’s second top-10 win of the season and the Jacks did it with their backup quarterback. The Jacks are now 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the Missouri Valley as they head into the bye week. Here’s three takeaways from SDSU’s final game of the first half of the season.
Defense
The Jackrabbit defense might be the best defensive unit in the country. On Saturday, SDSU gave up some yards, but the Jacks had three takeaways, including one that went for a touchdown, and they held the Redbirds to 14 points when they had 10 drives.
Illinois State ran 15 plays on its second drive of the game but the drive ended with a 45-yard missed field goal. The Redbirds touchdown in the first half came on a 12-play drive.
The most impressive stretch of the game may have been on the Redbirds second touchdown drive which was in the fourth quarter. ISU moved the ball to the SDSU two yard line but then due to a penalty on fourth down and another penalty on the Jacks, the Redbirds had to run 11 plays before Chase Kwiatkowski found the end zone on fourth and goal from the one. Illinois State running all those plays essentially put the game away because all of those plays near the goal line took up just under four minutes and there was only 2:47 left by the time they scored.
Myles Green had himself a night in his home state with a fumble recovery and an interception for a touchdown. Noah St-Juste also had an interception. The Jacks have now turned their opponent over 10 times this season. They are tied for 10th in the country in turnover margin with 10 takeaways and five giveaways.
SDSU didn’t have any sacks on Saturday but the Jacks hit the quarterback six times. They have depth at all three levels of the defense and it shows in the second half of these games because their defense doesn’t get tired.
Running Backs
The run game continues to succeed and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down. The offensive line has been getting its due for the holes that they are creating but on Saturday night, the Jacks two biggest runs came from broken tackles.
The highlight of the night was James Basinger’s 66-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. On his way to the end zone he broke three tackles, including two vicious stiff arms near the end zone. It was a punishing run and it was Basinger’s third touchdown of 39 yards or longer over the past two weeks.
Josiah Johnson continued to run hard on Saturday, finishing with 131 yards on 19 carries. He had a 56-yard run on the Jacks’ final drive of the second half and before he got into the open field he bounced off a tackler near the line of scrimmage. The one-two punch of Johnson and Basinger has really taken off the last two games with the two combining for 458 yards and five touchdowns.
Making A Statement
On a weekend where No. 1 ranked Montana State lost to winless Idaho on Friday night, the Jackrabbits solidified themselves as the top team in the FCS.
After the bye week, they’ll have to head up to Grand Forks to take on North Dakota, who will likely be ranked in the top five when the two teams meet. The Fighting Hawks have to play at Northern Iowa ahead of that matchup.
Chase Mason may be back for that game at UND and if he is, SDSU should be favored to win. The Jacks will then play Murray State on Hobo Day the next week and then take on South Dakota at home on Halloween.
With the way SDSU is playing, I would be surprised if they did not win out, especially if Mason comes back after the bye week. Surprises can happen in college football when you’re dealing with 18-23 year olds, but the way the Jacks have been taking care of business, it’s looking like the road to Nashville for the FCS National Championship is going to go through Brookings.
