On a dreary homecoming Saturday in St. Charles, Lindenwood (3-5, 2-2 OVC/Big South) couldn’t keep pace with Gardner Webb (5-3, 3-1 OVC/Big South) succumbing to the vicious Runnin’ Bulldogs running attack falling 48-20.
The Lions defense couldn’t contain the combination of Carson Gresock and Quasean Holmes who rushed for a combined 230 yards on 38 carries and five rushing touchdowns. The Runnin’ Bulldogs rushed for 245 yards as a team and 5.1 yards per carry. They also outrushed Lindenwood 245-165.
“That’s one of those homecomings where you kind of have to apologize to our fans and alums,” Head Coach Jed Stugart said postgame. “We needed to perform better. We were hoping to have a better showing than what we did today. Credit to Chris Reisert and Gardner-Webb, they’ve got a really good run game, and we knew that was the thing we needed to stop.”
Slow Start Dooms Lions
Lindenwood started its day with a nice 13-yard swing pass to Rico Bond, and then that’s when things went downhill.
The Runnin’ Bulldogs marched 80 yards on 13 plays to go up 7-0 before Nate Glantz’s fifth interception of the season, and first against an FCS opponent, set Gardner Webb up with great field position to go 42 yards in eight plays to have a 14-0 lead on the Lions quickly.
“At the end of the day, you can’t lose the line of scrimmage like we did,” Stugart said. “We had too many second-and-fives and second-and-sixes. That’s a tough call on defense to make all the time. When we won first down, we made them punt. But it just didn’t happen enough.”
The Lindenwood offense would finally get going, scratching across a pair of field goals, but Gardner Webb would answer those scores with a pair of touchdowns, capped off by a huge 67-yard touchdown run by Holmes on a play where he wasn’t even touched to give the Runnin’ Bulldogs a 28-6 lead.
Lindenwood would finally get into the endzone late in the half on a broken play that saw Glantz running for his life before chucking the ball into the air and coming down into the arms of Darrin Fugitt who then while fighting off a defender with his left hand reached the ball across the goal line, hitting the pylon, with his right to cut the Lions deficit to 28-13 headed into the locker room.
“We just can’t dig ourselves into holes early,” Stugart said. “We’ve emphasized starting fast every week. We even start practices by trying to get two first downs in a row because that’s how we want to start games, and we just haven’t done it consistently.”
The touchdown catch for Fugitt was his second of the season as he finished the day with four catches for 44 yards and the score. Bond was the Lions leading receiver on the day hauling in eight passes for 66 yards.
It was a rough day through the air for Glantz who finished just 17/32 for 180 yards, one touchdown and two picks. He was also held to his worst game on the ground as he had just four carries for -15 yards as he was sacked twice.
“There’s going to be some frustrating things on film,” Stugart said. “Nate will be the first to tell you he needs to play better in certain situations. He’s such a competitor, but sometimes you just have to trust the scheme and take what’s there.”
The nail in the coffin for the Lions in the game was in the third quarter with Lindenwood trailing 35-20, they finally forced their first punt and had a chance to cut the deficit to one possession, but like last week against Tennessee Tech, Lindenwood was forced to punt and missed a golden opportunity.
Return of the Run Game
One positive note from the game for the Lions was the return of the run game. The Lions came into the game as the second worst rushing offense in the OVC/Big South, averaging just over 94 per game but exploded against the worst rush defense in the conference for 165 yards and five yards a carry.
“You could see Steve take another step today,” Stugart said. “He’s been banged up, but he’s starting to run like himself again. Jared’s a hard runner too, we’ve got two really good backs there. That’s our DNA, to run the ball and take time off the clock, and when we do that, it sets up the big plays.”
Steve Hall led the way carrying it 13 times for 105 yards, including an explosive 51 yard rush, and his third rushing touchdown of the season and first since against UT Martin. Jared Rhodes also had a solid game as the Robin to Hall’s Batman also carrying it 13 times for 59 yards.
“Our backs are healthier now, and we’re going to keep building on that,” he added. “It just stinks because we got behind so quick that we had to play catch-up instead of playing our kind of football.”
Lindenwood fell to 4-2 in their last six homecoming games with the loss and it was the first loss in which they had rushed for over 100 yards. This was also the second time this season Lindenwood had rushed for more than 80 yards and lost with the other being the season opener against St. Thomas.
Defense Struggles All Day
It was a struggle for the Lindenwood defense all game as Gardner Webb moved the ball up and down the field at will all day. Gardner Webb scored touchdowns on their first five possessions and only had two drives out of their 10 total, excluding kneel downs, that they didn’t come away with points.
“At the end of the day, you can’t lose the line of scrimmage like we did,” Stugart said. “That’s where this game was lost. We got blown off the ball, and it starts with us as a staff. We’ve got to figure out how to fix that.”
The Runnin’ Bulldogs offense tallied 509 total yards, was 7/13 on third down and averaged 12 yards a pass and five yards a run.
“We’re pretty banged up on the defensive line, but our guys keep fighting,” he said. “I’m proud of their effort, some of them are playing hurt, but we’ve got to get healthy and get back to winning up front.
Cole Pennington, making his second straight start for the Runnin’ Bulldogs, was efficient on his day going 18/21 for 252 yards and a touchdown with no turnovers. Chris Lofton was his favorite target, catching five passes for 68 yards and a score.
Lindenwood’s inability to get off the field cost them mightily in this game and will need to be fixed if they want to get back in the win column in the weeks to come.
Special Teams Demons Just Keep Moving
Seems like every week the question for the Lindenwood special teams is: where have the demons migrated to this week?
The good news is that the kicking and punt game was spectacular. Will Graham hit both his extra point opportunities and was 2/2 on field goals, hitting from 31 and 28 yards out.
A.J. Vinatieri and the punt game were also great not muffing or having any punts blocked as Vinatieri had three punts and averaged 45.3 yards per punt and was able to flip the field for Lindenwood many times and gave his team a chance.
The demons came out in the kick return game for the first time this season. Blocking was a struggle on kickoffs as Christopher Bennett Jr had very few running lanes to run through, which included fumbling for the first time this season. Bennett also misjudged a punt in the third quarter, which resulted in Lindenwood having the ball at their own one-yard line.
“He’s a quick study and a really coachable kid,” Stugart said of Bennett. “Every ball carrier fumbles at some point; it happens. But that fair catch mistake can’t happen again. We’ll coach him up and make sure he’s in a better spot next time.”
Lindenwood finishes their three-game homestand 1-2 and now heads back out on the road to Nashville, Tennessee, to take on Tennessee State with kickoff coming from Nissan Stadium at 3:30 p.m. and streaming exclusively on ESPN+, or can be listened to on 89.1 KCLC.
“We’ve been a program that’s historically bounced back after tough losses,” Stugart said. “This one felt like we got pushed around, but we didn’t quit. Now we’ll see how this team responds, because that’ll tell us a lot about who we are.”
