Sept. 6, 2008
Final Stats
DALLAS, Texas - The Texas State football team scored 36 points, ran for 233 yards and passed for another 232, but it was costly turnovers that proved too much to overcome at SMU Saturday night.
"We killed ourselves," senior wide receiver Cameron Luke said. "We didn't punt the ball one time because we either scored or turned the ball over. We gave them 16 points with our turnovers and you can't do that if you expect to win."
After SMU scored on the first possession with Bo Levi Mitchell throwing a 21-yard touchdown pass to Emanuel Sanders, the Bobcats had a pair of fumbles on their first two possessions. After the first fumble, Texas State forced SMU to punt, but following the second, Mitchell threw a 32-yard touchdown strike to Aldrick Robinson to give SMU at 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter began with Clint Toon driving the Bobcats down to SMU's 33 yard-line before he was intercepted by Tyler Jones, giving the Mustangs possession at their own 34-yard line. After Texas State's defense sacked Mitchell on a third-down play and forced a punt, the Bobcats fumbled yet a third time two plays later, this time on their own eight-yard line. SMU quickly capitalized on its good fortune when Mitchell hit Sanders for another TD pass to increase its lead to 21-0.
Texas State scored its first points of the game when Karrington Bush ran for a two-yard touchdown to cap a 17-play, 80-yard drive and make the score 21-6.
On the extra point attempt, Youri Yenga blocked Andrew Ireland's kick and Derrius Bell returned the ball the length of the field to give the Mustangs two more points , making the score 23-6.
After Mitchell threw another touchdown pass to Sanders on SMU's next possession, the Bobcats answered with a touchdown pass of their own when Toon ended the half with a nine-yard touchdown pass to Cameron Luke to make the halftime score 30-13.
The Bobcats received the second-half kickoff and marched down to the Mustangs' 45-yard line before Toon was picked off by Bell at the SMU six-yard line.
Texas State's defense forced another punt before the Bobcats drove down the field a second straight time. This time, Toon threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Luke to help the Bobcats close to within 30-19 before Ireland's missed his extra-point try.
After both teams exchanged field goals, SMU extended its lead to 40-22 on a seven-yard touchdown gallop by DeMyron Martin.
Texas State wouldn't go away though as the Bobcats scored a pair of touchdowns on its next two drives. First, Toon hit Luke for a 29-yard TD pass and Bush from five yards to make the final score 47-36.
"I was proud of the fact that we kept fighting and coming back in the game, but in the end, the 16 points we gave away with offensive mistakes proved too big a difference to overcome" said Texas State head coach Brad Wright.
Bush finished the game with 111 yards rushing and one touchdown, becoming the first Bobcat to run over 100 yards in 2008. Stan Zwinggi, Toon and Alvin Canady combined to gain another 111 yards on the ground.
Toon also completed 19 of his 27 passes for 225 yards and four touchdowns.
"We have a chance to be a good football team, "Wright added. "We just need to correct some things and keep improving each game."
The Bobcats are off until Sept. 20 when they travel to Northern Colorado. Texas State returns home to play host to home to play host to Southern Utah on Sept. 27 and Texas Southern on Oct. 4.
