Southern University's head football coach Eric Dooley attempted to explain his head-scratching play call against Florida A&M. The Jaguars were down late in the fourth quarter, 26-19, to the A&M Rattlers. With 2:37 on the clock, Southern began their potential game-tying drive on their own 28 yard line.

With only one remaining timeout and working against both the Rattlers and the clock, Southern was forced to move quickly. However, instead of only throwing the ball to get downfield as quickly as possible, they ran it twice. The first play of the drive was a rush by Kendric Rhymes for no positive gain.

A few plays later, after gaining a first down (which temporarily stops the clock) and moving to the Rattler's 49 yard line, the Jaguars handed the ball off to Rhymes again for three yards. Immediately following the rush play, Southern quarterback Harold Blood was sacked, forcing them to use their final timeout.

The ensuing third and fourth downs consisted of a completed catch for no yards and an incompletion, forcing a turnover on downs and ending the game.

The rushing attempts confused everyone, including ESPNU color commentator Jay Walker.

“They must have seen something in the scouting report they truly believe in,” he said, “but nothing this situation says run the football.”

Amidst the boos from the crowd, head coach Eric Dooley was also drilled for the blunder on social media.

After the game, Dooley explained the thought process behind the runs.

“We always have to look at what the defense is trying to take away from you,” he said. “If they're gonna drop eight [players into coverage], why throw it and create a fast turnover and now you have no opportunity?”

Dooley continued, “So we gotta make them play honest. We saw some things that they were doing that should've given us a big play, even though we were running it, that would've been just as good as a pass play.”

Southern didn't run the ball at an outstanding clip the entire game. Their top rusher was Gary Quarles with 13 carries for 80 yards, but he wasn't in on the final drive. Instead, Rhymes got the final two carries, but he finished the game with just 31 yards on nine attempts.

Conversely, Blood was having a decent game and established a connection with his receiver Chandler Whitfield. Blood went 11-19 on passing attempts for 190 yards and a touchdown. He threw 88 of those 190 yards to Whitfield, as well as the lone touchdown. The bulk of those yards came on a 72-yard touchdown bomb in the second quarter to put Southern up 12-7, although the Rattlers defense cashed in the two-point conversion, making the score 12-9.

Fortunately for Southern, the loss doesn't negatively impact their standing in the SWAC too harshly. Within the conference, the Jaguars are 2-1, tied with Grambling State and Alcorn State in the West division of the conference.

Meanwhile, Florida A&M keeps on rolling. They are 4-0 in the conference and are 5-1 overall.

The Jaguars will look to redeem themselves back on their home field in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Saturday, Oct. 14. They will match up against the out of conference opponent, Lincoln University CA, at 4 p.m. CT.