Never Underestimate An Opponent

By Cheval John

When Sam Houston State lost to the LSU Tigers 56-0 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, it seemed like an anomaly.

I was thinking that the Bearkats would rebound from that loss when they hosted Colorado State-Pueblo in Huntsville, Texas.

It did not occur to me that CSU-Pueblo, a Division II school, were No.2 in the nation and went undefeated last year in the regular season with an 11-0 record.

I was going on the feeling that the Bearkats would take care of business because they had a 23-game winning streak at Bowers Stadium.

I was even debating of whether I should make a return visit to Huntsville to cover the game because I thought it was going to be a mismatch.

I decided to go and my intuition was right about the game being a mismatch.

A mismatch for Sam Houston that is.

The Bearkats got outplayed by the ThunderWolves that resulted in a 47-21 loss.

It might seemed that it was not a bad loss by the Bearkats.

Don’t let the outcome fool you.

The Bearkats went three and out in their seven drives (six in the first half).

Starting quarterback Jarrod Johnson, who went 14 of 26 for 72 yards, was sacked 6 times.

On the other hand, the ThunderWolves’ offense was slicing and dicing the Bearkats defense.

CSU-Pueblo (2-0) set the tone on their first drive, going 10 plays for 57 yards that was capped by a 4-yard touchdown run by Cameron McDondle, who had 116 yards and 2 scores on 14 carries.

By halftime, the ThunderWolves had a 27-0 lead and accumulated 206 total yards while the Bearkats only muster one yard.

After the Bearkats went three and out to open the third quarter, the ThunderWolves struck again when Chris Bonner found a wide open Paul Browning for a 64-yard touchdown to increase the lead to 34-0.

The Bearkats finally found the endzone on a 9-yard touchdown run by Johnson to make it 34-7.

However it was too late as the ThunderWolves snapped the Bearkats 23-game winning streak.

The Bearkats can be thankful that they have a bye week because they need to fix their secondary, create new offensive schemes and go back to their bread and butter which is running the football.

Before this game, it was a matter of them having a good record against Southland Conference (SLC) opponents to get an at-large bid in the FCS playoffs.

Now, the Bearkats will have to win the SLC title if they want to extend their participation in the playoffs to four straight years.

On the bright side of things, the Bearkat bowling team was honored after the first quarter for winning the school’s first ever national title at the Division I level.

CSU-Pueblo (2-0) exposed the

Sam Houston went 3 and out in their first six drives of the game.

The Bearkats had only 1 yard of total offense in the first half.

About Cheval John

Cheval John is the Founder and CEO of Vallano Media, LLC, a marketing agency which helps small to mid-sized businesses use social media correctly to build a loyal following and in the process become more profitable. Cheval is also the host of "What's The Word?" a podcast about finding out what inspires people to choose their respective careers and how social media impacted their lives and business. He is the author of two books including the Amazon Best-Seller, "8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Learn." He has spoken at Social Media Week Lima in Ohio and at Social Media Day Houston 2017 about topics around live streaming and podcasting. Cheval has been featured in media outlets including Ebony Magazine, Social Media Today and Forbes. He was named a Houston Top 25 Social Media Power Influencer (2016 and 2017) and a Twitter Top 50 Influencer by Onalytica in 2018.

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