Grambling Wins 'Clash of the Tigers' Against Texas Southern

The Grambling State Tigers defeated Texas Southern to win a critical SWAC West contest.

Grambling State scored 21-second half points to defeat Texas Southern 35-23 for a critical SWAC West victory. The Tigers opened the scoring at Eddie G. Robinson Stadium off a 7-play, 49-yard drive when RB Floyd Chalk rushed for a 1-yard touchdown. GSU took an early 7-0 lead with 7:34 in the first quarter. 

Texas Southern equaled the Grambling touchdown as quarterback Jace Wilson connected with wide receiver AJ Bennett for a 41-yard touchdown in the 2nd quarter that tied the game at seven apiece. 

GSU quarterback Myles Crawley finished a 91-yard touchdown drive with a gorgeous back-shoulder connection to his wide receiver. The G-Men recaptured the lead entering halftime, 14-7.

At halftime, Texas Southern trailed Grambling in passing for 55 yards to 127 yards. Also, GSU had the rushing advantage of 143 yards to 42 yards.

Junior placekicker Curtis Falkenburg nailed a 41-yard field goal to cap off the opening drive of the visiting Tigers football team following halftime. Texas Southern inched closer to Grambling 14-10 at 10:51 in the 3rd quarter.

On the ensuing drive, the offensive line of Grambling opened a massive hole for Floyd Chalk, who rumbled for a 47-yard run to set up GSU at the 23-yard line in the third quarter. Crawley avoided a blitz to find his tight end Knighten at the six-yard line for first and goal. Chance Williams sneaked back through an opening to score a 10-yard touchdown. Grambling extended its lead, 21-10 on a 7-play, 75-yard drive in 3:24 minutes with 7:27 remaining in the 3rd.  

TSU responded with a Wilson bomb for a touchdown to climb back into the contest, 21-17.

Following a good return and Texas Southern personal foul, Grambling had excellent field position at their 11-yard line. On the next play, Rash caught an 11-yard touchdown pass and expanded the Tigers lead to 28-17 in the 4th quarter.

On the next drive by TSU, Wilson delivered a 27-yard touchdown pass to Jyrin Johnson for a receiving touchdown with 8:12 on the clock. The Tigers drive was a 77-yard, 8-play possession for 3:04. Coach McKinney's team was down by five points, 28-23. He rolled the dice as Wilson could not find his target, broke off a run, and came up 1 yard short of the two-point conversion.

Grambling was deep inside the twenty-yard line when Myles Crawley threw a missile for a 33-yard pass on 3rd down to get into the TSU Tigers territory. Floyd Chalk blew up a TSU defender to plunge a yard for the game-sealing touchdown as the G-Men went up by 12 points, 35-23 with 3:25 remaining. The 92 yard-drive essentially ended the game. Texas Southern could not get into scoring position as the GSU defense closed out the match.