Southern Miss Shuts Down the Cowboys Offense in 28-6 victory

By: Jason Waganer

The Southern Mississippi defense showed no respect for the OSU offense from the very start in Saturday night's game. On OSU's first possession of the game, the Golden Eagles declined a penalty to give the Cowboys third down, five yards to go instead of backing them up and making them replay the down. The move proved Southern Miss was not the least bit afraid of the Pokes "new" offense.

The move worked for the Eagles as they stuffed the OSU offense and forced a punt. On the ensuing drive, Southern Miss QB  Jeff Kelly hit wide receiver Shawn Mills for a 31-yard TD pass. At that point, the game was virtually over.

The Cowboys showed some signs of life in the second half as they finally started putting the ball in the air, but it was too late. The Golden Eagles defense was relentless shutting down the Cowboys offense every time it threatened to score. 

Southern Mississippi held Reggie White to 65 yards rushing. The Cowboys star had 187 yards in the opener against Tulsa and 130 against Southwest Texas.

"We have a lot of mentally tough people," Eagles senior defensive end Cedric Scott said. "We have a lot of senior leadership. We know what it takes to get ready to play every week."

Tony Lindsay led the Cowboys (2-1) with 72 yards rushing and 66 passing before leaving the game in the third quarter.

Simmons said Lindsay's shoulder tightened up and Lindsay got hit on the shoulder by Southern Mississippi defenders.

"Southern Mississippi is a good football team," OSU head coach Bob Simmons said. "They did not make a lot of mistakes. They have a good defense. Obviously, we knew that coming in. We knew that we had to execute a lot better than we did."

The Cowboys schedule looks to get even tougher as they travel to Austin next week to face an intimidating Texas team. The Longhorns crushed Houston Saturday night 48-0. If the Cowboys offense doesn't show more next weekend, it's going to be a really long season.