Mercer’s defense and punting shine in gritty 10-3 road win over preseason favorite Chattanooga

It’s not every day you see a punter and a defensive player bask in the spotlight as they’re interviewed in a football postgame show.

That’s exactly what happened after the Mercer Bears upset No. 16-ranked Chattanooga on the road Saturday night, though, as the Bears flipped the field plenty of times and gutted out a 10-3 win with the help of a ferocious defensive attack.

Mercer’s defensive line performed well all night, holding the Mocs to just 19 rushing yards and keeping them from converting a single third down play. 

“That defense has been playing great for us all year, this is the most we’ve been tested,” head coach Mike Jacobs told 100.9 The Creek after the game. “Our kids, led by our seniors, they played great today on defense. When you play great defense and you punt the ball the way we did, you can win.”

The secondary stayed locked in as well, limiting noted wide receiver threat Sam Phillips — the junior has more than 1,500 yards in his career and scored in each of his last two games against Mercer — and the rest of the Chattanooga passing game.

Part of that success came from the pressure put on by the defensive front, who snuffed out the run game and pressured Mocs passer Chase Artopoeus consistently.

“It was simple, we had to lock in our basics… get our job done, that was the main thing,” Mercer linebacker Isaac Dowling said on the radio broadcast. “It was good to see we came out fast this week and got the job done.”

Then there was punter John McConnell, who pinned the Mocs back deep on seemingly every drive. McConnell hopped on the mic on The Creek’s postgame interviews for the rare punter feature after the win, which was Mercer’s first SoCon victory under Mike Jacobs.

“I think it shows that we can accomplish all our goals that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” McConnell said. “We’ve talked about winning the Southern Conference, that’s our goal, and this takes us in the right direction.”

Even Mercer’s offense, though it did struggle to finish drives, boasted positives. The run game defined that side of the ball, as Dwayne McGee racked up 86 yards on the ground as part of a 184-yard rushing effort as a team.

“We grinded out 184 yards on the ground against a tough defensive front, a tough defense in general. That’s a big win for us,” Jacobs said.

Quarterback D.J. Smith also made solid decisions all game aside from a bad interception early, tucking and running when necessary and avoiding forced throws.

The win comes after the Mocs won their last two meetings with Mercer, both of which came with Southern Conference title implications. Chattanooga was also ranked in both those games, as it was Saturday night.

Preseason rankings had the Mocs as the favorites to win the Southern Conference title this season as well. They fell to 0-3 with the loss — Chattanooga opened with tough FBS games against Tennessee and Georgia State — while the Bears remained undefeated at 3-0.

Aside from some sputtering on offense and a D.J. Smith interception, the only real struggle for Mercer came in the form of penalties. 

The Bears, who committed 130 yards worth of fouls in their 31-2 win over Bethune-Cookman last week, had eight more for 50 yards in Tennessee Saturday night.

While the numbers were an improvement — Mercer cleaned up on penalties a good bit in the second half — the flags came on crucial third downs or negated long gains multiple times and were often procedural, something Jacobs wanted to fix after last week’s game.

After a resounding win to begin conference play, Mercer returns home next week for another SoCon showdown, this time with The Citadel at 6 p.m. Saturday in Five Star Stadium.

---

Locking down on defense

The first two drives were empty for both squads, though the Bears showed more signs of life thanks to some solid runs for a first down before a false start penalty stalled the sequence.

Neither side could build much momentum until Mercer started a solid drive that broke into Chattanooga territory. The Mocs quickly broke up the drive when they easily intercepted a poor D.J. Smith pass for a turnover to get decent field position with five minutes left in the first quarter.

After some more empty drives and an impressive Dainsus Miller field goal block that kept Chattanooga scoreless, Mercer translated the momentum swing into a nice drive of its own and got inside the Mocs’ 10-yardline before the speedy Brayden Smith took an end-around handoff to the end zone to put Mercer up 7-0.

It was Brayden’s fourth touchdown of the year after he scored two in the season opener and another last week in Daytona Beach.

Chattanooga wasted no time getting the Bears back, completing a huge pass on the first play of its next possession for 65 yards to reach the Mercer 5-yardline. Mercer stepped up, though, holding the Mocs out of the end zone to force a field goal and maintain a 7-3 lead.

The rest of the half played out in similar fashion with both teams’ defenses making some stops to keep the score the same going into the break.

After the teams ping-ponged some more scoreless possessions, Mercer broke through big time when Arius Nash shoved his way into the backfield and appeared to force a fumble that Marques Thomas took to the end zone for a Bears touchdown.

The play looked like a huge swing for Mercer until an official review determined that Chattanooga quarterback Artopoeus had his arm moving forward when he lost the ball. The call was reversed to make the play an incomplete pass, much to the chagrin of Jacobs and the Mercer staff.

The Bears didn’t bat an eye at the overturned score anyhow, shutting down the Mocs on the drive and getting the ball back to drive as the third quarter wrapped up.

Both teams made some more stops as the fourth quarter ran on before Mercer took a drive from its own 15-yardline to the UTC 31 in an attempt to go up two scores. Reice Griffith booted a 48-yard field goal try that had enough distance, but the ball sailed wide right to keep the game at 7-3 with about 10 minutes left to play.

After going the entire first three quarters with only one penalty, though, Chattanooga garnered two offensive penalties on one series to bring up a third-and-a-mile play from its own 17-yardline. 

The Bears pounced on the opportunity, tipping a deep ball from Artopoeus that ended in a Myles Redding interception around the Mocs’ 45-yardline to take over.

Mercer used the short field and a horse collar by Chattanooga to tack on an extra field goal and make it 10-3 with about five minutes left to play.

The Bears’ Myles Redding, who had missed the first half because of a targeting call last week, then intercepted a Mocs pass to help Mercer bleed more clock.

The defense finished the job from there, staying dominant at the line of scrimmage and sacking Artopoeus once before the quarterback’s last two passes fell incomplete to give the Bears the win.