No. 7 Mercer ekes out 17-10 win over No. 10 Rhode Island to advance to FCS quarterfinals for first time ever

When his team went to the locker room at halftime, Mercer running back Dwayne McGee had an uncharacteristically low tally of 29 rushing yards.

By the end of the game, the Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year had 114 yards on the ground — had broken Mercer’s single-season rushing record along the way — to give the No. 7 Bears the win over No. 10 Rhode Island, 17-10, in the second round of the FCS Playoffs on a sunny but chilly Saturday afternoon at Five Star Stadium in Macon.

“The bad had already happened,” the player affectionately known as D-Wee said of the first half. “Like (head coach Mike Jacobs) said, he got after us a little but in the second half. That wasn’t what we put on film. I didn’t want my last game to be that, so I told him: ‘I want to carry it out, I know I can do it.’

“It ended up working,” McGee said. “The holes ended up coming, we just kept chugging and the real dog won. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”

It was a struggle for the Bears (11-2) on offense for most of the game, but their players stepped up when they needed it most to give Mercer its first-ever trip to the FCS quarterfinals with the win against the Rams (11-3).

“There’s no bad wins, I can promise you that. But as long as you have one more point than the opponent, that’s a win,” head coach Mike Jacobs said after the game. “I wasn’t real pleased with a couple aspects of the game at halftime, I can tell you that. I got into ‘em pretty good.”

The Bears’ defense stepped up in impressive fashion, picking up a lackluster offense and limiting Rhode Island throughout the game.

“I can’t say enough good things about what our defense did today,” Jacobs said. “To hold a team to 49 yards rushing after they got more than 200 last week, that’s something to be proud of.”

McGee’s second-half explosion and a late touchdown grab by freshman receiver Adjatay Dabbs helped Mercer pull out the win. The only other scores for the bears were a field goal in the third quarter and a pick-six early in the game.

The Rams passing attack clicked with some regularity — receiver Marquis Buchanan had a nice game for Rhode Island, finishing with 119 yards and a slick 56-yard scoring grab — but the defense contained them enough to get the victory.

The Bears earned a trip to the FCS quarterfinals with the victory, where they’ll face No. 2 North Dakota State on the road next week.

“I’m really proud of these guys. I’m so happy for the seniors, that they get an opportunity to do this all over again next week, and to do it in the quarterfinals of the FCS tournament is a big deal,” Jacobs said.

Mercer’s first possession featured plenty of interesting plays as the Bears converted multiple third downs to move down the field. The Bears experimented with new looks, even running a pair of plays with both quarterbacks, Smith and Newbauer, on the field simultaneously, but back-to-back sacks of Newbauer by Rhode Island kept Mercer in check.

The zany start to the contest continued from there. After one empty drive by each team, Mercer punted it back to Rhode Island. Rams return man Shawn Harris Jr. fielded the kick and — after a brief movement of his right arm — returned the punt 90 yards for a touchdown that brought the Rams section of Five Star Stadium to its feet.

Coach Jacobs was livid on the sideline, as Harris’ arm movement made the Bears think Rhode Island had called for a fair catch. After a review, that suspicion was confirmed and the play was overturned.

Mercer wasted no time capitalizing on the swing. Myles Redding intercepted a Rams pass on the next play and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown to put the Bears up 7-0 late in the opening quarter.

The two squads whittled away the first quarter from there, combining for only 43 yards of total offense in the opening period.

It looked like the Rams might have something going early in the second when they started leaning on the pass and reached midfield. Then a read option fooled everyone as quarterback Hunter Helms rolled to his right and fired a pass deep to Harris, who made the catch with ease while two Mercer defenders collided with each other to give Rhode Island a touchdown.

It looked like the momentum swing the Rams had been searching for — until an illegal man downfield penalty nixed the whole shebang, forcing another Rhode Island punt and keeping Mercer’s 7-0 lead intact.

The Bears could not get any momentum going on the other side of the ball, though, finishing the half with only 98 yards of total offense. The Rams got up to 137 yards of O thanks to their clutch drive before halftime, as they drove up the field and entered the red zone with less than 30 seconds to play.

A missed Mercer tackle gave Rhode Island the ball at the 1-yardline after a nice pass, but the Rams appeared to fumble the ball one play later. The refs called the loose ball a spike instead and stopped the clock with six seconds left, much to Jacobs’ dismay.

After a quick incompletion left the clock at two seconds, the Rams kicked a field goal to make it 7-3 at halftime.

“I thought that was a fumble, that’s what it looked like from my perspective… but it was huge to limit them to a field goal on that last possession,” Jacobs said. “That’s the difference in the game when it’s a seven-point game.”

The third quarter looked the same as the first two, with both teams thoroughly stuck in the mud on offense. 

The first truly explosive play of the entire contest arrived with about two-and-a-half minutes left in the period when Rams receiver Marquis Buchanan — already in the midst of a quietly impressive performance — reeled in a well-thrown, arcing spiral and outran a Mercer defender for the 56-yard touchdown to put Rhode Island up 10-7. The dime pass felt like a blow to the Bears as the Rams finally connected on a lengthy pass after missing multiple chances.

Mercer bounced back on the ensuing drive, using a pass interference penalty on Rhode Island and, at long last, an explosive run from McGee to get inside the 10-yardline as the third quarter ended.

Dabbs snagged the go-ahead touchdown catch moments later to give the Bears a 14-10 lead.

“We’re in the business of development. The strides that he’s made from when we first started in April at practice to now where he’s one of our most successful players, it’s huge,” Jacobs said of Dabbs. “He ran a great route and helped us put the game away.”

Rhode Island’s offense stayed stagnant, notching yet another three-and-out as the fourth quarter continued. Mercer failed to take advantage of a short field on its next drive but followed up with a scoring sequence thanks to McGee’s second burst of the game to set up a field goal.

With a 17-10 lead, the Bears defense buckled in for what appeared to be the Rams’ last gasp with about six minutes to play.

Three of those minutes ticked away as the Rams crossed the 50 and faced a third-and-2 play in Mercer territory. After Helms inexplicably slid down a yard short of the marker on a quarterback run, an incompletion gave the Bears the ball back with a commanding grip on the game.

After a few more first downs, it was over, and Mercer punched its ticket to the FCS quarterfinals to face NDSU, who defeated No. 15 Abilene Christian 51-31 on the other side of the bracket.

Whitt Newbauer finished with just 57 yards passing after going 10 or 20, but Mercer’s 182 yards rushing picked him up. The Rams had the opposite problem, rushing for only 49 yards — star running back Malik Grant was bottled up early and suffered an injury in the second half — but passed for 266 yards and a score with Helms.