Apparently, oddsmakers didn’t think much of Georgia Southern’s rally from 20 points down in the final 6:45 to beat Marshall, 24-23, last week. James Madison was installed as a 10-point favorite going into Saturday’s game against the Eagles.

But Georgia Southern built a 21-0 lead and never looked back in defeating the Dukes, 28-14, before a large and happy Homecoming crowd at Paulson Stadium.

With their third straight conference victory, Georgia Southern is alone atop the East Division of the Sun Belt at 3-0 and 5-2 overall. The Eagles travel to Virginia to face Old Dominion in a nationally-televised Thursday night game on ESPN2 with first place in the East on the line. Old Dominion is 2-1 in the Sun Belt and 3-4 overall after beating Texas State Saturday, 24-14.

Saturday, J.C. French threw three touchdown passes and survived three interceptions to lead the Eagles past James Madison (5-2, 1-2).

David Mbadinga ran 29 yards for the game's first points in the opening quarter and the Eagles (5-2, 3-0 Sun Belt) led thereafter. French tossed TD passes of 5 yards to Derwin Burgess Jr. and 15 to Tyler Fromm for a 21-0 halftime lead.

After French was picked off in the flat by DJ Barksdale midway through the third quarter for an 11-yard interception return for a touchdown, he responded with a 2-yard toss to Elija Walton to push Georgia Southern’s lead to 28-7.

French was 24-of-33 passing and Jalen White rushed for 134 yards on 23 carries, his 11th career 100-yard rushing game.

While the Eagles committed four turnovers, the defense didn't allow any points off those miscues. The defense forced six punts, three turnovers on downs and a missed field goal to account for 10 drive stops. The unit also recorded a season-high six sacks, nine tackles for loss, six pass breakups and five quarterback hurries in holding the Sun Belt's top offense to just 253 yards of total offense.

Marques Watson-Trent tallied 14 tackles, including 2.0 for loss and 1.5 sacks, while picking up a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry.