ATLANTA — Georgia Southern entered Saturday needing a win at Georgia State to keep its bowl hopes alive.
    The Eagles won’t be playing in the postseason this year.
    A fumble and some porous defense allowed the Panthers (3-8, 2-5 Sun Belt) to build a 20-0 lead just over eight minutes into the game. Georgia Southern (4-7, 3-4) closed the gap before halftime, but surrendered the first 10 points of the second half and dropped a 30-24 game at the Georgia Dome.
    Trailing 30-17 late, L.A. Ramsby powered in for a 1-yard touchdown run. The Eagle defense was able to hold and give the offense a final chance with just under a minute to play, but Georgia Southern didn’t make it out of its own red zone before turning the ball over on downs.
    “That’s a tough loss. It’s a tough pill to swallow,” GS coach Tyson Summers said. “I’m proud of how our guys continued to fight after how the game began. But we put ourselves in an extremely difficult position to be down 20 points that quickly. We fought back, but it wasn’t enough.”
    As has been the case for most of the season, the Eagles’ once potent offense simply had no punch.
    Georgia Southern banged out 241 rushing yards on 46 attempts and racked up 363 total yards, but many of those came in a frantic comeback effort and another slow offensive start left the Eagles with too much ground to try and make up.
    Conversely, the Panthers had plenty of firepower to burn. Connor Manning completed 21 of his 39 pass attempts for 318 yards and a pair of touchdowns while also finding the end zone once with his feet.
    All-Sun Belt tight end Keith Rucker continued to be Manning’s favorite target, hauling in eight catches for 145 yards while Glenn Smith and Robert Davis were on the receiving end of Manning’s touchdown tosses.
    “Too many times, we didn’t make the right adjustments on defense.,” Summers said. “(Georgia State) came out and - right away - was able to do some things they hadn’t been successful with before. Then we get down 20-0 and we really were just going through some of our basic calls to get settled down.”
    Once again, the Eagles couldn’t get out of their own way. After conceding a couple of big plays that allowed Georgia State to drive well into GS territory on the game’s opening drive, Jesse Liptrot and William Bussey made plays to force the Panthers into 4th-and-4. The Eagles sniffed out another short pass to stop the Panthers, but an offsides call gave Georgia State the first down.
    On the next play, Glenn Smith bounced to the left side and sprinted for a 29-yard touchdown to give the Panthers the early lead.
    On the second play of the Eagles’ ensuing drive, Matt Breida (12 carries, 56 yards) pushed ahead for a first down, only to fumble at the GS 26.
    Three plays later, Manning found Ari Werts to press the Panthers down to the 1 yard line. Manning snuck it into the end zone on the next play, giving the Panthers a 13-0 lead after Rogier Ten Lohuis’s extra point attempt as blocked.
    The hits kept coming for the Eagles.
    A quick three-and-out gave the ball right back to Georgia State, which needed just three plays to go 70 yards. Manning found Robert Davis for a 28-yard touchdown strike and the Panthers had a 20-0 advantage with 6:55 still remaining in the first quarter.
    Just when a blowout seemed imminent, the Eagles fought back.
    Kevin Ellison found Montay Crockett on a 35-yard strike to convert a key third down and Ellison finished the drive by slicing 24 yards through the middle of the Panther defense to notch the Eagles’ first points.
    Crockett then returned a punt to the Georgia State 27 and - on the first play of the second quarter - Breida pushed in from a yard out to make it 20-14.
    Both defenses held from there until Georgia Southern’s Younghoe Koo split the uprights to make it a 20-17 game as halftime arrived. Koo’s 19th field goal of the season set the new GS single-season record.
    If the Eagles had the momentum at halftime, they didn’t keep it for long.
    Georgia Southern did nothing with the opening possession of the second half and the Panther offense sprung back to life. Manning worked his team down the field by consistently targeting the middle of the GS pass defense. On 3rd-and-8 from the Eagles’ 15, Smith ran free on a slant and hauled in Manning’s second scoring strike of the day.
    “We were in a look where we have a ‘Mike’ linebacker in coverage on those four receiver and wide open sets,” Summers said. “We’ve had success with that, but Georgia State was able to do a good job of getting their guys open and their quarterback threw some nice passes.”
    A second Georgia Southern fumble offered up another short field to the Panthers. And while the Eagle defense didn’t break, Brandon Wright’s 27-yard field goal made it a 30-17 contest as the game bled into the fourth quarter.
    With Ellison forced to the sideline due to injury, Favian Upshaw mounted the Eagles’ final comeback attempt. The senior quarterback led the team on a 14-play, 87-yard drive that was capped by Ramsby’s touchdown with 5:25 to play.
    The Panthers were able to wind down most of the game clock by picking up a first down on their final drive, punting to the Eagles with 45 seconds remaining.
    Starting from his own 5, Upshaw picked up a first down on the ground before four consecutive incomplete passes sealed the Georgia State win.
    Georgia Southern now heads into its only true bye week of the season. The Eagles are off next week before playing their season finale against Troy on Dec. 3 at Paulson Stadium.
    “Right now, we just want to keep playing hard,” Summers said. “We want to send our seniors out right. We owe that to them.”
       
Mike Anthony may be reached at (912) 489-9408.