On Saturday, the Georgia Southern Eagles recorded  just their third loss by 30 or more points during the Chad Lunsford era. The 38-6 defeat came at the hands of the Florida Atlantic Owls.

“First off, embarrassed. At Georgia Southern, you don’t get beat like this,” said Lunsford after the game. “We’ve got to go figure it out, because this is embarrassing.”

The Eagles began the game hot, jumping out to a 6-0 lead following a 22-yard Logan Wright touchdown on their first possession of the game. Cam Ransom got the start at quarterback over week one starter Amare Jones.

However, the turning point of the game occurred when Ransom limped off the field with an apparent leg injury. Sam Kenerson entered the game at quarterback for the Eagles and saw immediate success on the ground, racking up nine carries for 42 yards.

At first, the Eagle offense did not appear to miss a beat with Kenerson under center, but a fumble at the FAU 11-yard line proved disastrous. The team gained just 127 yards the remainder of the game following the costly turnover.

“I thought Sam was handling it pretty good and the got the ball knocked loose,” said Lunsford. “When the ball got knocked loose and they got it, you just kind of felt the deflation, because we were going in to score.”

The offensive struggles allowed the Owls to more than double the output of the Eagles, gaining 541 yards in comparison to the 257 yards recorded by GS. GS averaged just 3.7 yards per carry on Saturday, their lowest mark since the Coastal Carolina game last season.

The 32-point defeat is the worst loss by the Eagles since they were handed a 55-3 loss by the eventual national champions, the LSU Tigers. The six points scored by the Eagles is also their worst mark since their defeat at LSU.

“I said we all got to do some soul searching,” said Lunsford regarding what he told the team. “We all got to figure out what we’re going to be this year.”

GS falls to 1-1 on the season following the loss. The Eagles will be back in action on Saturday as they travel to Fayeteville to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks, who currently sit at No. 20 in the AP Poll. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.