“This is a tough place to play and we got our butt kicked. This was a royal whooping,” Western Michigan Head Coach P.J. Fleck said following the 43-17 lopsided victory for Georgia Southern over the Broncos. Along with a fantastic defensive performance, the Eagle offense truly turned things around 180 degrees to deliver the ‘royal whooping’.

Over 23,000 fans packed into Paulson Stadium on the rainy Saturday evening and were treated with seemingly an entirely new and reinvigorated football team. The Eagle offense doubled their productivity from their previous contest by rushing for 413 yards and 5 touchdowns. It was a stunning performance that gave every fan their money’s worth who sat through the pregame showers.

The offensive line was simply phenomenal in this performance on Saturday. After the lackluster performance against West Virginia many were expecting the worst from the rag-tag group of offensive linemen. They came out and silenced all doubters against the Broncos and seemingly put the opposing defensive line on skis. Their push up front freed up huge gains from the backs and many tackles came from the last level of defenders. If this performance is any indication of what the rest of the season has in store, Georgia Southern will be in line for a repeat Sun Belt Championship.

Due to the stellar performance of the offensive line, we got to see the talent of the running backs once again. Redshirt sophomore running back L.A. Ramsby picked up 42 yards on 13 carries and also had a short plunge into the end zone for one of the rushing scores. Ramsby was integral in wearing down the Eagle defense with several tough runs and often left defenders on their backs.

If the future didn’t seem bright enough already, Eagle fans got to take a glimpse of what will come from freshman running back Wesley Fields. The true freshman finished with 82 yards on six carries and had two big runs of 25 and 35 yards to set up a touchdown drive in the first half. Fields showed a great mix of power and speed in route to an impressive breakout performance.

After facing a lot of criticism last week, junior quarterback Favian Upshaw was eager to prove he could handle the role full time. Upshaw wowed fans with several huge runs including a run over 40 yards that would be called back on a holding penalty. At the end of the night, he finished with 103 yards on 16 carries and was able to avoid any costly turnovers.

While the entire offense had an amazing performance the star of the game was, without a doubt, junior running back Matt Breida. The sensation ran for 174 yards on only 11 carries with four rushing touchdowns. The entire first half he seemed to be just inches from breaking away on a long run and he did not disappoint. Breida was able to tear free for a 70 yard touchdown run to open the second half and sucked any momentum the Broncos had coming out of the locker room.

The Citadel rolls into town this weekend and the Eagle offense will be waiting. The 2-0 Bulldogs enter after winning their first two games against Davidson and Western Carolina by a combined score of 97-10. It certainly won’t be a chance for Georgia Southern to take a game off but it will give them more opportunities to show off their dominance to the country against their former Southern Conference opponents.