With a 28-21 loss to South Carolina State University’s football team, the Florida A&M University’s offense felt they could have played a stronger game.
“We basically beat ourselves, we weren’t mentally in the game,” said Isaac West, wide receiver.
Going into the first quarter, the Rattler offense was not as strong as usual.
At the beginning of the first quarter the offense had one turnover, a fumble.
The cause of the fumble was a complete pass from Eddie Battle, junior alternating quarterback to Kevin Elliot freshmen receiver, who in turn, fumbled the ball.
The Rattler offense had a total of 13 plays for 78 yards compared to the Bulldogs 24 plays for 157 yards in the first quarter.
They also only converted for one of two third down conversions.
Wallace, 20, right guard offense player, said that the offense was not handling the ball like they should have.
“We had mental mistakes,” said Wallace from Austin. “We could’ve done a lot better. It wasn’t a certain factor that gave us mistakes.”
In the second quarter, a pass from the Rattler’s alternating quarterback, Curtis Pulley, was intercepted by the Bulldogs, which resulted in a 45 yard run for the Bulldogs.
The Rattler offense had four fumbles going into halftime, but only lost possession of two of them. They had a total of 35 plays for 153 yards going into the half.
Pulley felt his team had the potential to win.
“We got to work on coming out strong with the ball,” said Pulley, a junior from Hopkinsville, Ky. “We could have come out with a win.”
Pulley completed 8-of-15 passes for 125 yards and one interception, and added 66 yards on 13 carries for the Rattlers.
The Rattler offense did not get a chance to score too many points going into half time.
The seats were filled with anxious fans waiting for the Rattlers to score.
The offense team scored two touchdowns in the third quarter, one by Isaac West and the other by Holcomb of the defense.
“I felt I played alright but I felt I could’ve done better,” said Isaac West, 20, a junior from Tallahassee.
West said his coach gave them a good speech during the half and he thought about his sister after he scored the first touchdown of the game.
West had a total of 101 yards and 32 yards was his longest catch.
West said the offense beat themselves and going into the next game, they need to put everything into their plays.
“I think we need to work on being 100 percent and playing the game,” West said.