Wofford vs. Georgia Southern: Jeff Monken credits Eagles' 'tremendous effort'

Georgia Southern defeated FCS No. 4 Wofford 17-9 on Saturday and held its No.1-ranked rush attack to half of its season average for run production. The Eagles had been turnover prone coming into this game, and coughed the ball up early against the Terriers.

Not only that, but when Wofford had the ball following the fumble by fullback Dominique Swope, GSU had a tough time keeping the Terriers out of the end zone. But the Eagles managed. This was GSU head coach Jeff Monken on that defensive possession.

"We stopped them three times. They kicked a field goal, and we were offsides. They threw a pass and we intercepted it, but they threw a flag -- automatic first down. We go to it again, and they kick a field goal. They just ended up with three points. Our guys didn't mope. They didn't say, ‘Oh, poor us.' They didn't point fingers and go blaming other things. They just lined up and played with a tremendous effort."

It was a slow game for the most part:

"I wanted to come in here and beat them 55 to nothing," Monken said. "That's what I wanted. That's certainly a lot less agonizing to go through, but we try and do the best we can on offense and defense, on each series. It's a team game, and our defense held in there and kept them out of the end zone, and that was huge. The offense did a great job getting the ball in the end zone before the half -- that was a great momentum boost -- and I thought we played a lot better in the second half."