The Emporia State offense succeeded in its goal of wearing down the Lincoln Blue Tigers on defense.
With its hurry-up offense, the Hornets ran 92 plays of offense against the Blue Tigers and finished with 10 scoring drives Saturday night. Emporia State snapped a two-game losing skid with a 50-7 win at Dwight T. Reed Stadium.
Lincoln's defense was in bend-don't-break mode for the first half, but the Blue Tigers finally broke in the third quarter, when it allowed three touchdowns.
"Defensively, we're bending and not breaking every week," Lincoln interim head coach Malik Hoskins said. "Our offense is just not giving us any help."
Lincoln totaled just 204 yards of offense in the loss, a slight improvement from 198 yards the week before.
"We can't throw the football to save our life," Hoskins said, as the Blue Tigers had just 72 yards passing Saturday. "It is just hurting us. Teams are just packing the box. I look up and they've got 11 guys eight yards from the line of scrimmage."
During the first half, Emporia State marched into the red zone four times against Lincoln, but failed to score a touchdown on any of those possessions.
"The defense did a good job of just standing up and being defensive," Hoskins said.
"Then we'd go three-and-out, and the defense is right back out there, and we're asking them to do the same thing over and over and over again."
The Hornets' first drive stalled inside the 10-yard line, and they had to settle for a 24-yard field goal from Clark Schoonover. Emporia State took an early 3-0 lead with 12:36 on the clock in the first quarter.
Dalton Cowan threw a 42-yard pass to Dexton Swinehart on Emporia State's next possession in the first quarter. Cowan threw three touchdown passes in the game and was 28-of-40 passing for 331 yards.
Lincoln's only score came on the ensuing possession.
With the drive starting on their own 25-yard line, the Blue Tigers moved across midfield on the legs of running back Hosea Franklin. However, Lincoln soon faced fourth-and-5 from the Emporia State 35.
Following a timeout, Chancellor Johnson lobbed a pass downfield to Chrisshun Robinson, who beat his defender to the ball and made it just across the goal line before going down for a 35-yard touchdown catch. Javier Moreno added the extra point, and Lincoln trailed 10-7 with 5:31 to play in the opening quarter.
"With the coverage that they played, we knew that play was going to be open," Hoskins said. "It was open on both sides (of the field), he just had to pick. Luckily, he picked that side and threw it to one of our better receivers in Chrisshun."
Hoskins felt pleased with the momentum, especially as Lincoln opened its first two offensive series with completions of 10 and 11 yards. But the Blue Tigers only completed three more passes in the final three quarters.
"It was fool's gold," Hoskins said. "You think you've got something going, and then you get a penalty or you don't pass protect very well. Things just started snowballing downhill."
Schoonover added field goals from 26, 33 and 25 yards later in the first half. His fourth field goal was the final play of the first half, giving Emporia State a 26-7 lead at intermission.
In the third quarter, Carlos Grace scored on a 1-yard run and Vinnie Shabazz had a 14-yard score. Cowan, who threw a 27-yard touchdown to Will Amos in the second quarter, added another on a 3-yard strike to Case Cochran in the third.
Schoonover capped the scoring with 9:01 remaining in the game on a 25-yard field goal, his fifth make of the game.
Lincoln was 0-for-11 on third down and did not take a snap inside the red zone.
"We can't get first downs," Hoskins said, as the Blue Tigers finished with eight to the Hornets' 32 times moving the chains.
Emporia State finished with 536 yards of offense and held onto the ball for more than 36 minutes of game time.
"We tried our best to simulate what they do in practice," Hoskins said, "but it's just not possible because you just don't have enough time in the day to do that."
Franklin recorded his third 100-yard game of the season, finishing with 18 carries for 128 yards. Through four games, he already has 570 yards rushing, averaging 7.2 yards per attempt.
Chavon Gross led the Blue Tiger defense with nine solo tackles. He also recorded an interception in the fourth quarter for Lincoln's 12th takeaway this season, one more than all of 2018.
Emporia State (2-2) was able to turn over the Blue Tigers three times with a pair of interceptions and a fumble recovery on a muffed pitch.
Lincoln (0-4) plays next Saturday at Pittsburg State (4-0). Kickoff is at 1 p.m.