Troy beat UTSA 18-12 to win the Duluth Trading Cure Bowl. What happened, who was the player of the game, and what does it all mean?
Troy 18, UTSA 12 Duluth Trading Cure Bowl What Happened, Player of the Game, What It All Means
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Duluth Trading Cure Bowl What Happened
– UTSA got up 12-0 on a Troy snap out of the end zone for a safety, and helped by a two-yard Frank Harris touchdown pass to Zaire Franklin. That was it for the Roadrunner scores as mistake after mistake proved costly.
Troy scored 19 unanswered points, highlighted by a Gunnar Watson 12-yard touchdown pass to RaJae Johnson to capitalize off a Keyshawn Swanson pick near the end zone to stall a UTSA drive.
– UTSA is going to be kicking itself for this one. It had a 12-0, but turned it over five times, got hit with nine penalties – one big one that kept a drive alive – and allowed a fake punt for a first down, and yet it had chance after chance to take over. UTSA’s offense suffered drop after drop – not helped by some questionable play calls – along with all of those mistakes. However …
– Give the Trojans credit. The offense didn’t work all that well, the defense bent a bit too much, and they couldn’t put the game away despite all the UTSA errors. The defense came up with stop after stop, overcame its own mistakes, and got the thrilling bowl win.
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Duluth Trading Cure Bowl Player of the Game
KJ Robertson, LB Troy
Several Troy defensive players could’ve been here – Carlton Martial led the team with 14 tackles and CB Reddy Steward had a huge day. Robertson did a little of everything with 9 tackles with an interception.
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Duluth Trading Cure Bowl Fun Stats
– Total offense: UTSA 345 – Troy 153
– Penalties: UTSA 9 for 105 yards, Troy 2 for 22 yards
– Turnovers: UTSA 5, Troy 2
Duluth Trading Cure Bowl What It All Means
Troy closed out one of its best – if not the strongest – seasons in the program’s history, and it was the strongest in the 22 years since moving up to the FCS world. Not bad for Jon Sumrall’s first season. Along with a Sun Belt Championship and now a Cure Bowl win, the 12 wins push pass the 11-2 2017 season. This also makes it five straight bowl wins going back to 2010.
UTSA was fantastic all season long, and it had this game in its hands, but couldn’t come through. It was still a fantastic season with a Conference USA title, but the program is still winless in bowl games – 0-4 losing the last three years – and it wasn’t able to match last year’s 12-2 season.
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