Appalachian State Mountaineers vs Troy Trojans Preview
The only thing that stands between the Appalachian State Mountaineers and their rightful spot as Sun Belt Conference favorites are…the Trojans?
Yes, the Troy Trojans in the second year of rebuilding will attempt to resist the Mountaineers on Halloween night before all the candy runs out. Major doubts that this one will take a ten year siege and a wooden horse to accomplish.
Opponent: Troy Trojans (2-5, 1-2 Sun Belt)
Date: October 31
Time: 3:30 PM
TV: ESPN3
Venue: Kidd-Brewer Stadium
So if you were Troy, how would you choose to stop the Mountaineers? Would stop Marcus Cox? Would stopping Cox even turn the Mountaineers one dimensional? After all there is Terrence Upshaw and Jalin Moore waiting in the wings.
Do you try to bend and not break? Let App kick field goals while you score touchdowns? Let Brandon Silvers sling the ball around the yard? Do you try to go that way?
I don’t like this matchup for Troy at all. Troy is a spread offense that depends on passing the ball. It is not a ball control team that could try and take some fire out of the other team’s offense by keeping it off the field. So if it plays to form then it plays into the App State offense’s hands.
That puts a lot of pressure on the Troy defense to stop the App spread option game. Last week App State showed Georgia Southern that they are not afraid of using quarterback Taylor Lamb to balance out the offense. The also showed that one dimensional teams do fare well against the App State defense.
The biggest concern is that App State would take this game too easily as they prepare for the real challenge to their title run. Those teams are Arkansas State and the Ragin Cajuns of Louisiana-Lafayette (Excuse me, THE University of Louisiana). App needs to keep the game in front of it. Beating Georgia Southern was huge, they don’t want to lose that advantage in a nightmare on Halloween.
Prediction: 35-6 Appalachian State