JP Pickles Rallies Mercer Past The Citadel 28-19 After 10-0 Halftime Deficit

For 30 minutes on homecoming afternoon in Macon, the winless team in the Southern Conference standings looked like the one with a ranking. The Citadel held the ball, kept Mercer off the scoreboard and walked into halftime ahead 10-0. Then JP Pickles needed a little more than 10 minutes of the third quarter to flip the game, and Mercer held on for a 28-19 win at Five Star Stadium on Saturday.

Pickles threw for 234 yards and three touchdowns on 17-of-20 passing and ran for a fourth score, accounting for every Mercer touchdown in the game. Brayden Smith caught five passes for 113 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown on the first snap of a drive that gave the Bears their first lead. Mercer improved to 7-2 overall and 4-1 in the SoCon, extending its winning streak to five games, while The Citadel fell to 2-7 and 0-5 in league play.

It was not the comfortable afternoon a 16.5-point favorite expects. The Bulldogs won the time of possession battle by a wide margin, had more first downs and stayed within reach until the final minutes. What they could not do was match Mercer's big plays once the Bears found them.

The Citadel controls the first half

The Bulldogs set the tone on their opening possession. Sebastien Boyle broke a 40-yard touchdown run at 11:38 of the first quarter to cap a seven-play, 75-yard drive that took 3:22, and Evan Kiely added the extra point for a 7-0 lead.

The Citadel's second scoring drive was more typical of how the half went. The Bulldogs went 11 plays and 54 yards over 5:33, and Kiely hit a 37-yard field goal on the first play of the second quarter to make it 10-0.

Mercer's offense never found a rhythm before the break and went to the locker room without a point. Penalties were a problem all day, and Mercer finished the game with 11 for 100 yards, a number that would usually sink a team against a ball-control opponent. The Citadel was flagged three times for 33 yards.

Pickles flips the game in the third quarter

Whatever was said in the Mercer locker room, the third quarter looked like a different team. The Bears took the second-half possession and went 89 yards in seven plays over 3:39, finishing with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Pickles to Devon Caldwell at 11:15. Simon Zeidan's kick cut the lead to 10-7.

The next Mercer drive took 11 seconds. On the first play, Pickles found Smith behind the Citadel secondary for an 80-yard touchdown at 7:59 of the third quarter, and Mercer led 14-10.

Mercer's defense then took its turn. Linebacker Ronin Dangler sacked Citadel quarterback Nick Billoups for an 11-yard loss on third down to force a punt, and Smith returned it 19 yards to The Citadel 47. Jaylen King completed an 18-yard pass to Zachary Lowe on the drive, Pickles scrambled 16 yards to the 2, and two plays later Pickles ran it in himself at 1:33. The Citadel was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct after the score, and Zeidan's kick made it 21-10 entering the fourth quarter.

That 21-point quarter was the game. Mercer scored on three straight possessions after being shut out in the first half.

The Citadel keeps pushing

The Bulldogs did not go away. Billoups hit Israel Benjamin for 29 yards to set up first-and-goal at the Mercer 7 early in the fourth quarter, but the Bears held. Ke'Vion Wellington and Nigel Gay dropped Boyle for a 3-yard loss, Gay and CJ Favors combined on a sack, and Kiely settled for a 31-yard field goal at 9:05 that cut the deficit to 21-13. The drive ate 7:28 off the clock.

The next swing came on special teams. After a Mercer punt, Braylon Knauth muffed the catch at The Citadel 22, and Mercer's Jaiden Hamilton recovered at the 24. On the very next play, Pickles hit Travion Solomon for a 24-yard touchdown at 7:24, and Zeidan's kick pushed the lead back to 28-13. It was Mercer's second one-play touchdown drive of the day.

The Citadel made it interesting late. Billoups led an 11-play, 75-yard drive that took 4:18 and finished it himself with an 18-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-3 at 2:24. The extra point was blocked, leaving The Citadel down 28-19, and Mercer closed it out from there.

Turning point

The 80-yard strike from Pickles to Smith is the play that will show up on highlight packages, and for good reason. Mercer had trailed for more than 33 minutes of game time. One throw erased the deficit and changed the way The Citadel had to play.

The Bulldogs' formula all afternoon was to shorten the game, keep their defense rested and grind out points. Once they were behind, that plan lost much of its value. Their two fourth-quarter scoring drives took a combined 11:46 off the clock, but they produced only nine points, and the muffed punt between them handed Mercer seven more without the Bears needing to earn a first down.

By the numbers

Pickles was nearly perfect through the air, completing 17 of 20 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. He was also Mercer's busiest runner, and his touchdown run gave him a hand in all four Mercer scores. On the final possession, his 7-yard run on third down picked up the first down that let the Bears run out the clock. Smith's 113 receiving yards came on five catches. Three different receivers caught touchdown passes.

Dangler led a Mercer pass rush that kept Billoups uncomfortable all day, finishing with seven tackles and three sacks. Jyarius Carter and Wellington each made 10 tackles, and Carter added a sack of his own. Mercer sacked Billoups five times in all and did not turn the ball over, while The Citadel lost the fumble on the muffed punt.

For The Citadel, Billoups completed 12 of 17 passes for 143 yards and ran for the late touchdown. Boyle ran 12 times for 63 yards and the opening score, and Benjamin caught five passes for 55 yards. Linebacker Jalen Wright had seven tackles, tied with Zyion Brown for the team lead, and one of the Bulldogs' four sacks of Pickles.

The team totals tell the story of two very different styles. The Citadel held the ball for more than 35 minutes and won the first-down battle 18-13, but Mercer's yards came in chunks: the Bears averaged 12 yards per pass attempt, and Lowe caught two passes for 72 yards. Mercer converted only a handful of its third downs, a number that would normally doom an offense, but the Bears rarely needed long drives in the second half.

What it means

For Mercer, this is the kind of win that matters in November even if it does not look pretty on film. The Bears are 7-2 and 4-1 in the SoCon, on a five-game winning streak, and they stayed in the race with East Tennessee State, Chattanooga and Tennessee Tech at the top of the league. Mercer has now beaten The Citadel seven straight times and leads the all-time series 12-11-1.

The concerns are real, though. A 10-0 halftime deficit at home to a team without a conference win is a warning sign, and 11 penalties for 100 yards will not hold up against the league's best. Mercer's next game is a trip to Chattanooga on Nov. 7 at Finley Stadium, and the Mocs entered the weekend at 5-1 in league play.

For The Citadel, the loss stings in a different way. The Bulldogs had a lead on the road against one of the league's top teams, controlled the ball and limited Mercer to a handful of sustained drives. They are 2-7 and still searching for their first SoCon win, but the first-half blueprint showed what this group can do when it plays clean, physical football.

The take

Mercer escaped more than it dominated. Pickles was terrific, and the Bears' ability to score from anywhere covered for a sloppy first half and a penalty total that should worry the coaching staff.

The Citadel deserves credit for a game plan that nearly worked. A clock-draining approach kept a favored opponent off balance for a half. The Bulldogs simply could not survive the third quarter, when three Mercer possessions turned a 10-point lead into an 11-point deficit.

For more on the teams, read our recaps of Tennessee Tech's win over The Citadel and Georgia Tech's win over Mercer.

Sources: ESPN box score (opens in a new tab) and gamecast, Mercer Athletics game preview. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Mercer Athletics (file photo).