No. 1 Tarleton State Routs West Georgia 49-6 as Kaden Anderson Accounts for Five Touchdowns

Being No. 1 for the first time in program history comes with a target. For about 15 minutes in Carrollton, Georgia, it looked like the target might get hit. Then the top-ranked team in the FCS remembered who it was.

Tarleton State led by a single point after the first quarter at University Stadium on Saturday, and its offense was stuck in neutral for most of the second. By the final whistle, the Texans had scored 42 straight points and beaten West Georgia 49-6. It was Tarleton's first game ever as the No. 1 team in the Stats Perform FCS poll, and it ended the way so many of its games have lately, with the other team wondering what happened.

The win moved Tarleton to 8-0 overall and 3-0 in the United Athletic Conference. It is the second time in the program's Division I era that Tarleton has started 8-0, and the second straight season it has done it. Over the last two regular seasons, the Texans are 19-1. West Georgia fell to 1-7 and 0-3 in league play.

A one-point game, briefly

The start was everything Tarleton fans hoped for. About four minutes in, quarterback Kaden Anderson found Tanner Schmidt for a 65-yard touchdown, and the No. 1 team was up 7-0 before the home crowd had settled in.

West Georgia did not flinch. Logan Lopez hit a 43-yard field goal, and then, just before the end of the first quarter, a 26-yarder. It was 7-6. The Wolves had put up points on the best team in the country and kept its offense honest.

They kept it honest for a while longer, too. West Georgia held Tarleton scoreless for the first 12 and a half minutes of the second quarter. For a team that came in with one win, that was a real stretch of football, and it raised the question every upset starts with. What if this sticks?

The turning point: third-and-16

It did not stick, and one play explains why.

Facing third-and-16, Anderson hit Schmidt for 18 yards to keep a drive alive. A stop there and West Georgia gets the ball back in a one-point game near halftime. Instead, Tarleton kept moving, and Anderson capped the drive with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Mike Hodge, his first touchdown catch of the season.

The Texans were not done before the break. Anderson connected with Bryce Parker for 57 yards to set up first-and-goal, and Tarleton got creative. Running back James Paige, a former quarterback, lined up under center and ran it in from 2 yards out. In less than three minutes, a 7-6 grind had become a 21-6 halftime lead.

That was the moment the game turned, and Tarleton never looked back.

A defense that took over

If the offense opened the door, the defense knocked it off the hinges in the third quarter.

Linebacker Kaleb Brown forced a fumble, and Tarleton needed only three plays to turn it into points, with Anderson keeping it himself on a 9-yard touchdown run. Later in the quarter, West Georgia went for it on fourth down and Tarleton's defense came away with another fumble. Anderson then found tight end Danny Joiner for a 40-yard touchdown, and it was 35-6.

The fourth quarter brought one more takeaway. Amir Scarver intercepted a pass, and Anderson threw his fourth touchdown of the day, a 23-yarder to Miequle Brock with about 11 minutes left. Freshman running back Bryce Green finished the scoring with a 13-yard run with just under two minutes to play.

Three takeaways, 42 unanswered points and a defense that held an opponent to single digits for the first time this season. After the first quarter, West Georgia did not score again. Over the final three quarters, the Wolves kept moving the ball between the 20s and kept coming away with nothing.

Anderson's afternoon

Anderson completed 14 of 24 passes for 296 yards and four touchdowns, and he added a fifth score on the ground. That is efficient work, about 21 yards per completion, and it is not new. Anderson is the first Tarleton quarterback in the program's Division I era to account for five touchdowns in back-to-back games.

He spread the ball around, too. Four different receivers caught his touchdown passes. Schmidt led the way with five catches for 129 yards, and his 65-yard score set the tone. Parker's 57-yarder set up the Paige touchdown, and Joiner and Brock both found the end zone on big plays.

Green was a bright spot out of the backfield, running seven times for 71 yards and his late touchdown. When a freshman is closing out a road game against a conference opponent, the depth chart is in good shape.

The stars on defense

Brown was the defensive player of the game. He finished with six tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss and the forced fumble that started the second-half avalanche. Roddrick Roberts led the team with seven tackles, and Scarver's interception took away West Georgia's last real chance to make the final score respectable.

For West Georgia, there were positives in a lopsided loss. Quarterbacks Colton Fitzgerald and Collin Hurst combined to complete 23 of 38 passes for 224 yards, and DK Daniel caught six passes for 78 yards. Lopez accounted for all six West Georgia points with his two field goals. The Wolves moved the ball well enough to finish with 307 total yards. They just could not hold onto it, and they could not finish drives.

The stats that matter

Total yards: Tarleton 483, West Georgia 307. Takeaways: Tarleton 3. Points off those takeaways decided the second half.

The yardage gap is real but not a blowout on its own. The real difference was big plays and ball security. Tarleton produced scoring plays of 65, 40 and 23 yards through the air, plus the 57-yard setup to Parker. West Georgia's most promising possessions kept ending with the ball on the turf or in a Tarleton defender's hands. You can see every possession in the official box score (opens in a new tab).

What it means

For Tarleton, the first week as No. 1 went as well as it could, slow start aside. Next on the schedule was a Halloween home game against Eastern Kentucky at Memorial Stadium in Stephenville, billed as Military Appreciation night. Every week from here is about protecting that top spot and the seeding that comes with it. Earlier this season, Tarleton demolished MVSU 59-3, and once the first quarter ended, Saturday looked a lot like that one.

For West Georgia, the search for a second win continues on the road at Abilene Christian on Saturday. The Wolves showed for one quarter that they can hang with anybody. The task is doing it for four. Tarleton has more on its day in its game recap (opens in a new tab).

The last word

Tarleton coach Todd Whitten did not hide from the slow start.

"I'm really pleased with our guys," Whitten said. "We had a good week of practice and a lot of good leadership coming into the game. We got off to a slow start, but our defense got a lot of stops and turnovers. Our defense and offense really complemented each other today. I'm very proud of our guys' efforts."

That last part is the scary part for the rest of the FCS. On a day when the offense was not sharp early, the defense took the ball away three times and handed it right back. Tarleton handled the pressure of being No. 1 by doing the same things that got it there. Eight games in, nobody has found an answer.

Sources: Tarleton State Athletics recap and official box score and the Associated Press. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Avery Golden.