Appalachian State continued its comeback tour on Saturday afternoon with a routing of Texas State by a final of 35-10. The Mountaineers have now won their last six games and stomped their last four opponents by at least 18 points in each matchup.Taylor Lamb tied his career high for passing touchdowns with four in the game, with all four going to different targets. Marcus Cox and Jalin Moore paced the rushing attack with more than 100 yards apiece for a second straight game.Cox got the scoring started for the Apps with a massive 37-yard rushing touchdown. That score gave App State a lead it wouldn’t relinquish the remainder of the game.Marcus Cox is a cheat code.Tremendous vision on display during his 5th rushing TD of the season. pic.twitter.com/Lpdn2jKBXo App State Athletics (@appstatesports) November 5, 2016
The return of Cox has given the Mountaineers another gear that it didn’t have midway through the season. While Jalin Moore has been a brute force out of the backfield, App now has fresh legs throughout four quarters and two running backs with a nose for the end zone.Moore’s streak of games with a touchdown ended on Saturday at five straight, but Cox’s TD gave him six on the season in just five games. But with a combined 248 yards between the two backs, having both running hard this late in the season is critical to getting the passing game going.Oh, did the passing game get going behind Lamb. The junior quarterback’s four touchdowns were the most on the season. He did so efficiently, too, with his 120 passing yards serving as the lowest in Sun Belt play this year.Three of Lamb’s touchdown passes came in the second quarter, putting App up 28-3 at the half. The final score was a special one for freshman Mock Adams, as it accounted for the first of his career.And finally Mock Adams ended the half with his first-career TD. pic.twitter.com/T5laaxd2C4 App State Athletics (@appstatesports) November 5, 2016
App State would tack on one more TD from Lamb to Barrett Burns with the game already clearly in hand. The lone touchdown for Texas State also came in the third quarter on a one-yard rush from Stedman Mayberry following a blocked punt. App’s defense gave up 197 total yards with just 14 coming on the ground.The Mountaineers will need a similar defensive effort against Troy next Saturday. The Trojans are 7-1 on the season and 4-0 in the conference. After App State pulled off a 44-41 win last year in Boone, Troy is the toughest test on the schedule for the Mountaineers to remain undefeated in conference.
