What You Need to Know:
* Nick Arbuckle passed for 394 yards, including TD passes of 76, 61 and 58 yards, and ran for a fourth score.
* In his first game of the season, Donovan Harden had five catches for 179 yards, including a 76-yard TD on his first catch.
* Safety Tarris Batiste recorded a school-record 17 tackles.
ATLANTA -- Despite nearly 400 yards passing and four touchdowns from senior Nick Arbuckle, Georgia State fell to Liberty 41-33 Saturday afternoon at the Georgia Dome.
Arbuckle finished 18-for-29 for 394 yards, including touchdown passes of 76, 61 and 58 yards, but the Flames netted more than 500 yards of offense to improve to 3-2 on the season. Arbuckle also ran for a touchdown as the Panthers dropped to 1-3.
Senior Donovan Harden, who missed the first three games of the season due to injury, caught five passes for a 179 yards, including the 76-yard touchdown, the sixth-longest play from scrimmage in program history which came on his first catch of the season and GSU's third play of the game. The 179 receiving yards are the second-most in school history, seven yards behind the school record that he also owns.
Robert Davis hauled in a 61-yard touchdown pass, and Penny Hart had a 58-yard scoring play.
Tarris Batiste recorded a school-record 17 tackles, including 11 solo tackles.
Georgia State scored touchdowns on its first two possessions, but trailed Liberty 21-14 at the half. The Panthers opened the second half with Arbuckle's touchdown to Hart to tie the game at 21 just over a minute into the third quarter.
"We were outplayed today. Hats off to Liberty for coming in here and being able to run the ball and do what they did offensively," head coach Trent Miles said. "We've got to go back to the drawing board and do a much better job.
The Flames, ranked No. 18 in the FCS, were able to control the clock by rushing 50 times for 263 yards. Quarterback Josh Woodrum was very efficient, completing 25-of-32 passes for 239 yards and engineering four touchdown drives of 75 yards or longer. D.J. Abnar rushed for 88 yards, and Desmond Rice added 87, including three 1-yard touchdowns.
“Liberty had 43 minutes on offense and we had 16. We had three possessions in the first half and scored two touchdowns," Miles said. "It's very difficult when your defense is out there the whole time and can't get off the field.”
Georgia State will return to action next Saturday, Oct. 10, hosting Appalachian State in a Sun Belt showdown in the Georgia Dome at 3:30 p.m.
With GSU trailing 38-27 in the fourth quarter, Arbuckle moved the Panthers 78 yards on eight plays, capped by his 8-yard scoring run that pulled GSU within 38-33 with 2:51 left. But the try for a two-point conversion failed.
After Liberty recovered GSU's onsides kick, Georgia State stopped the Flames on three plays, but Josh Lunsford's 56-yard field goal wobbled through the uprights to give Liberty a 41-33 lead. Still, Georgia State trailed by one score with 2:27 to play, but Arbuckle's final pass was intercepted at midfield.
