ATLANTA -- Georgia State fell to Troy 28-7 Saturday night at Center Parc Stadium, snapping the Panthers (4-1, 1-1 Sun Belt) season-opening, four-game winning streak.
Despite the loss, Georgia State's 4-1 record is still the best start in school history.
The Panthers prolific offense struggled, committing three costly turnovers, including two in the red zone.
"Congratulations to Troy. They're a good football team and a tough football team, and when you play a team like that, you can't beat yourself," head coach Shawn Elliott said. "We had three turnovers, two in the red zone, and that's hard to overcome. It's a tough ballgame when you fight yourself, and you can't do it. Certainly Troy had a lot to do with it.
"I thought our defense played extremely well. I thought they gave us a chance to win the game, but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot offensively and that was the difference in the ballgame."
Marcus Carroll rushed for 75 yards and one touchdown and caught three passes for 37 yards. Quarterback Darren Grainger passed for 193 yards on 19 completions but threw his first two interceptions of the season and also fumbled.
Robert Lewis caught six passes for 114 yards.
On defense, safety TyGee Leach, the graduate transfer from Lehigh, grabbed his first interception at GSU, while Henry Bryant had nine tackles.
"I told those guys in the locker room, So what, now what? You keep your heads up," Elliott said. "We've got a helluva football team, but we've got to play three phases. I don't want anybody to drag their heads. Yes, winning and losing is the name of the game, and to lose this game is a disappointing feeling. But I'm very confident in our players, I'm very confident in our leaders, I'm very confident in our coaches, and I think we're going to be a force to be reckoned with."
How It Happened
After the Georgia State defense forced Troy to settle for a pair of field goals, the Panthers got on the scoreboard with a 15-play, 75-yard drive, capped by Marcus Carroll's FBS-leading eighth touchdown of the season to take a 7-6 lead with 7:05 left in the second quarter. That remained the scored at the intermission.
Troy scored on the opening possession of the second half to to take a 13-7 lead. The Trojans extended the lead to 21-7 with 2:42 left in the quarter
Midway through the fourth quarter, Georgia State appeared to score a touchdown on a long pass from Grainger to Lewis, but Lewis was ruled out of bounds on the 1-yard line. Two plays later, the Panthers committed fumbled for their third turnover of the game to give Troy possession with eight minutes remaining and a 14-point lead.
Game Notes
» Marcus Carroll scored his FBS-leading ninth touchdown of the season.
» Darren Grainger threw his first interception of the season on the Panthers' opening drive after 107 straight passes without a pick.
» Georgia State converted 5 of 13 third downs while Troy was successful on 6 of 13.
» The Panthers had four players with more than eight tackles in the ballgame led by Jontrey Hunter, who had 10.
» Georgia State went 2-for-3 on fourth down, converting on 66.7 percent of attempts.
» Grainger completed 65.5% of his passes on the day, going 19-for-29 while averaging 6.7 yards per attempt.
» Gunnar Watson led the Trojans passing attack, completing 23 of his 30 attempts for 256 yards and one touchdown with one interception.
