Inside the MEAC · recap

Norfolk State 42, Hampton 21: the giveaways finally stopped

We wrote on Wednesday that the thing to watch in this game was the turnover count, first and always. Norfolk State did not turn the ball over once.

Norfolk State 42, Hampton 21 at Dick Price Stadium, and the Spartans take the Battle of the Bay back after losing it two years running.

The number we kept bringing up

Six giveaways in two games against Old Dominion and Virginia, fourteen points handed directly to the Monarchs, two more interceptions in Charlottesville. We said that stat travels in the worst way because it does not care who the opponent is, and that if it kept happening against a team Norfolk State could physically match, the problem would stop being about the opponent.

It did not keep happening. Zero turnovers, and Deljay Bailey's line reads like the version of him the Spartans have been waiting for: 17-of-25 for 184 yards, no touchdowns through the air and no interceptions either, plus 12 carries for 48 yards and a one-yard score in the first quarter. Nothing spectacular. Nothing given away.

Jason Wonodi scored twice without the offense on the field

Two punt returns for touchdowns in the same game. The first went 76 yards in the second quarter and put Norfolk State ahead 19-14, the extra point blocked. The second went 57 yards with 2:59 left and made it 42-14.

That is the kind of night that turns a close rivalry game into a comfortable one, and it happened twice.

Marco Peery kicked five field goals

From 21, 48, 26, 46 and 27 yards. Fifteen points from the kicker in a game the Spartans won by 21, including a 48-yarder in the second quarter and a 26-yarder as the first half expired.

The rest of the offense did what it has been trying to do since September started. Jalyn Daniels ran 22 times for 102 yards. Ravon Moore added 84 and a fourth-quarter touchdown. Norfolk State ran for 240 yards, finished with 424 total, and held the ball for nearly 35 minutes. Elyjah Mitchell caught seven passes for 85 yards, the fourth straight game he has been where the ball needed to go.

The honest part

Hampton arrived at 1-2 having been outscored 93-3 by Division I opponents since its opener, and the Pirates played like it for most of the night. Tre'Von Taylor threw for 178 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions, and Hampton's second score came with 2:09 left in a game that was already gone. Beating that team by 21 at home is what should have happened.

It still counts, and it still matters, because rivalry games do not give the points back. But it is worth saying plainly that Norfolk State is 2-2 and none of the four games has been a conference game. The MEAC schedule does not open until October 24 at South Carolina State. Everything so far, the shutout and the two FBS losses and this, has been a long audition for a season that has not started yet.

What changed Saturday is that the Spartans finally passed the part of the audition they kept failing. Chicago State is next, on the road.