By Adam Houston

adam.houston@salisburypost.com

The 2014 season looks to be heading in the same direction as the 2013 season. Like this season, Appalachian State wound up on the losing end in five of their first six games in 2013. Though the Mountaineers rallied with three wins in their last five games, with one of those losses being at Georgia.

Improving down the stretch is something App State wants to do as it tries to rally for a winning season.

“It was tough last year and it’s tough again this year. It doesn’t matter how you’ve done in previous weeks,” head coach Scott Satterfield said. “…We’ve got to take it one week at a time and try to do our best going forward.”

Saturday left the Mountaineers with a familiar feeling — dissappointment. Appalachian State fell in overtime to Liberty in a 55-48 loss on homecoming.

“We put up a lot of yards and put up a lot of points,” Sattefield said “We just didn’t finish the job. It was disappointing to say the least, but we’ll bounce back and have a great week of practice.”

Satterfield said it was the Mountaineers’ best all-around game. App State (1-5) put up 637 yards in offense against the Flames. Freshman quarterback Taylor Lamb passed for a freshman-record 397 yards.

After the Flames tied the game at 48 with 6 minutes, 19 seconds left in the game, the Mountaineers responded with a 15-play, 60-yard drive that milked the clock. Regulation ended with kicker Bentlee Critcher’s 32-yard field goal attempt going wide right as time expired.

“He was 2 of 3 in field goals and that one was extremely close,” Satterfield said “He has a good strong leg. He’s just got to continue to work in the kicking game.”

Continuing to work and getting better is something the Mountaineers’ defense needs to do as well, Satterfield said. It is a young group, though. Linebacker Brandon McGowan is the only senior to start all six games. Saturday against Liberty, four sophomores and three freshmen earned the starting nod.

“For whatever reason, that is where we are and those are the better players we have on defense,” Satterfield said.

App State (1-5, 1-1) faces a spread team this week in Troy (1-5, 1-1). The Trojans  beat New Mexico State 41-24 at home. It was 20-7 at halftime, and the Trojans never led by less than 10 points in the second half. 

It was a dominating performance that included 360 rushing yards on 53 attempts. Brandon Burks led the way with 176 yards rushing on just 10 carries. Quarterback Brandon Silvers and running back Jordan Chunn combined for three rushing touchdowns.   

Satterfield said the Trojans run a lot of four wide-receiver sets but still have a balanced offensive attack. Silvers passed for 211 yards and a touchdown.

The key to slowing down an offense like that is a simple concept.

“Our guys have got to get back and keep everything in front of them,” Satterfield said. “If we do that, we’ll be a lot better defense.”

Follow Adam Houston on Twitter at @AdamRHouston.