Antonio Brown, CMU special teams shine in win Saturday

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He spun. He juked. He made the most exciting of plays look pedestrian.

And still, junior wide receiver Antonio Brown diverted the attention received after his 55-yard punt return for a touchdown against Alcorn State to his teammates.

“(Junior wide receiver) Sean Skergan, (freshman wide receiver) Jahleel Addae, guys like those block and protect really good and make my job easy,” Brown said. “So when I catch the ball, I’m just really having fun.”

If that is the case, Brown had plenty of fun.

Brown returned three punts for 113 yards, including his 55-yard return for a touchdown.

Once Brown hit the open field, he slowed his pace, picked up some downfield blocks and displayed a combination of moves as he weaved through traffic.

His touchdown return did not late. It was 3-0 CMU at the time. The offense had two possessions prior to the return, and it could not move the ball.

Senior kicker Andrew Aguila’s 23-yard field goal was set up by Brown’s first return of 30 yards to the ASU 24-yard line. It was a byproduct of the special teams unit — again.

His final return was a 28-yarder to the ASU 17-yard line. All three returns gave CMU starting field position inside the Braves’ 25-yard line.

“Everything is about field position,” said coach Butch Jones. “Winning football games is about managing that, playing the field position, doing all those little things to win. The field position game was obviously on our side today.”

Brown was not the only contributor on special teams. Junior punter Brett Hartmann pinned the Braves to their 7-yard line with a 54-yard punt after the Chippewas’ first possession. That punt swayed the field position battle in CMU’s favor.

Aguila was 2-for-2 on field goal attempts. He was successful from 23 and 32 yards.

Respect

With the score 17-0 CMU in the second quarter, Brown attempted to field his last punt before he was pulled for reserves.

He never got the opportunity.

Alcorn State punter Josh Cragin used a line-drive approach and angled his punt out of bounds to the left of Brown, waiting near midfield. Once again, CMU started on the ASU side of midfield, at its 48-yard line.

“The whole punt return team takes it as respect,” Brown said. “We wanted to be No. 1 in the country, which we were last year, and we all got a chip on our shoulder.”

Despite scoring 34 points before halftime, CMU was held to 156 offensive yards. The offense, with starting field position past midfield on 4-of-7 possessions, never had a chance to rack up yardage.

“Dan (LeFevour) and Bryan (Anderson) always tell me, ‘Just get us on the 40, we’re going to go score,’” Brown said. “Anytime we get field position from the 40 and in, we just know 100 percent sure were going to put some points on the board.”