Celebration Bowl 2018: North Carolina A&T survives Alcorn State

1. Lamar Raynard determines the fate of North Carolina A&T offense

Lamar Raynard was the lodestar that guided the North Carolina A&T offense on Saturday in Atlanta. When Raynard was on fire early in the game, it looked like the Aggies were going to run away easily with their third Celebration Bowl win in four years. And once Raynard cooled off after the intermission, the game got a lot more interesting.

In the first half, Raynard went 12-of-20 for 192 yards and a pair of touchdowns. While the running game struggled to do much of anything, the offensive scheme utilized by North Carolina A&T allowed Raynard and the offense to use screen passes as a substitute for the running game. That was especially apparent on the opening drive, when Raynard swung the ball out to Marquell Cartwright for a catch-and-run play into the red zone.

Raynard wasn’t perfect, though. On the opening drive of the second half for the Aggies, he forced the ball into coverage and was picked off by Alcorn State’s Brady Smith. He came out on the next drive and went right back to work, throwing a 44-yard strike to Zachary Leslie. But once again Raynard and the Aggies failed to get points for North Carolina A&T after stalling with goal to go and then flubbing a field-goal attempt.

The veteran quarterback finished the day with 292 yards on 18-of-30 passing, as he threw two touchdowns and the single interception. That included a critical 3rd-and-11 conversion with less than two minutes remaining in the contest, allowing the Aggies to ice the contest.