LORMAN &045; You may have to look plenty hard to find a loss harder to swallow this season than Saturday’s loss for Alcorn.

The Braves were on the verge of posting their best record in head coach Johnny Thomas’ seven years at the helm Saturday at Alabama A&M, but they were called for penalties that wound up buoying the Bulldogs to scores and had other miscues that led to their 27-21 win over Alcorn.

Chalking the incidents up to &uot;stupidity,&uot; Thomas said the loss will be one the team must get over before finishing the season Saturday against Jackson State in the Capital City Classic.

&uot;I’m still trying to get over the loss to A&M,&uot; Thomas said Monday. &uot;We played with stupidity on two series that allowed them to score a touchdown. We had them on third down, but we got an unsportsmanlike penalty on that. That’s something we don’t tolerate, we hit the player out of bounds, and they scored on that.&uot;

The play came in the fourth quarter when the Braves rallied to tie the score at 21 after trailing 21-6 in the second quarter. The Braves had just punted to A&M with 7:06 left in the game when Kelcy Luke ran 10 yards to set up what would have been a third-and-2 at A&M 33.

Middle linebacker Leo Nobles, however, was called for hitting Luke out of bounds to give the Bulldogs a first down at their own 48. Three plays later the Bulldogs got into the end zone on a 35-yard pass from Luke to Timothy Robinson for the 27-21 lead with 5:17 left in the game.

&uot;I don’t know why we did that,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;I’m still trying to figure that out. It’s something we take very serious. We had three or four opportunities in the fourth quarter to put the game away. We drove the football down and missed a field goal.

&uot;We had all the opportunities to beat A&M, but we didn’t capitalize on them. But it happened that way, and we’ll move on.&uot;

The Braves were also flagged for the same type of infraction earlier in the game that also kept an A&M drive going for a score. On the Bulldogs’ first possession of the game Luke connected with Tedric Milton on a 2-yard pass that would have put them at third and 8, but safety Victor Alexandrea was called for a late hit that gave the Bulldogs a first down at the Alcorn 46.

Then on third and 26 Luke threw a 19-yard pass to Milton, but the Braves were called for holding for another first down to keep the drive alive. Luke later ran it in from 1 yard out for the first touchdown of the game.

That drive was part of the team’s trend this season to fall behind by halftime but somehow make a game of it at the end.

&uot;I don’t like that, and we’re trying to figure out why we let teams get ahead of us and we have to fight to get back in it at the end,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;This team does believe it can win. I don’t like for it to happen, but it happens. It really should have been 14-0 or 14-6 at halftime. I’m not pointing any fingers, but the point of it is we don’t like playing that way.

&uot;Sometime we’re able to (come back), but A&M was a game we were not able to do that.&uot;

Another breakdown came on two pivotal fumbles. Vernardus Cooper fumbled at the Braves’ 5 in the second quarter to set up an A&M touchdown that put the score at 21-0.

Then with the score tied the Braves were at the A&M 17, but freshman backup quarterback Oliver Bozeman fumbled the ball away.

The Braves also had breakdown in the kicking game that proved costly. Kicker David McConnell had a 37-yard field goal blocked in the first quarter and a 27-yard try blocked in the fourth quarter with the game tied at 21.

McConnell missed short on a 52-yard try early in the game in what would have been his career long by far. He also missed an extra point in the second quarter.

&uot;David simply missed the extra point and simply missed the field goal,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;He kicked the ball into the line that was blocked. It was on David. I tell him if the ball is blocked with him doing everything he’s supposed to do as a kicker, it’s not on him. We blocked very well for him, and he just had to kick the ball through the uprights. He just had an off day.&uot;

The biggest positive on the day, however, was receiver Charlie Spiller’s career day that put him into the 1,000-yard club. The Woodville native caught eight catches for 223 yards and two touchdown to put his season total a 1,103 yards on the season.

Spiller was named SWAC Offensive Player of the Week as well.