When the Austin Peay football took over with a three-point lead and 11:45 to play in the fourth quarter Thursday night, the Govs knew what they had the opportunity to do—put Chattanooga in a position of needing to make plays, make them fast, and make them with no mistakes, with their margin for error reduced to nothing. Aggression against the Governor defense is how mistakes get made, and a back-breaking mistake could seal the game for Austin Peay.

All they needed was a touchdown, a stop and to grind out clock.

And they did it. And how it happened is the blueprint for what the Govs are doing—Draylen Ellis throws it all over the yard to build the lead. The big hoss in the backfield, be it Ahmaad Tanner, as it was Thursday, or any of the other bruisers make the chains run on time to grind out the win. The defense slams the door to erase any hope of coming back.

This was the element of Scotty Ball I don't think any of us expected, because when a coach makes their name putting up video game numbers week after week, year after year, the expectation becomes that the opponent gets buried. Becomes, not humiliation per se but that the butt-kickings will be loud and ostentatious and resounding, week after week.

Instead, we've been treated to a pattern that is less impressive in sheer numbers but much more impressive in football terms: the Govs impose their will on opponents when the time comes to do so. It's one thing to run up the score on an out-gunned and out-matched opponent, but it's a whole other beast to line up across from a Top-25 team in three-straight games—Thursday night's win against Chattanooga and the final two Spring 2021 contests against Jacksonville State and Murray State—and dictate the terms of how the game is decided.

That's what great teams do. And it's early, and there's a long season ahead and a short season in the not-too-distant past and a whole bunch of things could happen to make the words here look laughable in a few months. Football has a way of taking predictions and turning them into powder.

But the Govs have the markings and trappings of a great team.

"We trust our foundation," Walden said postgame. "We trust our training. With our tempo, we just feel like eventually the dam is going to break. And the dam eventually broke tonight."

So go back to that time in the fourth quarter. Govs ball, 11:45 to go. To this point, Tanner had enjoyed what is, by his pretty lofty standards, a pedestrian game—seven carries, 21 yards, a long of six. He was doing his part to pound the interior of Chattanooga's (admittedly very good) defensive line, but had not been able to gain much purchase through three quarters and change.

Then he started chipping away. Fourteen yards to open the drive. Eight on the ensuing first-and-10. On third-and-13, Walden dialed up possibly the gutsiest call of the night—a draw to Tanner, who bobbed, weaved, rumbled and rolled for a 31-yard first down into Chattanooga territory. He took it into the end zone on a Draylen Ellis pass to put the Govs up 10 points with 8:14 to play.

Now.

Ten points over the course of more than eight minutes in modern college football is by no means an insurmountable deficit; offenses go faster and pick up huge chunks of yardage with more ease than ever before. That's not to knock modern defenses but to acknowledge that the climate for college football is more rooted in offense than any point in history.

Which makes it pretty incredible that the Govs held Chattanooga to no points and 31 total yards in the fourth quarter.

Chattanooga's final drive had the requisite urgency, which played to Austin Peay's advantage. The Mocs moved into Austin Peay territory quickly but ran into a trouble with a penalty and a sack to make it third-and-21. Desperate times call for desperate measures, but they also lead to desperate mistakes, which is exactly what happened when an ill-advised Drayton Arnold pass landed in the hands of Johnathon Edwards to secure the game for the Govs.

The score. Check. The stop. Check.

Now to grind out clock.

Tanner again. And again. And again. Five yards. Four. Thirteen. Four again. Chattanooga desperately calls timeouts it would need in a fruitless effort to get the ball back and mount a comeback the Govs wouldn't leave them to complete even if they got it. It's not just smart football. It's good football. It's how football teams who know what they're doing operate, who know they're execution will rule the day if they just do what they're supposed to do.

An Ellis kneel-down to seal it. Celebration on the visiting sideline. Gameball to University President Dr. Michael Licari. Dancing in the locker room. The spoils of a job well-done.

The Govs had the upper hand, applied the necessary pressure and waited for the opponent to make a mistake. They did this against Jacksonville State last season, a team that was at least as good or better than these Mocs. It's getting better. It's coming to the Govs easier. Familiarity breeds success. The plan is beautiful in its simplicity. And the results have looked pretty good too.