Poplar Bluff's defense had a near perfect first quarter but eventually faded as the offense had one of its 12 drives go for more than 35 yards.
The Mules forced three fumbles for turnovers on Farmington's first three drives, but then allowed 17 points on Farmington's next three. The Knights added a late touchdown to beat Poplar Bluff 24-7 on homecoming night at Mules Stadium.
"The defense played well enough that we should have won this game by two or three scores if we did anything (on offense)," Poplar Bluff coach David Sievers said. "If we can get out of our own way half the time on offense, we win this football game."
The third forced fumble gave the Mules possession at their own 24-yard line late in the first quarter. Poplar Bluff then went 76 yards in six plays for its only score of the night.
Isaiah Johnson had a 43 yard run on third-and-2 near midfield, Poplar Bluff's longest gain of the game, to set up Josiah Kilgore's 6-yard touchdown run where he delivered a powerful stiff arm to his final would-be tackler.
However, Poplar Bluff finished the game with 139 yards of offense. More than half of it from that drive and more than a third from Johnson's long run.
"We've got a lot of soul searching to do. We've got a lot of character that we need to see if we can get to come out because right now we're just a very rudderless ship when it comes to our offense," Sievers said.
The Mules went 34 yards on several pass plays before the halftime buzzer cut short a promising drive. Their other seven drives after the touchdown gained a grand total of six yards and ended with six punts and a fumble.
"We may run two plays next week, but we are going to do them well. We've simplified things, we've gone back to the basics," Sievers said. "We kind of got manhandled at times up front tonight. When we did play well up front we couldn't play pitch and catch. When the quarterbacks are running for their life you can't expect them to throw a good ball."
Farmington meanwhile averaged 4.81 yards per carry and ground out a lead with its option attack.
Dylan Wells, Cameron Sweeney and Logan Strauts had busy nights with more than 10 tackles each for Poplar Bluff.
Wells led the team with 13, included three tackles for loss. Sweeney had 11 tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery and Strauts, making his first varsity start, had 10 tackles.
"I missed a few tackles I should have gotten," said Strauts, who missed half the week of practice because of a staph infection on his chin. "I was nervous in the beginning, but when we came out here they all went away and I was good."
Added Sievers, "I saw him come up a couple times and take on that big 'ol fullback. He got smashed a couple times but he just kept on coming and that is what we need ... Considering he missed a couple days of practice with staph infection on his chin and really only got two days of practice, against this offense as hard as it is to keep an eye on it with all their reads, I think he did a really good job."
The Knights threw just three passes all night, all play action attempts, and completed one. The first was a near touchdown in the second quarter that would have tied the game at 7, but Xzavier Bartlett chased down the receiver in the endzone and ripped the football out of Sam Nickelson's hands. Farmington settled for a 27-yard field goal.
In the fourth quarter, Link went back to Nickelson in the end zone. Bartlett broke up that pass, too, but was flagged for pass interference.
That made it fourth-and-1 at the Polar Bluff 4.
The Mules set up their defense and made a late shift, overloading the center and confusing Farmington. Wells got a free run through the line and hit fullback Chris Yost hard for a one-yard loss, preserving at that time a 10-point game.
"We were doing silver, which is where I was up on the center, and then we switched to goal to try and confuse them, and it worked perfectly. We had extra rushers and we knew they were going to come up the middle. It became my gap so I blew him up," Wells said. "I made a good stop and I was just trying to get momentum going. It didn't work out but I tried."
With 5 minutes left in the game and Farmington ahead 17-7, Poplar Bluff threw three incomplete passes and punted to midfield. Then Farmington running back Royce Harris broke a 49-yard touchdown run, the Mules fumbled, and Farmington ran out the clock.
The Knights finished with 295 yards of offense and 274 rushing yards to Poplar Bluff's 91 rushing yards and 139 yards of offense.
Harris had 137 rushing yards on 21 carries to lead Farmington.
Johnson had 48 yards on five carries for the Mules. Shemyron Townsend had eight carries for 38 yards and Josiah Kilgore had seven carries for one yard.
The Mules attempted a season-high 23 passes. Steven Pierce was 3 for 19 for 47 yards while Josiah Kilgore was 3 for 4 for 20 yards.
Kilgore caught all three of Pierce's completions, including a 24-yard gain just before halftime where he reached back for a diving, one-handed catch like Odell Beckham Jr.
Kilgore completed one pass each to Townsend (11 yards), Bartlett (8 yards) and Chris Barker (1 yard).