The available box-score pages didn't say who took the snaps or how the turnover count finished. The line score answers the main question anyway. An ODU offense that kept putting its defense back on the field after giveaways didn't let Coastal's offense take over this game. The Monarchs added 7 more in the 2nd quarter to go up 21-6 at the break, and the score held from there.
Look at Coastal's half of that line score. The Chanticleers came in having scored 24 or more in 4 of their last 5, with Deuce Bailey leading the Sun Belt in total offense. They finished with 6 points in the 2nd quarter, nothing in the 3rd and 2 in the 4th. Their offense had carried them all fall, and on 67-degree, mostly sunny afternoon with almost no wind, it scored 8 points and never found the end zone after halftime.
The full game played out the way the preview said ODU's best version would look, and it's the same way they beat App State 10-3: the defense keeps the score low and the offense does just enough. The difference is that this time the offense did more than just enough, and it did it early. After the 21 first-half points, the Monarchs got through the whole 2nd half without scoring and still never really let Coastal back in. For a team that had lost 3 straight and given up 36 to Marshall, this was the defense's best day of the stretch.
For Coastal, the home problem got worse. The Chanticleers were already 0-2 at home in this stretch, losing to Georgia Southern and App State despite scoring 24 and 32. On their own field they'd been giving up points in bunches. On Saturday the defense mostly held after the 1st quarter, giving up 7 points over the last 3 quarters, but this time the offense didn't show up. It was the one thing the preview counted on from Coastal, and it was the thing that failed.
In the standings, Old Dominion is 3-7 and 2-5 in the Sun Belt, and it still isn't playing for much beyond pride. Coastal falls to 3-6 and 2-3 in conference, and losing at homecoming to a team that had lost 3 straight takes a lot out of the Sun Belt hopes the preview mentioned. The Chanticleers are 2-0 on the road and 0-3 at home in their last 5, which is a hard way to build a November.
