FLORENCE — It may have taken falling behind 24-0 to do it, but North Alabama’s wide receivers finally got a chance to show what they could do in Saturday’s 24-21 loss to Valdosta State.

UNA (5-2, 2-1 GSC) was forced to play catch up and that meant throwing the ball. The Lions came into the game averaging just 16 attempts and 102 passing yards per game. Against Valdosta State, those numbers more than doubled. UNA threw the ball 34 times for 232 yards.

Freshman quarterback Luke Wingo threw all but two of those passes, in leading a late comeback that fell short. Despite the loss, Wingo and his receivers were excited about the passing game.

“It felt good to throw it around like we did,” said Wingo, who will make his first start Thursday at West Georgia (2-4, 0-3).

“Hopefully, that will give everyone confidence that we can throw the football.”

For the wide receivers, seeing the ball in the air 34 times was a welcome sight.

“It felt great to finally do the things we’ve been working on since camp,” senior wide receiver Melvin Harris said. “Wingo came out and gave us the opportunity to make plays and we were really clicking.

“It shows that we are versatile. We’ve shown all year that we have a great running game, but we finally showed that we also have receivers that can make plays. The coaches trusted us to go out and make plays in crunch time and that’s what we did.”

Saturday’s game was only the second in which the Lions passed for more than 200 yards. Three times this season the passing game failed to generate even 100 yards.

Harris entered Saturday’s game with six receptions. The Ole Miss transfer caught eight passes against the Blazers for 86 yards. Jason Smith had eight catches for 113 yards through six games before catching five passes for 70 yards, including his first touchdown Saturday.

Coach Bobby Wallace said he knew all along that he had a talented group of receivers.

“It’s a great group and they make plays,” Wallace said. “Melvin made some good runs after the catch and showed a lot more explosion running after the catch. Jason made a couple of great catches and Daniel (Almon) had the big catch over the middle.

“We seemed to be confident every time we called a pass and that’s good. That’s an improvement.

Wallace wants the Lions to be a run-first offense and the running game has been very good most of the season. Opposing defenses, however, know the Lions want to run the ball and are putting seven or eight men in the box to stop the run.

That has led to single coverage on the receivers, something which UNA has not been able to take advantage of often. Wallace said part of the reason for that has been the absence of Brian Sutherland, who played in just three games before undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery.

Sutherland is not expected to play Thursday, but hopes to return for the Tarleton State game Nov. 3.

“All we are getting is man coverage with seven men in the box,” Wallace said. “The best way to take advantage of that is to make a big play down the field. Right now we really don’t have any receivers that can flat-out out-run good corners.

“We’re confident in the guys we have. The problem is not having that one 4.3 (forty) guy that we have in Brian, that can’t play right now.”

Harris is confident that the passing game can continue to improve. He said getting Sutherland back will definitely have an impact.

“We’re missing a big-time play-maker in Brian,” Harris said. “His speed on the outside really opens things up for everyone. Once we get him back that will give us the complete package.”

Jeff McIntyre can be reached at 256-740-5737 or jeff.mcintyre@TimesDaily.com.

UNA passing by game