Miles entered Saturday's SIAC Championship Game against Albany State looking to continue its postseason dominance over the Golden Rams while forging its way to a historic third consecutive league crown.

But Albany State had other ideas.

The Golden Bears (6-5) had their most dismal offensive performance effort of the season at the hands of the top-ranked defensive team in Division II. The Golden Rams (10-1) pitched a 31-0 shutout at Sloan-Alumni Stadium to win the conference championship for the first time since 2013 and avenged the team's championship game losses to Miles in 2018 and 2019.

This was the first time that Miles had been shutout at home since a 29-0 loss to West Georgia in 2016, just the third time a Reginald Ruffin team had failed to score, and the first SIAC opponent to keep the Golden Bears scoreless since a loss to Tuskegee in 2010.

After the Golden Bears lost 31-3 to Albany State in October, it was hoped that the team would be able to come up with a plan to reverse the result. Unfortunately, the Golden Rams wasted little time in showing that not much had changed. Albany State went 65 yards in four plays on the opening drive of the game to take a 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the game.

Miles would pick up a first down on its first series on a 19-yard pass from Claude Newell, III to Marcus Lodge. But in what would become a theme throughout the game, Albany State's defense would turn up the pressure on the Golden Bears and get a sack of Newell on the next third down attempt and force a punt.

A field goal on Albany State's next drive made it 10-0 and when the Golden Rams got another touchdown less than 90 seconds into the second quarter, they held a 17-0 advantage and Miles was in big trouble. Through the first four drives, Albany State had 196 yards of offense. Miles finished the entire game wit just 132 yards.

The Miles defense did what it could to keep the team in the game. The Golden Bears forced turnovers on Albany State's final three drives of the first half, with Rodney Coleman, Jr. playing a pivotal role. He got his second interception of the season for the first turnover. Andrew Gaylor would get an interception on the next series before Coleman forced a fumble that was recovered by Trey Giles. It was after the final turnover that Miles had its best chance to score.

On the first play from scrimmage on the ensuing drive, Newell hit Christopher Brown on a big 44-yard completion to the Albany State 9-yard line. But a holding penalty wiped out the play. Still, the Golden Bears kept pressing with Newell and Brown linking up on a 20-yard completion that moved Miles into Golden Rams territory for the first time. But after getting to the Golden Rams 27 with 30 seconds left in the half, Newell was sacked, then had a devastating tackle for loss that cost the team 16 yards and moved it out of field goal range.

Miles got the ball to start the third quarter but the drive ended with another sack of Newell, one of six the Golden Rams defense amassed on the afternoon. Albany State would get the ball and drive 65 yards to the end zone that really broke the game open. Another touchdown on their next possession simply drove the final nail in the coffin. Miles would run just five plays on the Albany State side of the field in the second half, all coming on its final possession.

Newell passed for 117 yards with Lodge (three catches, 39 yards), Brown (three catches, 32 yards) and Cohen Hudson (two catches, 22 yards) as his top targets. Donte Edwards had two catches for 20 yards and rushed for 27 yards to put him over 1,000 yards for the season, just the second running back to eclipse that mark since 2011. Jamarius Brown had a team-high six tackles with N'Ktavious Floyd, KaDarrion Jones and William Hardy each finishing with five stops.