Can the Ragin’ Cajuns patch up leaks during the bye week? | UL Ragin’ Cajuns

This UL Ragin’ Cajuns team continues to throw curve balls.

Every time it looks like you can start to figure coach Michael Desormeaux’s group out, something seems to change.

The result is the Cajuns enter a much-needed bye week one win shy of keeping their Sun Belt title hopes alive and realistically two plays away from flying high at 7-1 and in sole possession of first place in the Sun Belt West.

Instead, UL is licking its wounds from a second agonizing road loss in the last three weeks, and are 5-3 overall and 2-2 in league play.

After six games, we wondered exactly who this year’s team is in the big picture. Two games later, the unknowns persist.

Let’s start with the passing game.

That was the biggest concern going into August camp. For one, quarterback Lunch Winfield was going to have to be more efficient as a passer to complement this rushing ability.

Then his top target Shelton Sampson misses all of camp with a bruised knee and then sprains his ankle in the opener upon returning to the field. He’s been able to play five games with eight receptions for 124 yards and no scores.

Then other scheduled starter – Landon Strother – has suffered multiple injuries and been reduced to 11 catches for 116 yards and no touchdowns in four games.

On the surface, that sounds like a disaster. Instead, the offseason of working on Winfield’s accuracy seemed to be paying off with him completing 75% of his passes after five games.

Even better, several receivers stepped up – like KeDarius Wade, Russell Babineaux, Trenton Chaney and Kristion Brooks. So much so, the passing game should have bailed out UL at Louisiana Tech with 239 yards and a touchdown and could have done so with 299 yards and two scores in Hattiesburg.

Yet with four games left, is the passing game a question or a strength? It’s hard to tell.

Winfield hasn’t reached 60% passing in his last three games. Meanwhile, Sampson still hasn’t returned to last year’s form and Strother won’t be back anytime soon.

Chaney’s potential has always seemed enormous at times, but his play is still spotty.

The last three defenses have decided to take Winfield’s legs away from him to reduce him to a pocket passer and it’s working. In those three games, Winfield has 106 yards on 41 carries for an average of only 2.5 yards.

The coaching staff has to find a way to combat that strategy during the bye week.

Then there’s the running game.

Louisiana Tech and Southern Mississippi both flooded the box and made running it difficult. In between, UL ran for 243 yards against Troy.

So is the running game good enough to carry this offense the rest of the way? 

It doesn’t appear so. In the last five games, two were really good and three weren’t.

The most promising aspect there is we keep seeing what all the fuss was about redshirt freshman JJ Garner, who has now scored in fifth straight games.

Then there’s the defense.

After five games, all signs pointed toward this being a defensive team. If the offense could just control the clock, run the ball and stop letting the opposing defenses score, success would come.

First, leading tackler and star linebacker Conor McPherson was lost for the season.

Then came the injury to safety Collin Jacob.

As a result, the offense scored 31 points at Louisiana Tech and it wasn’t enough because the defense gave up 319 passing yards in a 32-31 loss.

But at least the fans could count on the defense’s ability to stop the run, right? Nope.

The offense again managed to score 31 points at Southern Miss and the defense allowed 286 yards rushing in a 35-31 loss.

So can the Cajuns stop the run? We thought so, but now there’s a big reason to wonder.

Football is a copy-cat sport. Will South Alabama and ULM be able to duplicate what Southern Miss did to UL’s defense? We’ll soon find out.

Getting Jacob back would go a long way to helping the defense return to where it was against the run and the pass.

Every week, it seems like a new leak appears – some of them totally out of nowhere – to spoil what was beginning to look like a pretty promising season.

The beauty for the Cajuns is, there’s still time to achieve some redemption. No, you won’t likely be playing for the Sun Belt title any more, but a nine or 10-win season is still a realistic outcome to this season.

Assuming the Cajuns don’t spring any more leaks in their pirogue.

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