RUSTON — The big question going into Saturday’s Sun Belt showdown against Louisiana Tech was: could UL’s defense hold up after the critical losses of linebacker Conor McPherson and safety Collin Jacob over the past two weeks?
As the Ragin’ Cajuns walked off the field in utter disappointment, the answer was a bit frightening.
After carrying the Cajuns for most of the first four and a half games, Louisiana Tech’s offense posted 28 first downs, 485 yards and converted seven times in 13 attempts on third down.
More importantly, the Bulldogs also ruled time of possession — 33:18 to 26:42. UL’s defense seemed to fade down the stretch, yielding game-winning TD drives of 8 plays, 63 yards and then 8 plays and 66 yards.
“Yes, I did,” UL coach Michael Desormeaux responded if 31 points would be enough. “I thought 31 would be hard to get. I thought we could, and I thought we could keep them under 30.
“I thought we could play really good defense and keep it down. We just weren’t able to. I mean, look, it’s not a knock on the. It was just the way we’ve been playing defense. They did some good stuff. They threw it and caught it well, and their quarterback played big in big moments.”
Indeed, Blake Baker was 32-of-42 passing for 319 yards with three touchdowns. And not known as a runner, he also ran for 35 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries.
In fact, Baker’s 12-yard scoring run with 3:44 left after avoiding an apparent sack was arguably the biggest game-deciding play in the game.
While UL’s passing game hit bigger plays, Tech’s passing game controlled the clock. The Bulldogs had 18 first downs in the air to nine for the Cajuns.
It’s hard to know how much McPherson was missed. UL’s other linebacker led the team in tackles – Jake St. Andre with 14 and Micah Johnson with 10.
Fitzgerald West caused and recovered a fumble and Lester Jones forced a fumble himself for a Priest Ashe recovery, but the defense wasn’t able to stop Tech’s offense enough without turnovers.
Jacob’s absence in the secondary certainly hurt in the passing game.
The biggest issue was Tech tight end Eli Finley, who had nine receptions on nine targets for 114 yards and two touchdowns.
“We mixed up man and zone,” Desormeaux said. “We didn’t play very great man coverage tonight. Then in zone, we had a couple balls that are right off the fingertips that are kind of right off the right off the hands.
“They got him the ball and he (Finley( made the plays when the ball was in his area. I mean, that kid is a really dynamic player. He made plays when they needed them to, and that’s what you’ve got to do.”
Leaders tested
You could see the pain in the face of quarterback Lunch Winfield after the heartbreaking 32-31 loss Saturday.
It was his least efficient game of the season so far with 10 incompletions and two interceptions.
On third down, UL’s offense was a respectable 5-of-11 conversion rate.
But when the final score left you one point short, those numbers no longer matter.
“You see good, you see bad, and we got a lot of good that we could look from and a lot of bad to see. and learn from them,” Winfield said. “I think what you got to go out there, fix what we need to fix, and do we got to do.”
Winfield and the other leaders will have their work cut out for them to keep the team confident with a huge home game against defending West champion Troy next up.
There’s no room for error moving forward.
“We’ve got to harp on high importance here,” Winfield said. “We know how hard we got to go there and practice, how better we got to get this week. So this week of practice is going to be elite – no mess ups … like we 100% on everything.
Lagniappe
Glancing over the stat sheet after the game and quite a few things looked positive for the visiting Cajuns.
UL was only flagged three times for 16 yards, compared to eight penalties for 81 yards for the Bulldogs.
UL outrushed the Bulldogs 160-147 and had 10 points off turnovers, while Tech didn’t have any points off turnovers.
UL’s offense achieved balance with nine first downs rushing and nine passing.
After struggling on special teams for most of the season, UL got at worst a push in that battle.
Tony Sterner made his only field goal to stay perfect on the season, while the Bulldogs hit the crossbar on a 50-yard field goal try on the final play of the first half and also missed an extra point.
Both teams punted three times with UL showing a net of 39.7 and Tech 42.7.
After Saturday’s sickening setback, Desormeaux wasn’t having much of it.
“There’s a lot of things we could do a lot better across the board,” Desormeaux said. “It starts with coaching. We’ve got to coach it better.”
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