South Alabama Loses Eighth Straight, Falls 37-27 To Ragin’ Cajuns
The Jaguars dropped their eighth consecutive game to fall to 1-9 on the season, 37-27 to Louisiana-Lafayette at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, despite rushing for 351 yards against Sun Belt Conference western division leader Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday.
The Jags only win so far is against FCS Jackson State.
Despite the 352 yards rushing and 468 total yards of offense and the defense holding the Ragin’ Cajuns to 391 yards of offense, the Jags lost by 10 points and were down 16 points after holding at 21-17 lead with about nine minutes left in the 3rd quarter.
But the Jags then allowed the Cajuns to score 20 straight points to take a 37-21 lead with 4:12 left in the game. The big momentum shift happened when Mobile native Eric Garror returned a punt 72 yards to the Jaguar 4 yard line. Though the defense kept them out of the end zone, it did lead to the go-ahead field goal and a noticable shift on the Cajun sideline.
The Jags kept fighting and tried to make it a one-score game when Tra Minter dove in at the pylon for an 11-yard touchdown with 2:48 left in the game. The Jags had to go for the 2-point conversion, but what seemed like a missed assignment on offense, Desmond Trotter’s pass was tipped away in heavy traffic to leave the Jags trailing by two scores at 37-27.
The Jags then attempted an onside kick, which they appeared to recover however the ball hit a Jaguar players foot prior to traveling the required 10 yards thus the illegal touching gave the Cajuns the ball at the point it was touched.
Head coach Steve Campbell used two of the Jags three time outs after the Cajuns first two offensive snaps to preserve time, however he kept the final time out in his pocket as the Cajuns faced 4th and long allowing 40 seconds to run off the clock before coach Napier called a time out to pull the offense off the field and send on the punt unit.
The Cajuns then punted away from Tra Minter, he sprinted in an attempt to get under the ball and narrowly missed it hitting him. The Cajuns were able to down the ball at the Jaguars own 3 yard line with 1:41 left in the game.
As the Jags were trying to move out of the shadow of their end zone and get a quick score to possibly attempt another onside kick, the Jags were suddenly plagued by holding penalties. Desmond Trotter gave the Jags a big 25 yard run and a first down at the 44 yard line, it was then when Campbell finally used his final time out with a mere :08 left on the clock. Trotter connected with Jalen Tolbert for a 14 yard gain to the Cajun 42 before getting out of bounds with :02 left.
The game would end on a sack of Trotter however as the Jaguar offensive line crumbled under the Cajuns defensive pressure.
The first half was a back and forth affair after the Cajuns opened the scoring with a field goal. The Jags answered right back behind a 20 yard touchdown by Carlos Davis. The drive was extended after a roughing the passer call on 3rd & 3 gave the Jags a first down when they would have been facing 4th down.
The score would remain 7-3 until early in the second quarter when Cajun quarterback Levi Lewis connected with Neal Johnson for a 9 yard touchdown making it 10-7.
But again, the Jags responded with another drive of their own. This drive saw one of the cajuns best defender get ejected for targeting and it was capped off by a 4 yard touchdown by Jared Wilson giving the Jags a 14-10 advantage.
Not to be outdone, the Cajus returned the ensuing kickoff 60 yards to the Jaguar 36 yard line before being forced out of bounds. A few plays later, facing 2nd and goal at the 1 yard line, Levi Lewis connected with a wide open Hunter Bergeron in the back corner of the end zone to take a 17-14 lead with 7:30 left in the half.
The Jags had an opportunity to tie the game late in the second quarter but Frankie Onate’s 43 yard attempt was partially blocked.
The Jags rushed for 351 yards on 50 rushing attempts in the game. After going into halftime with only 2 yards passing, the Jags ended the game with 116 yards for a total offensive output of 467 yards.
The Jags had 23 first downs in the game, were only 3 of 10 on 3rd down attempts, and were only led in time of possesion by two seconds: 29:58 to 30:02.
The Cajuns had 391 yards of total offense, 255 of them came on the ground with 136 through the air. They had 23 first downs in the game as well and were 5 of 14 on 3rd down.
Tra Minter lead all rushers with 137 yards on 22 carries with a touchdown. Carlos Davis added 122 yards on 10 carries with a touchdown. Desmond Trotter carried the ball 12 times for 64 yards.
Cade Sutherland led the Jags with 3 catches for 64 yards. Five other Jags all caught one pass each.
Desmond Trotter was 8-of-15 for 116 yards and sacked twice.
The Cajuns were led by Elija Mitchell who ran for 117 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. Raymond Calais added 77 on 13 carries and Trey Ragas had 52 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries.
Levi Lewis went 16 of 29 for 136 yards and two touchdown and was sacked just once.
Jamal Bell led the Cajuns with 3 catches for 51 yards. Three other Cajuns caught three passes but Neal Johnson was the only one of them to catch a touchdown pass.
“I thought the guys played extremely hard; I thought they gave a really good effort against the No. 1 scoring defense in our league,” South Alabama coach Steve Campbell said. “…There were a couple of plays I wish we could have back, (including) that punt. We knew their guy doesn’t like to fair catch and we worked on it. I wish I could have that one back, and re-emphasize some things there. … Our defense I thought played really good red zone against three of the best backs in the league. We held them to field goals down there.”
The Jags will travel to Georgia State to face the Panthers on Saturday, November 23rd for a 1pm kickoff in Atlanta. The Panthers will enter the game after a 56-27 loss to Appalachian State.
The game will be streamed on ESPN+. Pregame radio coverage and play-by-play will start at 11am and can be heard on 99.5 FM The Jag and 96.1 FM locally in Mobile and through the iHeartMedia app worldwide.