LGT Final: Louisiana 23, Southern Miss 13

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Originally Posted by CajunFun

Technically, our 5th, and the 3rd on the road. The first one is probably the most important, and the one we sometimes forget.

When we elected to go 1A with the split in 1982, we won at Rice in our first game. At that time, they were in the Southwest Conference.

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I do believe the point stands.

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Originally Posted by ZoomZoom

If UL had a decent defense...

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I thought last night the announcers said we led the 'Belt in scoring defense. Can anyone confirm that?

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Originally Posted by ZoomZoom

WF is horrible, regardless of level of association. If UL had a decent defense, that’s a shut out.

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The officials added at least 10 points. You saw that WF went on the road and beat NC State? WF is not chopped liver.

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Originally Posted by CajunFun

PS And don't forget, we beat #11 Southwestern, and #18 Randolph field during WWII.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_S..._football_team

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Modern era?

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Originally Posted by ZoomZoom

No. Beating teams the Cajuns should beat doesn’t move the needle.

One half of decent defense against a horrible team isn’t a pattern yet.

Check back in December.

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Unbelievable. We’ve played plenty of ____ power conference teams over the years, and got drug all over the field. Napier’s best team got hammered by a mediocre Texas team with a brand new coach.

Again 3 times (thanks fun) in modern history, and we play 1 or two every single year.

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Originally Posted by Turbine

I loved the game of football it's a sport of adjustments.

It's extremely obvious who came into the game with the better game plan. Louisiana

USM adjusted for the third quarter and that worked for them, then Louisiana made good quality adjustments that countered USM's in the fourth quarter. Enough to put the game away.

Fun game football is.

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I loved the field goal decisions inside the red zone. Get points and don’t give momentum to opponent. Especially so when your defense is effective. You also have a kicker you trust. I think that may be indicative of a coach who has learned from past experiences. We kick field goals in red last season vs USM and we don’t lose in OT.

One more point about USM. They are not a good team at this stage. They are not as bad as some think however. Reason for games getting away from them earlier is turnovers. Last night they Avoided that until game was basically over. Their defense also made several one on one tackles that prevented big gains by Cajuns

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Originally Posted by Cajunsmike

I loved the field goal decisions inside the red zone. Get points and don’t give momentum to opponent. Especially so when your defense is effective. You also have a kicker you trust. I think that may be indicative of a coach who has learned from past experiences. We kick field goals in red last season vs USM and we don’t lose in OT.

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Des said he learned from last year’s mistakes. Taking 3 on the opening drive was key. Come away from a 75 yard drive with no points-no bueno.

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Originally Posted by ZoomZoom

WF is horrible, regardless of level of association. If UL had a decent defense, that’s a shut out.

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I think you are leaving yourself a lot of room for disappointment if anything less than shut outs is gonna fall short of decent.

We certainly didn’t play decent defense against Tulane or WF, but we wouldn’t have needed to pitch a shutout in either game to do so. WF has put up 30 or more in both of their ACC games this season.

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Originally Posted by zeppelincajun

I think you are leaving yourself a lot of room for disappointment if anything less than shut outs is gonna fall short of decent.

We certainly didn’t play decent defense against Tulane or WF, but we wouldn’t have needed to pitch a shutout in either game to do so. WF has put up 30 or more in both of their ACC games this season.

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WF beat and beat up a pre season top 25 team in NC State. Wake is a pretty decent team

Nice win last night. We had a good crowd in the stadium as well as representing pre and post game at the local watering holes. 4th Street was rocking after the game.

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Originally Posted by CajunFun

It takes a while for a coach to build his own culture.

I've kept out of a lot of the discussions here, but one thing I've noticed is that unlike some of our past teams, this one doesn't play to the level of the competition. We played strong against the first two, got snake-bit against Tulane (but still kept it close), stuck to our game at WFU, and maybe a small let-down at USM.

If you compare to past years, this team is better at maintaining focus, and intensity.

Which reflect Des's personality. He's building a good foundation

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I certainly hope you are right, Doc. I’m simply staying in wait and see mode for the remainder of this season. There have been a few points in the last couple seasons where I thought we had turned a corner but hadn’t really. IMO if we play to our abilities the rest of the way out, 8-4 is the floor. I would view 7-5/6-6 as not realizing our potential for the 3rd year in a row. We are better than that, and I hope we continue to show it.

You are correct that thus far this season we have not succumbed to playing down to competition. Yesterday the offense did not execute to the level they will need to to beat Tx State or Coastal. I’ll take 10 point wins in slight letdowns though. Like previous posters have stated, I think we were smart to take the points when we could and let our defense work.