Welcome everyone to the latest edition of #4Downs where I break down what went right and what went wrong for the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns! This week, we look at the Cajuns win over Georgia Southern.
1st Down: Offensive Spark Found
As regular readers may know, I’ve been wondering where that offensive spark for the Cajuns has been since South Alabama. It looks like that spark has been found in this win over Georgia Southern, with a good run attack alongside an effective passing game. Sure the gap between the amount of run to pass plays was massive, but the Eagles aren’t exactly the best team in the world when it comes to run defense so it made sense in the gameplan. The biggest surprise of the night had to be the trick play that saw Al Riles connect with Keenan Barnes for a touchdown. Jorge Munoz still has a few tricks up his sleeve it seems.
2nd Down: Offensive Line Keeps QB Vertical
One of the biggest question marks for this team has been the offensive line that has been underperforming and unable to keep their QB upright. This time they did just that allowing zero sacks on the night. The only downside was they allowed a five tackles for loss on the night if that could be improved upon, expect more wins for this team down the road.
3rd Down: Defense Bends Late
One of the best parts of this team as of late has been the defensive performance in the second half as they’ve allowed only six points since App State. But the Eagles from Statesboro were able to get 13 points and get it within one in the final five minutes. If not for Otha Peters, the Cajuns might have had a hard time walking away from this with a win.
4th Down: Rotating QBs
While some things looked different from what had been done throughout 2016, most fans who kept tabs on the Cajuns last season may have noticed something and that was the fact that the Cajuns rotated between three quarterbacks. But it was QB in name only because none of them threw the ball and were used as runners or handed off the ball. I did like the strategy of switching them in and out, but it needed more diversity in the sense of changing up the playbook because now that teams are have seen what they can do, they might know what will be done when a certain quarterback is out there. That was a big problem from 2015 for this team, but can be overcome if they can be used in different situations going forward.
-Clint Domingue