Welcome everyone to the latest edition of #4Downs! In this one, I look at the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns loss to the UL Monroe Warhawks.
1st Down: Too Little Too Late
Was it fun to see the Cajuns rally back late in the ballgame on Saturday night? Yes, but the end result makes the entertaining final moments ring a little hollow. There were a number of questions that I had after Andre Nunez connected with JaMarcus Bradley to get within one score.
Why didn’t they go for the onside kick? Why didn’t they go for two after UL Monroe was penalized for a late hit? It seemed like everything was coming up roses for the Cajuns in the final seconds of regulation, but head coach Mark Hudspeth felt that they had the momentum to get the win in overtime. It seemed to be a case of overthinking a slam dunk decision.
2nd Down: QB Controversy?
After Jordan Davis was pulled early, Nunez was put in to give this team some kind of spark. What Nunez did with the opportunity was big, passing for 287 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for another in overtime.
While it seems that there is a quarterback controversy once again for the Cajuns, Hudspeth immediately brushed any notion of that after the game, stating that they have two weeks before their next game so they will make sure Davis can be ready for Idaho. How can there not be some controversy at quarterback after what Nunez did? Time will tell though if the controversy doesn’t build up between now and the Idaho game.
3rd Down: Poor Conversion
Louisiana had an incredibly hard time converting on third down on Saturday, going 4-of-13 on the most important down in football. For much of the game, the Cajuns couldn’t get out of first gear and put points on the board due to not converting on third down.
There’s still plenty of season left, but if they can’t convert on third down the goals this team had could be out of reach.
4th Down: Time for a Change?
It seems like a tired narrative, but something that seems to rear its ugly head after games like this. The Cajuns under Hudspeth have done well against UL Monroe and getting dominated for most of the game was definitely not a good look for the 18,318 in attendance.
Sticking with that aspect, there was a flash sale that they did to try and get more people in Cajun Field for a big in-state matchup. It did relatively nothing to the attendance numbers compared to last week. Some of that could amount to a game going on across the basin and some fans still against everything that happened back in November. It’s not a good look when you look at the attendance #’s under Hudspeth prior to this season.
-Clint Domingue