McNeese Holds on to Beat East Texas A&M in Last Home Game for a Month

Tre’Vonte Citizen leaping over the competition.

Jake Strong got the start for McNeese as Devin Lippold was announced out for the season earlier this week, saving Coach Viator from ever having to face a quarterback controversy that could have made this so far sub-par football season a little more interesting.

The other therapy for what ails the Cowboys was the Lions, and together these two teams combined for a night of largely forgettable football, especially in the 1st half, which saw McNeese drive deep into East Texas A&M territory and come away with field goals, even giving up the early lead 7-6 before Jake Strong found Jamaal Levis with a 2 yard pass that put McNeese up 13-10 going into half time.

Omari Wiggins doing what he does best!

The 2nd half had the Cowboys showing a little more life, with Omari Wiggins ripping off a 74 yard run for paydirt early in the 3rd quarter to put the Cowboys up 20-10. After a Hutch Swilley toted the rock for a 6 yard touchdown, it looked as if McNeese was in the driver’s seat with a 27-10 lead.

But the Lions refused to go away, taking the next drive to the house on some sharp passing, and cutting the lead back to 10 at 27-17 on a 49 yard pass from Eric Rodriguez to Kaden Taylor.

The 4th quarter saw McNeese offense begin to go stale as they continued to stay away from the run, despite it being the one positive on the day with Wiggins. Instead, after a couple of back and forth punts, the Lions’s Rodriguez found Rayshawn Glover for a 46 yard grab that cut the Cowboys’ lead 27-24 with 4:33 left.

The Cowboys took the ball and tried to run the clock, neglecting a short field goal over attempting a 4th down conversion that failed and gave the Lions the ball back with :41 left on the clock and just a field goal needed to tie.

Touchdown baby!

But that’s all she wrote, as the Cowboys hold on for the much needed win and a little relief.

That said, while the run game looked strong in the hands of Omari Wiggins, too often it seemed that Coach Viator left the game in the hands of his quarterback, who still seems shaky in his second start of the season.

At the same time, while the defense didn’t give up a 100 yard rusher this game, they did allow 189 yards on the ground, something that they will have to shore up if they hope to make any noise in the Southland going forward.

Regardless, McNeese improves to 1-2 in the conference while East Texas falls to 1-2, a fact that makes it even more evident that there wasn’t much separation created in the minds of fans after this game.

Next week McNeese travels to Death Valley to start a three-game round trip with a round of punishment thanks to the local Power 5 school down the road. The only upside is that it looks like LSU got out a lot of their frustration against Texas A&M this week, so maybe the Cowboys can get out of Baton Rouge with minimal bruising.

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“We Needed a Win” - Coach Viator