Football: Cajuns’ offense picks up steam in time for blowout win

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, September 1, 2014

 

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Elijah McGuire breaks inot the open field during UL’s season-opening victory over Cajun Field. (Photo: Paul Kieu/The Advertiser)

 

It wasn’t until the second half of UL’s 45-6 season-opening win over Southern – after it built a 24-0 lead by the break – that quarterback Terrance Broadway started feeling good about the Ragin’ Cajuns’ offense.

Feeling fine too, presumably, about the Cajuns hosting Louisiana Tech, a 48-16 loser at No. 4 Oklahoma in its opener, on Saturday night.

Credit one long run up-field and a couple good checks down for that.

"Our thing in camp, in the spring, has been checking down. Don’t force the issue," said Broadway, whose first pass Saturday resulted in one of his two interceptions. "And I checked it down twice; we got two first downs, one to Alonzo (Harris), one to T.P., Torrey Pierce.

"So, that’s our whole thing: Don’t force anything to Jamal (Robinson), don’t force anything into (fellow starting wideout) James (Butler). Just let it come to you, and we were very successful in the second part of (Saturday’s) game with that."

The long run, meanwhile, was sophomore Elijah McGuire’s 46-yarder on the first play of the fourth quarter, when the Cajuns were riding a 31-6 lead.

"It was an inside zone play," said McGuire, who had 126 rushing yards and one touchdown on his 13 carries. "Our motive on that play is 0-to-60 up the hash. That’s what our coach wants us to do, so that’s what I did. I broke an arm tackle, and got up the sideline, and that was that."

 It was a run that, as Broadway sees it, could pay down-the-road dividends.

"Confidence-wise it was big, because early on we couldn’t get the run game going," he said. "They were throwing some blitzes that we didn’t see. We couldn’t get it cut off.

"But for (McGuire) and our offensive line that was big, to get some confidence, so we could establish the run.

"That’s what we do. We run the ball, and we do play-action to set up the pass," added Broadway, who completed 20-of-32 passes for 237 yards and three touchdowns, including five to Robinson for 112 yards and two TDs. "So for them to establish the run after we made some adjustments at halftime, that was really big for a confidence-boost for our offensive line."

It was an offense that really did struggle at times with Southern’s rush and unexpected blitzing.

"I wish the offense … held blocks longer for Broadway to throw the ball," Robinson said.

Just how many hard hits did he take? On Sunday morning, Broadway tweeted this: "Neck sore".

Besides passing Jon Van Cleave and Brian Mitchell on UL’s all-time passing yards leaders list Saturday, incidentally, Broadway also passed Mitchel for fifth place on its career completions list. With 392, he now needs 30 completions to pass Chris Masson and move into fourth.

With three touchdown passes, Broadway also tied Tom Hauser for third-most TD throws in UL history (39). Two more will put him past Roy Henry and alone into second place.

Like its offense, meanwhile, UL’s defense finished with similarly mixed emotions.

Southern was held to 279 yards, but the Cajuns were kicking themselves over Austin Howard’s third-quarter TD pass to Bradley Coleman.

"I thought tackling was exceptional. … Hardly any missed tackles," UL coach Mark Hudspeth said. "I thought our guys hit hard, tackled hard, finished plays. Still room for improvement, but overall pretty good."

"I feel like we came out pretty solid. And I also feel like we could have (come) out a little better," UL defensive lineman Christian Ringo added. "Giving up that one touchdown after the second half – I feel like that never should have happened. … But, overall, I think we played well."

As for special-teams play, Hudspeth felt that generally went well too – especially kick-scoring (Hunter Stover made his only field goal try and was 6-of-6 on PATs), coverage (no punt returns allowed, no kick return longer than 15 yards) and kick returns (Montrel Carter brought his only one back 30 yards and Torrey Pierce returned one 20 yards).