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Football: Mountaineers swarm Cajuns, 24-0

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, Oct. 13, 2016

Giveaways weren’t the problem this time.

Getting points was, as a UL offense that had struggled with turnover issues in its prior two outings had trouble simply finishing drives in front of a national ESPN2 television audience Wednesday night.

The Ragin’ Cajuns wound up getting blanked as a result, falling 24-0 in a Sun Belt Conference game against Appalachian State in front of an announced 16,960 at Cajun Field.

“One of goals, we accomplished,” UL head coach Mark Hudspeth said. “And that was to have no turnovers. And we did that, offensively.

“Any other offensive goals — I don’t know if we accomplished probably too many of those, even though coming in we knew they had an outstanding defensive football team.

“Proud of the way we took care of the ball,” he added, “but we just cannot move it with consistency.”

UL trailed 24-0 at halftime following two Jaylin Moore touchdown runs, one Taylor Lamb TD pass and a 21-yard field goal, and it stayed that way throughout a scoreless second half.

The loss marked the first since a 27-0 loss to North Texas in 2002 that the Cajuns were shut out at home.

Running back Elijah McGuire became UL’s all-time leader in all-purposes yards with a 13-yard run in the third quarter, passing Tyrell Fenroy (5,231).

But that was about all the Cajuns, who’ve now lost three in a row, had going for them as they fell to 2-4 overall and 1-3.

Appalachian State wound up with 372 yards of total offense to UL’s 267, which included just 128 through the air.

McGuire finished with just 43 yards on 10 carries. Moore had 106 yards on four carries. Lamb was 15-of-26 for 201 yards, and Cajuns quarterback Anthony Jennings was 19-of-32 for 121 yards.

“I thought he came back,” Hudspeth said of Jennings, who had five turnovers in his last two games, “took care of the ball, made some good decisions and improved.

“I think it was evident he did much better tonight and gave us a chance.”

Appalachian State, playing a third straight game without senior running back Marcus Cox, improved to 4-2 and 2-0 with three wins in a row.

The Cajuns punted away their opening drive, and got only 24 yards on the kick from Steven Coutts.

Appalachian State opened by going over the top with a 56-yard pass from Lamb to Shaedon Meadors on its first play from scrimmage, and one play later Moore ran in from 2-yards out.

After that happened, anything the Cajun defense did in the second half was rendered moot.

“It kind of shocked us at first,” UL defensive lineman Karmichael Dunbar said of the way Mountaineers jumped on the Cajuns with a quick scoring drive, “but I knew our defense would bounce back.”

Moore was making a third consecutive start in place of Cox, who made the trip to Lafayette but sat out with a quadriceps injury.

Coutts atoned with a 55-yard punt to the 4 after UL’s second drive stalled, and the Mountaineers methodically moved downfield for a 21-yard Michael Rubino field goal that made it 10-0 with 5:13 left in the first.

Before the first quarter was done, UL would punt for a third time on three drives.

“We’ve got to find a way to move the ball,” Hudspeth said.

“Defensively, you hold a team to 24 points in college football,” the Cajun coach added, “you should be in the game.”

Appalachian State made it 17-0 with 10:36 left in the first half, after Moore bounced left and scored from 41 yards out to cap an 80-yard drive that needed just 10 plays.

The Cajuns attempted a field goal on their fourth drive, but Stevie Artigue’s kick from 49 yards out struck the left upright.

The Mountaineers came back with yet another lengthy drive, this time going 69 plays in seven plays as Lamb hit Collin Reed with an 8-yard touchdown over the middle.

Lamb sliced through the Cajun secondary on the drive, and to that point was 12-of-15 for 187 yards and the one TD.

A second FG try from Artigue, this one from 40 yards, missed wide left, but the Cajuns quickly got the ball back as safety Denarius Howard intercepted a deflected Lamb pass.

UL didn’t turned the takeaway into anything, though, and instead turned the ball over on downs near midfield.

The Cajuns opened the second half the same way, turning the ball over on downs after going for it on 4th-and-7.

“We let them get ahead,” Hudspeth said, “and then we started playing catch-up.

“That was the disappointing part for me — we hold the team to 24 points, and we’re not even in the game.”

UL is now idle until playing at Texas State on Oct. 22, leaving the Cajuns — now needing four wins in the last six games to become bowl-eligible — plenty to ponder at the midway point of the regular season.

“I think any time you lose games like we have … that that kind of shakes some guys up,” Jennings said.

“You know, losses come with football — and I’ve got to be better at telling the guys that, ‘Hey, everything we want is in front of us. We can at least win these last games we have, and we’ll be right in the position that we want to be.”