At the conclusion of Week 9 of the 2023 regular season, the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns appeared to be in a comfortable position to potentially compete for the top spot in the Sun Belt West Division at 5–4.
After losing a second quarterback for the season due to a leg fracture and dropping their third straight game 31–24 to the Troy Trojans Saturday, Nov. 18, Louisiana now has one last opportunity to become eligible for a postseason bowl game.
Broadcast on the NFL Network and facing by far the stingiest defense in the Sun Belt Conference, the Ragin’ Cajuns had every chance to pull off the upset over Troy all the way up until their final possession of the game before a brutal holding penalty killed any sort of momentum towards a game-tying drive.
Louisiana appeared to have one last gasp defensively on the Trojans’ final possession, but an offsides penalty awarded Troy a first down and allowed the rest of regulation to expire.
The offsides was the Ragin’ Cajuns’ 18th penalty in their last two contests, accumulating 169 penalty yards, a trend that must get fixed if Louisiana hopes to play in December.
Despite being under constant duress by Trojans’ Batman-and-Robin pass-rushing duo Javon Solomon and Richard Jubinor, junior Chandler Fields fared well in his second consecutive start at quarterback after replacing an injured Zeon Chriss in Week 10 against Arkansas State.
Fields, making his 10th start overall in his Louisiana career, set new career-highs with 29 completions, 282 passing yards and a 74.4% completion percentage. Against a defense allowing 6.5 yards per pass attempt, Fields averaged 7.2 per attempt.
The veteran quarterback threw three touchdown passes to three different targets on the afternoon, with the highlight being a 14-yard high-point grab in the back of the endzone by 6-foot-2 sophomore Robert Williams who fought through a missed holding call on his defender.
Zylan Perry has had an up and down season as a running back and a special teams contributor, but the redshirt freshman was able to provide a spark on a day where yards were tough to come by against the second-ranked run defense in the Sun Belt.
Running back touches were split evenly between Perry and leading rusher Jacob Kibodi. It was Perry who was able to do more by turning his 10 total touches on offense into 67 yards against a Trojans defense now allowing only 4.8 yards per play.
While Perry figures to be more involved on offense in 2024, Louisiana could use a similar spark from the freshman in the regular season finale.
The Ragin’ Cajuns pass rush has slowed down a bit over the second half of the regular season as they failed to disrupt Troy quarterback Gunnar Watson consistently.
On the other hand, Louisiana’s secondary did the most they could to compensate.
The Ragin’ Cajuns were able to hold Watson to a 54.8% completion percentage on 31 attempts. Defensivebacks Keyon Martin, Shadwell Nkuba II and Jalen Clark combined for eight pass breakups in the game.
Louisiana was unable to stop the Trojans ground game all afternoon, most notably junior tailback Kimani Vidal. The second-leading rusher in the Sun Belt hurt the Ragin’ Cajuns front seven with 112 yards on the ground, averaging 4.1 yards per carry.
Going hand-in-hand with Louisiana’s penalty issues was their inability to convert on third down. Despite picking up 22 first downs on offense, the Ragin’ Cajuns converted only four of the team’s 12 third-down situations.
There’s no need to belittle Louisiana’s next opponent, the UL Monroe Warhawks. I also don’t need to describe how disappointing of a look it would be should the Ragin’ Cajuns drop their fourth straight conference game to an opponent who hasn’t won one this season.
That being said, games are played for that reason, and Louisiana must clean up their mistakes this week if this team wants to take the field during bowl season.
The Ragin’ Cajuns host UL Monroe for the regular season finale Saturday, Nov. 25 at Cajun Field. Kickoff is slated for 2 p.m. CST.