Offensively, things just haven’t been where Louisiana football has wanted them all season long and it continued against Southern Mississippi in Week 8.
Sophomore quarterback Lunch Winfield made his second collegiate start in the Ragin’ Cajuns’ homecoming tilt despite being a little banged up, dealing with an ankle injury. With Winfield not at 100%, the Cajuns decided to go with its initial starting quarterback Walker Howard in the second quarter to try to spark some life into the offense.
It didn’t matter who was at the helm though, Howard or Winfield, the Cajuns couldn’t get points on the board despite finishing with more first downs than Southern Miss. They would go on to have their 2025 homecoming spoiled with a 22-10 loss.
“We had some opportunities to take advantage of momentum plays and we didn’t do that,” UL football coach Michael Desormeaux said. “You gotta find a way to capitalize, you know, our defense is playing really well besides one play giving us a chance offensively.”
The Cajuns’ missed opportunities
In UL’s first offensive drive, the running lanes were wide open and the running back room took advantage of that. Winfield capped off the eight-minute-long drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. That would be the Cajuns’ lone touchdown of the game though as the endzone wasn’t their friend for the rest of the game.
Turnovers were a key reason behind their lack of scoring finishing the game with two interceptions, a fumble, and two turnovers on downs.
“I just got to be more disciplined with just knowing its first down and we got more attempts at it, ” Winfield said of his goal-line fumble in the second half. “Just don’t reach the ball, that’s the biggest thing about it. Be disciplined.”
Along with costly turnovers, the Cajuns tried to force it too much in the pass game with both Winfeild and Howard. Winfield finished the game with 112 passing yards and an interception while Howard threw for 23 yards and an interception in his single series of play.
By time the Cajuns decided to go back to the ground and pound approach in the third quarter, mistakes started to affect their forward progression. From false starts to holding calls, they couldn’t get out of their own way, leaving possible points on the table. They would end the game with eight penalties for 70 yards compared to the Golden Eagles’ six penalties for 43 yards.
While offensively the Cajuns struggled, defensively they had another solid outing doing all they could to keep them in the game. Leading them in the trenches was linebacker Jaden Dugger, who finished with a team-high 16 total tackles and a forced fumble.
The Cajuns will continue to heavily rely on their defense as the offense is once again back to the drawing board ahead of Week 9 vs. Troy.
“We’re a team, I mean they had our back two weeks ago when we left 52 points and they put up 54 so we have each other’s back,” Duggar said. “We know we;re gonna get on track eventually so we just got to do our hob and just focus on what we can control.”
Shannon Belt covers high school sports and the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow her high school and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ShannonBelt3. Got questions regarding HS/UL athletics? Send them to Shannon Belt at sbelt@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Lousiana football’s offense continues to struggle vs Southern Miss
