HOW ‘BOUT THEM CAJUNS? The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns emerge victorious last night, 54-51 in double-overtime against the Thundering Herd of Marshall, in a rematch of the 2024 Sun Belt Conference Championship Game. And it was a thriller, that’s for sure! Nearly just ten months ago, these two teams met at Cajun Field as the top two teams in the conference. Marshall ran away with the victory 31-3 to claim the conference title. This offseason, however, Marshall ran into a train wreck as they lost the majority of their roster to the transfer portal and graduation, including their head coach. The Cajuns on the other hand were looking forward to a season with higher expectations with the additions of QB Walker Howard, WR Shelton Sampson, and CB Curley Reed, to name a few. Yet despite all of this, Marshall came into this game in a much better position. With Howard (out for season), Sampson (out for 4-6 weeks), and other key starters out with injuries, particularly on the offensive line, the Cajuns have had a rough 1-3 start to the season. Despite a good running game, the passing game has never molded itself, and defense trended backwards as the non-conference season progressed, particularly on the ground. Meanwhile, Marshall came into this game 2-2, which included a rushing defense that ranked 34th nationally and an emerging QB in Carlos Del Rio-Wilson who won SBC Offensive Player of the Week last week. Final Takeaways 1. Louisiana’s rushing defense needs to find a better way to slow down the run game Coming into this game, Louisiana’s rushing defense ranked 127th nationally as they allowed 216 yards per game on average through four games. Not only that, but they’ve allowed the season leading rushers of Rice, Missouri, Eastern Michigan, and now Marshall to have their best season games against the Cajuns. Marshall’s leading RB Michael Allen ran for 138 yards on 19 carries and two touchdowns. Furthermore, QB Carlos Del Rio-Wilson also had a field day of his own, scrambling 21 times for 81 yards. This has certainly been the reason why the Cajuns have lost games this season, and very easily, this Marshall game could’ve ended up the same way. 2. Marshall QB Carlos Del Rio-Wilson outplayed Louisiana’s secondary Yesterday may have been a win for Louisiana, but for a Cajuns secondary that came in ranked 22nd nationally in passing yards allowed (allowing only 160 yards per game through the air), what Marshall did to this secondary should be concerning. We knew coming into this game that Marshall’s Carlos Del Rio-Wilson was an emerging quarterback who would put Louisiana’s secondary on the back of their heels. But there were just lots of wide open receivers that allowed Del Rio-Wilson to dissect this Cajuns secondary. He threw for 258 yards and three touchdowns while going 24/31. Hopefully this win is a wake-up call for this secondary as they dive deeper into conference play, because Sun Belt quarterbacks like Southern Miss’ Braylon Braxton (who played for Marshall last season), Arkansas State’s Jaylen Raynor, and Texas State’s Brad Jackson are very much capable of doing the same as Del Rio-Wilson did last night. 3. Despite facing adversity, Louisiana played real disciplined football last night versus Marshall One of the most impressive things a team can do in football is limit themselves to very few penalties, or no penalties at all. For Louisiana, there was not a single penalty thrown against them in regulation. This comes after Louisiana was flagged ten times for 85 yards at Eastern Michigan last week, which played a role in why they lost. They were flagged once in overtime last night on a very weak roughing the kicker penalty as Marshall went to take the lead in OT on a 51-yard field goal. Given that the team was dealing with an injury-riddled offensive line and still finished with no holding penalties says a lot about how well prepared and disciplined this team was. While some would argue penalties don’t affect who wins the ball game, having zero penalties in regulation definitely helped keep the Cajuns take this game into overtime rather than losing it. 4. Lunch Winfield has earned his shot at becoming Louisiana’s starting QB after 2nd half resurgence Had to save the best for last. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Lunch Winfield has always patiently waited for his opportunity ever since he joined the team in 2023. From time to time, he would come into games for special QB run packages. This season, Coach Des really wanted to emphasize that role since he was out-beaten in the quarterback battle by Walker Howard and Daniel Beale, but also knew he was a talented player. Well, sometimes things don’t always go the way they’re planned, and Lunch Winfield finally got his opportunity last night after the Cajuns benched Daniel Beale who finished the night 7/15, 72 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. When he came in to replace Beale halfway through the third quarter, there was an immediate spark in the offense. Lunch already had scored a rushing touchdown earlier in the game (which was his first collegiate touchdown), but he came back in for good. What happened after that was history. In 20 minutes of play, Lunch led the Cajuns offense to four scores (he accounted for three of the four scores: two of which were beautiful touchdown passes and one was a rushing touchdown) that helped tie the game at 41 a piece and take it into overtime. He eventually won the game for the Cajuns in double overtime after a 10-yard run to the right pylon and a hurdle into the end zone, capping off one of the greatest comeback performances by a quarterback in recent UL football history (definitely the best in my memory). Lunch finished the game, playing for only a quarter and a half plus overtime, with 254 total yards (125 through the air and 129 on the ground), as well as accounting for five total touchdowns (two through the air and three on the ground). For an offense that has struggled through the air this season (only one passing touchdown prior to yesterday), I think it is safe to assume that Lunch has found himself as the starting quarterback for the team moving forward this season. Up until yesterday, there were question marks about his passing ability, but all of those doubts were answered by his spectacular second half performance. Coach Des was asked after the game if this performance would open his mind up to starting Lunch, and his response was “It absolutely does.” The team would like to build off of this momentum, and moving forward with Lunch would definitely help that. Up Next for Louisiana The Cajuns will now head into a bye week as they prepare to face the 3-1 Dukes of James Madison on October 11th in Harrisonburg, VA. Abdul Abusada via Cajun Sports Talk (@CajunSportsTalk) and Cajuns Insider.