Texas State slips in the end, falls to Louisiana 34-30
Texas State led for 54:49 of a 60-minute game, but it wasn’t enough Saturday night as the Bobcats fell for an 11th consecutive season to Louisiana, 34-30.
The Bobcats outgained the Ragin’ Cajuns by 107 yards (530 yards to 423), had eight more first downs and held the ball for 6:50 longer. However, the difference on third downs was a more significant factor — the Bobcats went 6-for-15 while the Ragin’ Cajuns were 7-for-10.
“We’ve got to be able to finish drives in the end zone, is probably my biggest takeaway,” Texas State coach G.J. Kinne said. “We’ve got a really good team, a really good offense. We’ve just got to score touchdowns when we get down there. Same thing with the defense. I think we played really well at times, but we’ve got to be able to get off the field on third down.
“Obviously there are some things that we have to correct. We have to score when we get in the red zone. They had a big third-and-20 there at the end, and we’ve got to be able to get off the field on third-and-20. I would say those are two things, and we can’t turn the ball over. All you can do is learn from that and go back to work.”
Louisiana rushed for 218 yards on 41 attempts with quarterback Zeon Chriss accounting for four touchdowns — three passing and one rushing. He finished 13 of 17 for 205 yards in the air and had 67 yards rushing on 12 attempts. The Bobcats ran the ball 47 times compared with 40 pass attempts, with Ismail Mahdi running it 34 times for 188 yards and a touchdown. TJ Finley was 30-for-40 with 326 passing yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
“We took what the defense gave us,” Kinne said. “They gave us a light box, so we were running the ball and spitting it out on the edge. (Mahdi) is a warrior. He got banged up a little bit, came back in the game and played really well. Really proud of him, and I thought the O-line played well, TJ (Finley) played well; the receivers played well. We played well on offense. Just got to execute better when we get down to the red zone.”
The Bobcats scored on the opening drive, with Mahdi running it in from the 10-yard line on the seventh play. Louisiana immediately responded with a 4-yard touchdown toss from Chriss to Dre’lyn Washington.
Texas State then scored 13 unanswered points — a 37-yard field goal by Mason Shipley, a 2-yard touchdown pass from Finley to Kole Wilson and a 24-yard field goal from Shipley — to make it 20-7 with 6:46 left in the second quarter. Chriss tossed his second touchdown pass, a 34-yarder to Peter LeBlanc, to make it 20-14 with 3:56 left in the half.
With 6:59 left in the third quarter, Texas State faced a fourth-and-4 from the 16 and elected to kick the field goal to make it 23-14.
The Ragin’ Cajuns countered on the ensuing drive with a 6-yard touchdown run by Zylan Perry to make it 23-21 with 3:45 left in the third quarter. Finley then threw just his second interception of the season when he was picked off by Jalen Carter with 50 seconds remaining in the quarter.
“I think he was trying to throw it over that defender to the receiver or throw it out of bounds,” Kinne said. “I think it was just one of those crazy plays. I was super proud of him the way he bounced back that next drive, picking up a big first down with a checkdown, and went down there and scored.”
Louisiana didn’t capitalize on the pick, allowing Finley to give the Bobcats some cushion, 30-21, with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Joey Hobert. Chriss orchestrated an 11-play touchdown drive that took 4:10 off the clock and ended on a 5-yard pass to Robert Williams.
Texas State’s next drive ended after four plays, leading to its only punt attempt, which was blocked. Taking over at the Bobcats' 22, the Ragin’ Cajuns quickly scored on an 8-yard run by Chriss for their first lead. A failed 2-point conversion left it at 34-30 with 2:21 to play.
A fumble after a first-down catch by Ashytn Hawkins was recovered by Louisiana to seal the win with 1:19 left.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas State loses to Louisiana 34-30 in Sun Belt football action
