Louisiana Letdown: UAB Drops 3rd Straight vs Cajuns since 2020

Ok, I know that’s a lot for a title, and I actually want to start this thing off on the high notes. We’ve got a ton of good to take from this loss. I typically don’t see the good in losses, but this time I got something.

How about that Blazer defense… The boys stepped up, holding Cajuns QB Lunch Winfield to 110 passing and 91 yards rushing on 21 carries. A 4.8 average per run. The mighty Trojans of USC couldn't manage that. We tackled well, we got to the QB, and we created turnovers. Also, Chris Burge housed a fumble to the end zone as well. We did all the things defensively you need to do to be successful and win. Unfortunately, the flags were just enough to keep them moving along. The first drive, we were almost guaranteed to get off the field until… Regardless, the defense played great.

Offensively, I don’t know what happened. Was it poor blocking… poor play calling, or just lack of effort? Hard to say. I do know they shut our run game down, and when the first half ended, we were nonexistent on that side of the ball. We watched it, we all saw it, there’s not really much to say here other than they lined up and whipped our tail.

As awful as we played offensively, our defense kept us in the game. The offense began to find some rhythm in the second half, and things got a little strange. We were still in it, fighting and clawing to tie the game. We didn’t give up. We had life. We had a chance.

Jatavion Pierce forced a fumble and got us the ball back inside 5:00 to go. We’d move back 15 yards afterward because, you know, why not? Let’s make it interesting. After a huge run by Robinson, the Blazers were in striking distance. 4th and 2 at the ULL 46. With a 2-minute timeout and an additional timeout following, I just knew Mort was about to draw up something, but instead, well, you know… we saw how that went.

Watching Mort’s postgame, he admitted he needed a better play call there and that we need to do a better job preparing and calling the game to our strengths. I can accept that. I believe in Coach Mort and what he’s doing. I also saw a team fight to the very end when the game looked all but over so quickly in the first half.

The silver lining to this is our defense played great. The big question is, are they going to show up on Friday night at Protective?

Tony Johnson 

@SSN_UAB