The first half went the way South Alabama's season usually goes. It was 7-7 after 1 quarter, and the 2nd quarter produced 24 combined points, 14 for Louisiana and 10 for the Jaguars, so the Cajuns took a 21-17 lead into the locker room. That was a South Alabama-style game, and the Jaguars were down only 4 at the half. A week earlier they trailed Louisiana Tech 21-20 in the 2nd quarter and never scored again.
This time they kept scoring. South Alabama put up 6 in the 3rd and 3 more in the 4th, so the second-half drought from the Louisiana Tech loss didn't come back. A 6-point quarter and a 3-point quarter also tell you how those drives ended: field goals, or a touchdown with a missed or failed try. Against a team that scored 7 in the 3rd, that was the difference. The Jaguars kept getting close and kept settling.
Louisiana's defense decided it in the 4th. The Cajuns' offense went scoreless after taking a 28-23 lead into the final quarter, and the defense held South Alabama to 1 field goal over those 15 minutes with the game on the line. That fits the profile the preview drew from Louisiana's home results: a team that wins by controlling games, as it did in holding Troy to 6 and grinding out a 23-20 win over Arkansas State. It didn't hold the Jaguars down for 4 quarters, but it held them when it counted.
The injury stories the preview flagged can't be measured from the line score. South Alabama was playing without receivers K. Marion and B. Barnes and tight end M. Lynch, and Louisiana without running back D. Smith. The search for this game didn't return a full box score, so there's no individual stat line to show who filled those roles. What the scoreboard does show is that a short-handed South Alabama passing game still produced its best point total since early October, and Louisiana scored 28 without its lead back.
Where it leaves both teams: Louisiana moves to 6-3 and 3-2 in the Sun Belt, bowl eligible, with all 3 of its losses on the road. South Alabama falls to 4-5 and 2-3 in conference, losers of 3 straight, and this was the closest of the 3. A 2-point loss on the road to a rested team is a better showing than the last 2 weeks, but the Jaguars now probably need to win out to reach a bowl, and their conference title hopes are close to finished.
