this was one of the best games I have seen in a long time. Our guys went down 17-0 but never gave up, came back and almost pulled the upset. Ryan Moats for LaTech is one hell of a running back. Despite the loss I am proud of our team and the game they played tonight.

SwampHound Wrote:this was one of the best games I have seen in a long time. Our guys went down 17-0 but never gave up, came back and almost pulled the upset. Ryan Moats for LaTech is one hell of a running back. Despite the loss I am proud of our team and the game they played tonight.

Kudos to the Cajuns for a hard fought game; you guys hung in there and almost won it. I think you guys will take Loser Tech next time you play.

Cajuns Fall Seconds Short of a Game-Winning Score and 2-0 Start

Saturday, Sept. 11, 2004


RUSTON - Louisiana Tech's Ryan Moats proved to be too much for Nevada on Monday, rushing for 257 yards and three scores. Moats was too much for Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday as well.

His 258-yard performance and a touchdown prevented the Cajuns from getting their second win of the season.

Moats also added 13 receiving yards in the Bulldogs (2-0) 24-20 victory over the Cajuns (1-1) at Joe Aillet Stadium in Ruston.

His 258-yard ground game is the fourth highest total by an opponent in Cajuns history. Tech's Jason Davis and Bobby Ray Tell rushed for 302 and 264 yards, respectively. Auburn's Bo Jackson also had 290 yards rushing against the Cajuns.

Despite Moat's performance, the Cajuns were still in position to win the game.

The defense stopped Tech on the UL 33 and the Bulldogs elected to punt. Louisiana-Lafayette gained possession, down four, on its own 11 yard-line with one timeout and 4:18 to play.

Jerry Babb, who earlier led the Cajuns to a 20-17 lead, began the Cajuns march toward the win.

Babb threw 14 times, completing nine. He also rushed three times, twice picking-up first downs on fourth down plays. The final pass was a completion to Dwight Lindon for six yards to the Tech seven yard-line.

Time expired before the Cajuns could spike the ball for one last shot at the end zone.

Babb completed 32-of-54 passes for 327 yards and a touchdown, and rushed 10 times for 33 yards and a score. Bill Sampy collected the fourth 100-yard receiving game of his career with eight catches for 107 yards. He was the recipient of a 59-yard bomb from Babb.

After falling behind 17-0, it appeared the Cajuns would be to far behind to be in position for a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter. In fact, if not for the Cajuns defense early, UL would have been in a deeper hole.

The Cajuns dodged a bullet on Louisiana Tech's first three possessions. The Bulldogs drove inside the Cajuns 10 yard-line three straight times only to come away empty handed.

C.C. Brown forced a fumble after Tech's Erick Newman picked-up a 15-yard reception. Terryl Fenton hopped on the loose ball at the Cajuns three yard-line to stop the series.

Following a punt by the Cajuns, Tech moved downfield quickly. Ricky Thomas ended the drive with an interception on the Cajuns eight-yard line.

Following another punt by the Cajuns, Moats helped the Bulldogs penetrate the Cajuns red zone again. It was Moats' fumble, though, that led to a third Cajuns takeaway. Anthony Hills forced the fumble, and then came away with the loose ball to thwart yet another threat.

After a nine-yard punt by the Bulldogs, the Cajuns offense took over on the 25 yard-line. UL mounted a drive into Tech territory with several completions by Babb. Babb's crucial third-and-10 pass to B.J. Crist for 18 yards brought the Cajuns to the Tech 30-yard line at the close of the first quarter.

The start of the second quarter saw Babb's pass go through the hands of Travis Smothers and intercepted by Michael Johnson.

Moats erupted for a 52-yard touchdown at 13:26 of the second quarter; however, the play was brought back after a penalty was called on Tech for an illegal block. The Tech drive continued, but stalled at the Cajuns four yard-line. Brad Osteicher converted the short field goal to put Tech on the board.

Tech put two second quarter touchdowns on the board very quickly.

Three plays netted 47 yards and a score. Donald Allen connected on a 29-yard pass to Freddie King, before hitting Erick Franklin with a 19-yard touchdown pass.

The following drive saw Moats set-up his own 13-yard touchdown run with a 13-yard reception. Tech needed six plays and 2:37 to cover 41 yards for the score.

The Cajuns tried to salvage the first half with a long drive late in the second quarter. Babb led the Cajuns on an 11-play, 69-yard scoring drive in 2:24 seconds.

The drives key play came on fourth-and-five from the 27 yard-line. Babb avoided a sack deep in the backfield and scrambled to his right, finding Chester Johnson for seven yards and a first down.

Babb completed seven-of-eight passes for 72 yards, but it was his one-yard diving touchdown which closed the Tech lead to 17-7 at the half.

The Cajuns took the opening kick-off of the second half 58 yards on 12 plays. The 3:58 drive ended on a successful 41-yard field goal by Sean Comiskey. Comiskey's first triple of the season closed the Tech lead to 17-10.

Louisiana's drive was aided by the ground attack. Through the first half, the Cajuns had just 18 yards rushing on 12 carries. To open the second half, UL rushed for 35 yards, including a 15-yard dash by Chester Johnson and an 11-yard scramble by Babb.

The Cajuns stormed back on their next possession to tie the game. Louisiana traveled 84 yards on five plays in 1:46.

Babb completed three passes, with his last connection a 59-yard touchdown strike to Sampy.

Momentum was clearly in the Cajuns favor and the large gathering of Cajuns fans inspired the team. The section of Cajuns faithful cheered loudly and helped the team comeback.

The Bulldogs intercepted Babb at the Cajuns 20-yard line and appeared to be headed toward another score, but the Cajuns defense allowed only five yards in three downs.

Osteicher's 42-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Ken Haynes and returned by Antwain Spann 57 yards to the Bulldogs 13-yard line.

UL lost two yards on three plays and settled for Comiskey's second field goal, a 33-yard conversion, to take their first lead of the game, 20-17.

Tech responded with a long drive to regain the lead. Moats carried the ball six times on the Cajuns 13-play, 86-yard scoring drive. Back-up quarterback Matt Kubik scored on a three-yard run at 10:49 to give Tech a 24-20 lead.

<a href='http://www.ragincajuns.com/football/Recaps/2004/091104atLaTech.htm' target='_blank'>LINK</a>

My assessment of the game last night.

This game could have been a repeat of last season's game. However, this team is different from last year's team in that we create turnovers. We must now start working on producing points off of those turnovers. LT had 3 TO's inside our 30 in the 1st quarter. It could have easily been 21-0 after the 1st QT.

I know Moats is GREAT running back, but we needed to put more guys in the box. We knew and Tech knew they were going to run the ball with Moats all night. Our safeties are good enough to defend against the pass. But, I'm sitting at home watching the game and not coaching, so I should just keep my mouth shut. The coaches made some great adjustments at halftime and prevented Tech from exploding for more points in the 2nd half. I thought the 2nd half was the greatest I've seen our team play in a while.

Comiskey is still the man! He had two huge FG's when we needed them. The TV announcers had nothing but good things to say about our kicking game.

Jerry, Jerry, Jerry. When we got the ball for the last drive, I just knew Jerry would drive us deep into Tech territory. I was having flashbacks to his performance against MT last season. I knew with him under center, we still had a shot at upsetting Tech. Unfortunately, we came up a couple yards short.

It took me a good 30 minutes to finally calm down from the game. I knew going into the game that it would be closer than last year's 34-3 thumping. I'm proud of our guys and hope they go into the K-State game with a high amount of confidence knowing they can bend, but not break. Sproles may have a highlight reel game, but all I care about is keeping him out of the endzone.

we need to follow whatever Fresno State did cause they held Sproles to 37 yards.

Yeah, i told my buddy the same thing. But I have one question and one pissed off thing to say. Well, me and the guys noticed this. When we had 6 seconds left of the game after the "should have won comeback drive", didn't anybody notice how slow the referee was going to get the ball? We were all so pissed off on how long it took that "slim" ref to get the ball for us so we could have a chance to spike it. Maybe he was ready to go home. :bang: we thought this could have given us at least one second on the clock.
Oh yeah, and the camera man pissed us off too.

The whole time clock situation sucks but I find it hard to get upset about, it's called the "homefield advantage." I am more upset that the ref supposedly told Harvey not to snap the ball until he blew the whistle, then instead of doing what they usually do (putting their foot by the ball, blowing the whiste and getting out of the way) he was no where to be seen and more importantly heard by Harvey. It's over now and we coulda, shoulda, woulda all day but we played a great game and lost. Time to move on and kick some Wildcat a**