Quote:This one hurt, and the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns weren't afraid to show it.

The Cajuns slipped to 1-5 on the season and 0-2 in Sun Belt Conference play with Thursday night's 39-36 loss to Arkansas State on a last-second field goal, and the painful truth was the Cajuns did themselves in as much as the Indians did.

"The only ones who stopped us tonight were ourselves," said freshman quarterback Michael Desormeaux, who rushed for 174 yards and two scores, and threw for 97 yards, but suffered a key fourth-quarter fumble that set up a go-ahead ASU touchdown.

"This is a good football team," he added of the Indians. "You never expect to rush for 400 yards against somebody (UL had 457). We just executed. When we do that, we do good things."

The game could have been a breakout one for Desormeaux, who suffered through a 6-of-18 first start a week ago and converted an amazing 14-of-19 third-down conversions against ASU.

"Last week, I just had a bad game," Desormeaux said. "I felt that's not who I am. But I just went back to practice and back to work. The whole team did that.

"They didn't give up on me. They stayed with me. This team fought their butts off, on offense and defense. It's just unfortunate to lose it like this."

"Other than our two lost fumbles, I felt we did a good job offensively," coach Rickey Bustle said. "The offensive line played well and the backs ran hard. And Michael made some big plays on that last drive."

Desormeaux mounted an 18-play, 80-yard drive in response to ASU taking a 36-29 lead, forging a 36-36 tie with just 52 seconds remaining.

"Mike got a lot of confidence early, and obviously we did a good job on third and fourth-down plays," Bustle said. "We played hard in the fourth quarter. We just made a couple of big mistakes."

Little-used Josh Harrison had an impressive 87-yard rushing night that included a pair of touchdowns, coming into the battle after starter Tyrell Fenroy was knocked out in the first half and Abdule Levier was taken out following a crucial fumble.

"We work on running the ball," Harrison said. "We've been trying to establish it for a long time. We recruited a lot of running backs. If we execute the way we're supposed to, we can run on anybody."

Harrison's quickness was especially effective in the second half.

"I don't think it matters who we had in there at that point," he said. "We have a whole stable of running backs. We have two backs who are redshirting who are as good as any other back we have.

"The offensive line was on point tonight, and they stayed on point."

The anguish shown by the Cajuns heading into their locker room spoke volumes about the pain of this defeat, but somehow they'll try to regroup for a road test at Middle Tennessee on Oct. 22.

"We're going to keep working," Harrison said. "We're down a couple of games, but it doesn't matter. The harder you work, the harder it is to give up, and we're not going to give up."