McNeese State Falls In Opening Round Of FCS Playoffs

[Guest abovetherim]

LAKE CHARLES, La. - McNeese State’s perfect season came to an end here Saturday when the Cowboys dropped a 44-15 decision to Eastern Washington in the opening round of the FCS playoffs.

It was the first loss in 12 games for the Cowboys who had completed the regular season 11-0, only the fourth such season in McNeese history.

Eastern Washington, now 9-3, continues on in the playoffs and will travel to play Appalachian State next Saturday.

The loss by the Cowboys was a shocker as they had gone into the playoffs as the No. 2 seed and was favored over the Eagles.

“We are very disappointed,†said Cowboy head coach Matt Viator, “but we have no excuses.  You have to take the good with the bad.  They excuted early.  When they needed eight yards they got nine. When we needed seven yards we would get six.

“They ran the ball hard and I thought that their offensive line played well.  But, we got beat in every area tonight.â€

The statistics of the game were pretty one sided in favor of the Eagles.

They had 34 first downs to the Cowboys 16.  They totaled 626 offensive yards which was a Cowboy Stadium record (McNeese had 312) and their quarterback – Matt Nichols – completed 34 of 44 passes for 434 yards, just shy of the stadium record.

McNeese scored the game’s first touchdown on a 66 yard pass interception return by Brant Linde.  That was the 10th longest in school  history but the Cowboy lead didn’t last long.

Eastern Washington came back two minutes later to score on a three yard run by Dale Morris, one of four for him in the game, and then took the lead for good at 10-7 with nine minutes left in the second period on a 24 yard field goal by Fellipe Macias.

Nichols connected with Tony Davis on a 64 yard pass with only a minute left in the first  half and the Eagles carried a 16-7 lead into intermission.

Morris scored from 20 yards out early in the third period as the Eagles went up by another td, but then the Cowboys got a touchdown on a one yard run by Derrick Fourroux and were within a score.

However, the Eagles tallied on runs of one and four yards by Morris and then added a final touchdown late in the final period when Nichols caught Nathan Overbay on a 10 yard pass.

Nichols had 459 total offensive yards in the game and that total was a stadium record, breaking the mark of 428 that former Southeastern Louisiana quarterback Martin Hankins had set in 2004.

Morris netted 130 yards on 22 carries for the Eagles to lead all ball carriers in the game.

McNeese’s top rusher was wide receiver Carlese Franklin who picked up 46 yards on four end around rushes.

Foruroux completed 12 of 24 passes for 176 yards and Immanuel Friddle led the the Pokes in receiving with 106 yards on five catches.

Eastern Washington, however, had two receivers catch passes for over 100 yards.  Davis caught eight for 131 yards and Brynsen Brown had seven for 104.

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