Jim Gazzolo column: Season not turning out as hoped

Published 10:40 am Tuesday, November 9, 2021

A season of hope and promise will come up short… literally.

At the biggest moments of games McNeese State could not get it done.

The Cowboys won’t win a Southland Conference title for the city. Likely that was always out of reach all things considered.

There also won’t be a winning record, something that seemed a real possibility heading into last Saturday’s home game against Nicholls.

The best the Cowboys can do now is win their last two games and finish 5-6. Maybe that’s why the loss to Nicholls seemed like such a disappoint to so many.

However, it is just as likely the disappointment came from the way the game was lost.

Since the beginning of this double season of 2021, Mc-Neese has been consistent. Over the 16 games dating back to last February, the Cowboys are 6-10 with only really two bad games, both against Incarnate Word.

The rest of the time they have played hard, had moments where they looked like they were about to turn the corner and never quit.

But the mistakes have also been consistent, which leads to the disappointment.

Saturday it happened again. With a chance to tie the football game with a fourth-and-2 from the Nicholls 7 late in the third quarter, the Cowboys seemed to have what they wanted.

The play was called to go right, where they had outnumbered the Nicholls defense. But the snap was low and to the left of quarterback Cody Orgeron. He had to improvise and try and make something out of nothing.

He came up a yard short of the first down.

“We shot ourselves in both feet,” Orgeron said.

Hard to tell if he was talking about the Nicholls game or season in general.

Another drive to tie the game ended with a Carlos Williams fumble, McNeese’s only turnover of the game. The Cowboy defense had three takeaways but those led to zero points.

“Squandered opportunities,” said Orgeron, again leaving to question was he talking about one game or all games.

McNeese has had trouble finishing off drives and leaving points on the field both in the spring and fall. It has cost them greatly in at least seven of the 10 losses.

Then there is the defense, which for the most part has played well to great, keeping McNeese in most games. But penalties at key times have killed them.

Saturday, during the game-clinching field-goal drive Nicholls picked up 40 yards on Cowboy penalties with all four leading to first downs.

Southland officials are far from the best, and even the replay system seemed to let McNeese down on a pass interference call. The ball seemed tipped at the line of scrimmage on replay and that would have made the interference hit clean.

But the officials ruled the replay inconclusive and instead of a punt Nicholls got a first down.

Of course, there is no excuse for having two men on the field for a punt with the same number number. That’s on the sidelines. It’s a little late in the game for these issues to be fixed this season.

Moving forward it is what must be fixed by next fall. Moments of improvement are great, games of improvement are a must.

Playing solid the next two weeks could jumpstart the Cowboys’ rebuild. It would at least show they still can learn from their mistakes.

It is really all they have left.

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Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com