Their first trip ever into “The Swamp” went about as expected for the Cowboys.

Overmatched against the SEC’s Florida Gators, McNeese State was toppled 49-7 Saturday night inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainsville.

It was just the third game ever against an SEC team for the Pokes (0-2). The other two came against LSU, though they have also played at Missouri and Texas A&M before they moved to the Southeastern Conference.

Florida used its power running attack to barrel over McNeese, scoring touchdowns on its first seven drives. That included an 11-play, 99-yard march after a perfect Callum Eddings punt pinned the Gators back to their own one.

Eddings’ second punt downed at the one led to McNeese’s only score of the night. John Brown recovered a Florida fumble at the Gator eight in the closing minutes and Colby Hamm ran it in for the Cowboy score.

The rest of the night went to the Gators.

None of their scoring drives covered less than 62 yards as five different Gators scored. Florida’s defense added a safety to the party just for good measure.

“The margin for error when you play an SEC team is so small,” said McNeese head coach Gary Goff. “We saw that tonight.”

Goff said he saw an improved Cowboy team from the opening week despite the outcome.

“I think we played extremely hard against superior talent,” said Goff. “I’m proud of the guys. Overall the guys played a lot harder than we did for four quarters in week one.”

One of those Florida players scoring was sophomore Trevor Etienne. The tailback from Jennings High School scored on an eight-yard run in the first quarter. He finished with 84 yards on 11 carries.

Montrell Johnson led Florida’s rushing game with 119 yards on 15 carries and two scores. The Gators finished gaining 327 yards on the ground and 560 overall, picking up 33 first downs along the way.

McNeese managed just 112 yards of total offense.

Florida Quarterback Graham Mertz was a nifty 14-for-17 for 193 yards. The Wisconsin transfer threw for a score and ran for another as the Gators evened their record at 1-1.

D’Angelo Durham got off to a fast start for the Cowboys, rushing for 40 yards in the opening quarter. But Florida shut him down after that as the junior finished the game with 45 yards on 11 carries.

Quarterback Nate Glantz ended 6-of-13 for 62 yards and was sacked three times.

“We will not play anybody the rest of the season nearly as talented as Florida,” said Goff. “We came out of this game healthy and I think took a step in the right direction.

McNeese will continue on the road, traveling to Alcorn for a game against the Braves next week. The Pokes will follow that up with a third straight game on the road when they head to Eastern Illinois.

They won’t be back in Cowboy Stadium until Sept. 30 when they open Southland Conference play against Nicholls.

McNeese earned $500,000 for its trip to Gainsville.