Record bad start for McNeese Cowboys

Published 11:17 pm Saturday, October 7, 2023

The Cowboys crashed to a historic low Saturday night in Commerce, Texas.

For the first time in program history McNeese State has started a season with six straight losses. The last time the Pokes had lost five straight to open a season was in 1954, 69 years ago.

The latest was a 41-10 debacle at the hands of Texas A&M-Commerce in Memorial Stadium. It was the second straight weekend the Pokes have fallen to a previously winless foe.

Over their first two games in Southland Conference play, McNeese has been outscored 72-20. Since they held a 3-touchdown lead at Eastern Illinois 14 days previous, the Pokes have been outscored 113-20.

At 0-6, 0-2, McNeese will welcome a bye week before turning its attention to sixth-ranked Incarnate Word. For Commerce, Saturday’s game was its first in league play.

The numbers for McNeese were not pretty.

The Pokes ended the night 0-for-13 on third downs and turned the ball over three times. Over the last two games the has coughed the football up seven times.

Quarterback Nate Glantz was 10-of-18 for 111 yards and sacked five times before being replaced by Ryan Roberts. McNeese had 280 yards of total offense, 130 of that coming in the first quarter. A good chunk of the rest came after the game was long decided.

McNeese actually took a 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter on Garrison Smith’s 28-yard field goal and dominated the opening 15 minutes. However, three trips into Lion territory produced only the one kick.

The game shifted on a fourth-and-one play from the Commerce 10-yard line. The Pokes were stopped a yard short and the Lions took momentum over by scoring the next 41 points during the middle two quarters.

Ra’veion Hargrove scored on runs of seven and 49 yards in the second quarter to give Commerce the lead at the break, 14-3. Hargrove led the Lions with 96 yards on just 13 carries.

Any hope of a comeback ended during an avalanche of points by the Lions in the third quarter. They scored 27 during the 15 minutes, the crushing blow a 74-yard strike from Josh Magana to a wide open Jabari Khepera. It was Magana’s second TD pass of the quarter. Shamenski Rucker also had a 1-yard TD dive to go alive with a pair of Emmanuel Adagbon field goals.

Redshird freshman Joshon Barbe ended the scoring with a 3-yard touchdown run with 44 seconds left for McNeese.

D’Angelo Durhman was off to a good start with 52 yards on 10 carries through the first 22 minutes but he was injured and did not return.

After a slow start, Magana finished the night 12-of-21 for 266 yards and the two scores.