It has been a frustrating season for Micah Davey.

A rib injury cost the All-American linebacker four games, but now he is back and playing at his extremely high level.

Saturday night the McNeese State junior collected 15 tackles and picked off a pass during the Cowboys’ 31-3 victory over Texas A&M-Commerce.

“I’m feeling really good now,” said Davey after the Cowboys snapped their three-game losing streak.

Davey wants to finish the season by putting his stamp back on the defense.

“Micah had a really good game, he was all over the field,” said McNeese head coach Gary Goff. “He has worked hard to get back.

“Our defense played really hard. They bent a little but they didn’t break.”

Twice the Cowboys didn’t allow a point on Commerce drives that ventured inside the 10-yard line. Another time they gave up just a field goal.

“You never want to give up touchdowns,” said Davey. “That meant a lot to us. We preach keeping them in a box and you have to give everybody credit in the room, not just the guys who played.”

The defense set the tone early when after quarterback Kamden Sixkiller fumbled the game’s first snap, Lions lineman Warren Robinson retrieved it at the McNeese 18. However, the next three plays netted just seven yards and Commerce had to settle for a 28-yard Luke Jackson field goal and a 3-0 lead two minutes into the game.

It would be the Lions’ only points of the night.

“As soon as we saw the snap messed up and Commerce recovered, nobody hung their heads,” said Davey. “We just said let’s go.”

Sixkiller struggled in his sixth career start as the redshirt freshman threw as many passes to Commerce defenders as he did to his own guys. He finished 2 of 11 for 60 yards and two interceptions. 

One of those competitions was good for a 21-yard touchdown to Jonathan Harris with 2:47 left in the opening half. That gave McNeese a comfortable 34-3 lead at the break.

Bryce Strong and Joshon Barbie each ran for over 100 yards and a touchdown to lead the offense. They were the first Cowboys running back duo to each rush for 100 yards in a game since November 2022 when Deonta McMahon (197) and Marcus McElroy (136) achieved it against HCU.

Barbie finished with a season-high 124 yards on 20 carries. He finished eight yards short of his career-high, which came last year at Lamar. 

It was Barbie’s second straight 100-yard performance. He had 121 against Nicholls the previous week.

Barbie scored the McNeese’s first touchdown on a 6-yard run five minutes into the game, giving the Cowboys a 7-3 lead. 

Strong, a transfer from Riverside City College in California, had his best game as a Cowboy. He ran for 121 yards on 10 carries, including a 78-yard scoring sprint in the first quarter.

Strong’s score matched the 10th-longest run in McNeese history and gave the Cowboys a 14-3 lead with 2:17 left in the opening quarter.

“When the play broke I was ready for it,” said Strong. “Every week we are capable of that. We have a lot of people in our room that can do that.”

As a team, the Cowboys finished with 367 yards rushing, third most in program history.

Most of this game belonged to a defense that is getting healthier by the week, led by Davey. 

McNeese finished with a season-best nine tackles for loss and held the Lions to just 48 yards rushing on 31 carries, an average of just 1.5. They also tied a season-high in sacks with three and collected three turnovers.

Davey had a chance for a touchdown on his interceptions. He had dropped a chance at an interception earlier but this time with nobody in front of him he stumbled after making the catch deep in Lion territory.

“When the ball touched my hands I just wanted to make sure I held onto it,” said Davey.

The win evens the Cowboys record at 5-5 overall and 2-3 in the Southland Conference with two games remaining.

After the bye week, McNeese will travel to Northwestern State to take on the winless Demons, who have lost 22 straight games when you include four forfeits from a year ago. The Cowboys will finish the season a week later at home against Lamar.

McNeese is 4-0 at home and is looking for its first winning season since 2019 when the Cowboys finished 7-5 in Sterlin Gilbert’s only year as the head coach.

“I want that for these guys, to show them we are going in the right direction,” said Goff.