By Stephen Nover
Lousiana Lafayette-Georgia Southern Over 55
The top three offenses in yards gained per game are Oklahoma, Washington State and Arizona.
Care to venture a guess on what team ranks fourth? I doubt you said UL Lafayette.
The Ragin’ Cajuns, though, have a high-powered balance attack that is averaging 565 yards and 46.3 points a game. They rank fourth in total yards and second in first downs. Louisiana Lafayette has one of the best running back tandems in the Sun Belt Conference with Elijah Mitchell and Trey Ragas. QB Levi Lewis is playing at a high level, too, and Ja’Marcus Bradley has emerged as one of the better receivers in the league averaging 16.5 yards on 20 receptions.
The Ragin’ Cajuns are becoming an offensive force under second-year head coach Billy Napier having beaten Ohio, Texas Southern and Liberty after an opening week loss to Mississippi State. The Ragin’ Cajuns, however, do not have a strong run defense ranking 64th. That makes them vulnerable to Georgia Southern.
The Eagles’ season statistics are skewed because of a 55-3 opening week loss to fourth-ranked LSU. Georgia Southern nearly upset Minnesota as a 17-point road ‘dog in its last game. Minnesota pulled the game out on a short TD pass with 13 seconds left. Georgia Southern employs a run-oriented triple option offense that the Ragin’ Cajuns haven’t seen all season.
The Eagles were idle last week. They’ve been going with backup redshirt freshman Justin Tomlin at QB in place of injured Shai Werts, who was considered one of the league’s better quarterbacks heading into the season. The extra time could allow Werts to return from his shoulder injury. Napier is anticipating Werts will be back under center, but if he isn’t Tomlin has shown enough improvement where the Eagles can be counted to score their fair share of points.
“…He’s a very explosive player and presents kind of the same problems,” Napier said of Tomlin in comparing him to Werts.
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