Justin Pratt took the football and darted to his left. Grant Burguillos, in the game to spare senior center Mason Martin, and Jalen Smith cleared a hole, shoving the Northwestern State defensive linemen to the side. Pratt hit the hole, plenty big enough for his 5-foot-7 frame.
Forty-seven yards later, a tenuous, three-point McNeese lead swelled 10.
“They parted the Red Sea,” Pratt joked after the game. “It just felt great, the (offensive line) just opening up these holes for all the backs to bust through.”
This was Pratt’s fifth carry of the game. He received just nine total but still produced the best game by any Cowboys running back this season, and only the second 100-yard game by a single back. Ryan Ross, the owner of the team’s only other 100-yard outing against UL-Lafayette, added 74 hard-earned yards on 18 carries.
Reading solely the box score, McNeese’s dormant run game, which entered the game as the Southland Conference’s 11th ranked rushing offense, appeared to awaken. It gained 217 yards across 36 carries spread among five running backs — good for an even six yards per carry.
The team had not averaged more than four yards per carry since the season-opener against Division II Tarleton State, when it had 4.2 yards per carry.
As is to be expected, Pratt credited the offensive line, a beleaguered, young unit that’s dealt with injury and scarce depth all season. He and other teammates note the maturation.
“I think our (offensive) line doesn’t get enough credit,” quarterback James Tabary said Tuesday when asked a question solely about his wide receivers. “I think our (offensive) line has been playing absolutely great the last three games.”
Lance Guidry prefers to assign the week’s accomplishments in a frank reality.
“They played with confidence,” the McNeese head coach said of his offensive line, “but we knew Northwestern wasn’t really good. I mean, so, we can’t … they weren’t really good at stopping the run. So you can’t put a lot into it. Of course we’re going to give credit to our players and say they did a good job. But to say that all the problems are fixed, that’s not the case.”
Unsurprisingly blunt, Guidry’s comments are also fact. Entering their homecoming game against McNeese, the Demons were eighth in the Southland in rush defense, permitting 189.5 yards per game.
Guidry’s cautious optimism is warranted, though it also merits a proper perspective. McNeese averaged 2.4 yards per carry against the Southland’s sixth-ranked rushing defense (Incarnate Word) and 3.3 against the conference’s seventh-ranked unit (Southeastern Louisiana).
And against Central Arkansas — the Football Championship Subdivision’s best rushing defense — last week? The Cowboys averaged their most yards per carry, 3.9, since Tarleton State, but all promising drives were derailed by fumbles.
“We have to continue to get better and better and better,” Guidry said. “And the front we’re going to play against this week is big and very active. We’re going to have a challenge on our hands, but hopefully we can build on some confidence and get better this week which will be good. But we felt like we could run the ball on Northwestern.”
Abilene Christian, tenth in the Southland with 220.6 rushing yards allowed per game, utilizes a 4-3 defense with four down linemen and three linebackers.
Rarely, Guidry says, do the Wildcats get out of this formation that contains the team’s strength — an “active” defensive front that can roll multiple players in and out. Abilene chooses to leave its linebackers in the game most of the time, ceding some passing yards to stop the run.
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