This game will be one of several in-state battles taking place across college football this weekend. Louisiana Ragin Cajuns will travel to take on the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks in a battle of the Bayou State.
The matchup is at Malone Stadium, the Warhawks’ home and the only place they’ve won so far this season.
Aside from their 35-7 win over Nicholls State in Week 2, Louisiana-Monroe has two horrific yet excusable losses. It dropped a game 63-7 to Alabama this past weekend and kicked off its season with a 52-10 loss to Texas. It was down 28-0 at Alabama after the first quarter and took a 45-3 deficit to Texas into the 4th. It’s difficult to find many takeaways from those games, especially Louisiana-Monroe’s first conference game of the season against Nicholls State.
The Warhawk’s welcome the Sun Belt’s Louisiana. The Ragin’ Cajuns beat Southeast Louisiana 24-7 to open their season and took down Eastern Michigan 49-21 a wekk after that. Following those two wins, they had a discouraging loss to Rice in a game in which they were up 14-13 at halftime but got outscored 20-7 in the second half.
Kickoff for this one is set for 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, September 24.
Louisiana vs. Louisiana-Monroe Week 4 Prediction
Louisiana’s Struggling Offense Could Define Battle
The Ragin’ Cajuns don’t have a player new to the program in their starting lineup, but that doesn’t mean it has seen similar success.
Quarterback Chandler Fields had just 38 yards against Rice on 7 completions. Ben Wooldridge also got some time and had 6 completions for 76 yards. Neither quarterback had more than a 50% completion rate. While Louisiana was able to get lose and score 49 points against Eastern Michigan, it had just 7 in its opener.
The main reason for the drop-off from a program that finished in the AP top 25 last season is the loss of quarterback Levi Lewis, who had 20 touchdowns to just 4 interceptions. The Ragin’ Cajuns also lost 1 of its 2 rushers that were able to top 800 yards last season. Those losses seem to be more impactful than many expected.
Louisiana uses multiple quarterbacks and multiple running backs in its offensive scheme. No running back for Louisiana has over 150 yards yet the team has topped 100 in 2 of 3 games this season. While that type of variance difficult to plan against, not having a Lewis-type starter has clearly been a problem for this team.
This is head coach Michael Desormeaux’s second season with the Ragin Cajuns, and in his first conference game, it will be telling how he splits the snaps and opportunities among the several players that are used to getting snaps. Having 3 redshirt sophomores take over on the offensive line certainly doesn’t make matters easier either.
Can Louisiana Stop Louisiana-Monroe Attack?
While Louisiana may not have that guy, Louisiana-Monroe should believe they do in starting quarterback Chandler Rogers.
Rogers has some JuCo experience along with spending his first season at Southern Miss. Rogers is a redshirt sophomore and has 457 passing yards and 2 touchdowns through 3 games. It should be noted that both of his disappointing performances were against Texas and Alabama, a few acceptable letdowns. He also had 69 rushing yards.
Against Nicholls State, a blowout win for Louisiana-Monroe, Rogers was the difference-maker, throwing for over 250 yards and totaling 2 touchdowns while being the team’s second-leading rusher as well. The team has typically had more success on the ground with running back Malik Jackson. He has 110 rushing yards and is given the bulk of the Warhawks carries.
This will be the first game against a similar-level opponent as Louisiana-Monroe hasn’t had a game finish within 30 points so far this season. It had Rogers and Jackson last season and went to Louisiana, didn’t welcome them like in this game. The Warhawks lost that game 21-16.
Louisiana vs. Louisiana-Monroe Prediction
Louisiana-Monroe had 3 Sun Belt games finish as losses and more than a double-digit spread a season ago. 2 of those were on the road with the only blowout home loss against Georgia State. This Warhawks team should be more competitive in conference play with Rogers and Jackson having another season under their belt.
Louisiana has a new quarterback and was blown out against Rice. Going to a conference opponent coming off that type of loss and on the road likely won’t bode well. At least, it might not aid what sportsbooks expect to be around a double-digit deficit for the Warhawks.
I expect them to keep it closer than that.
Best NCAAF Bet: Louisiana-Monroe +9.5 (-110) at DraftKings | Playable to +7.5 (-110)
