South Alabama’s typically excellent defense got run off the field by Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday night.
The homestanding Warhawks piled up 554 yards of total offense and went 7-for-13 on third down on the way to a 41-31 victory over the Jaguars at Malone Stadium. Chandler Rogers threw for 369 yards and four touchdowns as ULM (4-3, 3-2 Sun Belt Conference) kept South Alabama (4-3, 1-3) winless in four trips to Monroe.
“That’s very uncanny of our defense,” South Alabama coach Kane Wommack said during his postgame interview on SportsTalk 99.5 FM. “I didn’t think we compete hard enough. I thought schematically we didn’t put our guys in good-enough situations. That’s on me and [defensive coordinator Corey Batoon] and the rest of the defensive staff.”
Read more sports
Eli Manning’s number retired at Ole Miss, says most memorable moment was beating Alabama
Watch Mike Leach’s take on Halloween treats — candy corn, gummy bears — is next level
Watch Iowa State get touchdown wiped out by questionable taunting penalty
South Alabama’s Jake Bentley threw for 320 yards and four touchdowns of his own, but the Jaguars could not keep up with the explosive Warhawks. Bentley’s 40-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Tolbert gave the Jaguars their only lead of the game at 31-24 with 6:28 left in the third.
ULM scored back-to-back touchdowns —Rogers’ 21-yard strike to Fred Lloyd on third-and-5 to tie the game with 3:57 left in the third to tie it, and then an 81-yard catch and run by Will Derrick at the 1:07 mark to take the lead for good. South Alabama, meanwhile, went three-and-out and punted on back-to-back possessions during that stretch.
RELATED: Quarter-by-quarter look at South Alabama’s 41-31 loss to ULM
Calen Sutherland drilled a 41-yard field goal to put the Warhawks up 41-31 with 6:28 to play. South Alabama needed two scores to tie or win, but Diego Guajardo’s 39-yard field goal attempt sailed wide left with 1:12 remaining to end any real hopes of a comeback.
The Jaguars got the ball back one more time, but ULM’s Nick Roberts intercepted Bentley with 18 seconds left to put an exclamation point on the victory. Rogers took a knee to end a game in which he completed 25 of 35 passes with no turnovers and also rushed for 39 yards.
South Alabama came in ranked in the top three in the Sun Belt and in the top 20 nationally in several defensive categories, but couldn’t get important stops on Saturday. The Jaguars are now 2-20 in road Sun Belt games since 2015.
“We’ve got to do a better job,” Wommack said. “We’ve got to challenge things, and our players have got to challenge things. We didn’t challenge things well enough in this game. That’s really disappointing. Inconsistency of our team right now is disappointing, and that’s something that has to get cleaned up if we ever want to be a championship program.”
Tolbert had 10 receptions for 155 yards and two touchdowns in a losing effort for South Alabama, while Terrion Avery ran for a career-best 88 yards. The Jaguars allowed four sacks and turned the ball over three times in the game.
ULM led 24-17 at halftime after a wild second quarter that saw 27 total points scored. The Warhawks gained 295 yards in the first half, after averaging just 260.2 per game coming in.
Andrew Henry’s 20-yard touchdown run capped a 75-yard drive to open the game for ULM, which led 7-0 just 2:23 into the game. South Alabama tied the game with 4:18 left in the quarter, with Bentley hitting Jalen Wayne in the back of the end zone with a 10-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-3.
South Alabama turned the ball over twice in the half, the second a Bentley interception near midfield that led to ULM’s second touchdown. Rogers found Jared Sparks on a 12-yard slant route on third-and-10, putting the Warhawks up 14-7 with 12:30 remaining in the half.
South Alabama added Guajardo’s 28-yard field goal with 9:23 left, making it 14-10. ULM matched that score with Sutherland’s 39-yarder to go up 17-10 at the 5:23 mark.
The Jaguars drove for a touchdown, Bentley’s 12-yard pass to Lincoln Sefcik for a 17-17 score with 1:24 left. But the Warhawks put together an 11-play drive to take the lead back, twice converting on third down and getting Rogers’ 9-yard strike to Boogie Knight with four seconds remaining in the half.
South Alabama returns home next Saturday, facing Arkansas State. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. at Hancock Whitney Stadium.
Ad Choices