Kick It Into High Gear: A&M Recap & ULL Preview
Dan Bailey is clutch. It's gotta be the shoes.
Recap: OSU came out flat against A&M and fell behind in a sloppy game due to a quick turnover deep in their own territory. But the Pokes stayed close and eventually exploded in the third quarter for 21 unanswered points. It looked like OSU would win easily, but – as predicted – A&M didn’t throw in the towel and they came back to tie the game late. A&M had the ball back with a few minutes in the game, but threw an interception to Shaun Lewis whose return put the Pokes in field goal range with 16 seconds to go. One Kendall Hunter run later, Dan Bailey put a 41-yard game winning field goal through the uprights and the Pokes escaped with a 38-35 win to push their record to 4-0. Bailey’s kick brings to mind the famous Mars Blackmon (no relation to Justin) quote, “It’s gotta be the shoes.”
QB Chris Masson hopes to engineer a surprise upset of the Pokes on ESPN2.
Preview: Up next for the undefeated Pokes is tonight’s opponent, Louisiana (formerly known as Southwestern Louisiana and sometimes referred to as ULL or Lafayette). The Rajin’ Cajuns are 2-2 on the season with narrow wins over Arkansas State at home and North Texas on the road. They were throttled by Georgia in the season opener, 55-7, and lost big to Middle Tennessee 34-17 in week three. Louisiana may be without its leading rusher for this game, but he only had 150 yards in just over three games of action. They don’t light it up through the air either as their starting QB only averages about 180 yards per game.
My Prediction: OSU 62, Louisiana 17. The Cowboys are 24 point favorites coming into this game. However, with narrow victory margins against Texas A&M and Troy, I don’t think this team will take the Cajuns lightly. Expect a long pass or two from Weeden in the first half, but most of the work goes to Kendall Hunter on the ground. I’m predicting 150 yards and 2 TDs before halftime. Expect the youngsters to get lots of 2nd half action. They’ll give up some points late, but OSU dominates this one on ESPN2.
