Louisiana Holds Off South Alabama 28-26 on the Ground
JJ Garner returned the opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown (12 seconds into the game, give or take), and Louisiana never trailed again. It still needed everything it had. Louisiana beat South Alabama 28-26, and the score was tied twice along the way, at 7-7 and 14-14.
Louisiana won this one with its legs. Louisiana ran 43 times for 314 yards and threw for only 147, so the total came to 461 yards against South Alabama's 370. Garner added a 65-yard touchdown run to open the second quarter, D'Wayne' Winfield scored from 14 yards out to make it 21-14, and his 27-yard pass to Shelton Sampson Jr. late in the third made it 28-17.
The 14-14 tie was a gift. Jaylen Moson picked off Winfield and took it back 72 yards for a South Alabama touchdown. Take that play away and Louisiana wins 28-19, with room to spare. Instead South Alabama kept coming. Bishop Davenport ran 45 yards for a score with 3:18 left in the third, the two-point try failed, and it was 28-23. Dylan Freebury's 50-yard field goal in the fourth made it 28-26, and nobody scored after that. Convert that two-pointer and the field goal ties the game at 28.
Louisiana moves to 6-3 and South Alabama falls to 4-5. Both teams threw exactly one interception, and Davenport's day (16 of 22 for 210 yards, plus two rushing touchdowns) was good enough to win most weeks. It was not good enough to cover a 100-yard kickoff return. Fantasy-wise, Winfield was the top scorer of the game at 27.6, and Garner turned in a season-high 20.9 on 10 carries, a kickoff return and one three-yard catch.