McNeese looks to improve at the line of scrimmage after tough week one loss

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - Week one of the college football season is in the books, and it was as head coach of the McNeese Cowboys Gary Goff put it a shocking week that he did not expect as they lost 52-34 to Tarleton State. One of the keys to the Texans’ success against the Cowboys was their ability to establish the line of scrimmage. In the game, Tarleton State rushed for 210 yards and had three touchdowns on the ground, while their defense caused problems up front as they tallied up six sacks on the night.

“Our defensive line has to get to the quarterback, you’ve got to put some pressure on the quarterback and we didn’t do that, we didn’t make any plays up front, so with that, we have to put some pressure on a quarterback,” said Coach Goff. Protection wasn’t horrible until the end where they were able to bring six to seven guys on almost every snap I mean their defense is a pretty good defense, and we knew that going into this game we were going to have our hands full in some situations, but that’s why on first and second down you can’t have negative plays and if you live behind the chains on a regular basis you’re not going to have success.”

The Cowboys went into the locker room at the half up a score over Tarleton State, but the wheels began to fall off quickly in the second half as the Cowboys gave up 35 unanswered points in the half, and Coach Goff made it clear that his team’s effort was just not there.

“I didn’t like a lot of the effort for the entire four quarters, we’re better than that, we had a chance to go up two scores and we came out and had a long drive to start the third quarter, we had a chance to put together a nice drive right there and if we did then we’re up two scores and who knows what the outcome could have been at that moment,” said Goff. “That was kind of the breaking point I believe, I didn’t think we played extremely hard after that and we got to continue to focus on playing hard every play and I think the guys know this, you could see it on their faces in the locker room, they knew it wasn’t their best effort and that’s something that has to be addressed today as a program.”

The Cowboys’ schedule does not get any easier as they have a road stretch that includes a trip to Gainesville, Florida this week as the McNeese will match up against the Florida Gators. Kick-off for that game is set for this Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

For the full press conference from Monday, click here.