Matt Viator can’t think about the could-have-beens when the season still has one more to-do.

Though it would take a massive number of catastrophes by playoff hopefuls across the country to give McNeese State (6-4, 4-3 Southland) any hope at the postseason, beating Lamar (7-4, 4-3) in the regular-season finale is job No. 1 for the Cowboys.

“This is a huge game for us. It’s the biggest one of the year for us,” Viator said. “It’s a big game for who we are. We haven’t lost three straight games in years, and we don’t want to send the seniors out that way. Obviously we’d rather win the league. But to finish winning is better than losing.”

The previous biggest game of the year did not turn out well for the Cowboys, with last Saturday’s 28-9 loss at Southeastern Louisiana likely extinguishing their playoff hopes.

McNeese had a bounty of chances to change that outcome with SLU holding a 14-9 lead for the first 18 minutes of the second half.

The Cowboy offense didn’t take advantage of the opportunities granted by the defense that effectively got the Lions off the field in the third quarter.

McNeese drove to midfield twice, but never broke deep into Southeastern territory.

“To quote Dave (Simmons), I thought we had good shots,” Viator said. “We just didn’t hit them.”

The tide turned in the fourth when SLU quarterback Bryan Bennett rolled a pooch punt to the McNeese 10.

“He had punted against Stephen F. Austin, but they had the punt team out there. This was the first time they had (quick-kicked) this year,” Viator said. “They had their offense out there. And he’s the best player in the league, so you have to leave your defense out there. If your punt team is out there, they’ll fake it. We had Aaron Sam back up at the last second, but they’d kick it at the last second.”

The Cowboys went three-and-out, and a 33-yard punt set the Lions up on the McNeese side of the field for the crucial drive that put them up by two scores.

“Bad field position is one thing,” Viator said. “But you have to make a couple plays to get out of bad field position. And we didn’t.”

McNeese’s offense has been massively ineffective after halftime in recent games. The Cowboy offense has two total touchdowns in the second halves of its last five games.

“I’ll put last week on me,” Viator said. “We quit running the ball too soon. Because every now and then we did hit a run. If I had to do it again I’d try to run it a little longer. I knew we could get some guys open, but I didn’t know if we would hit them or not.”

On top of that, there’s no telling who will be starting at quarterback against the Cardinals after Tyler Bolfing left the SLU game with an injury.

McNeese returns to the practice field today, and it seems likely Will Briscoe will be taking the majority of first-team snaps.

“Tyler is hurt, and I don’t know what his status is,” Viator said. “Obviously Will underthrew one and overthrew one (for interceptions), but I was proud of him. The thing about Will I’ve always liked is he’s got some game. He stepped right up and started chucking them.

“He’s never had a week where he’s gotten 60-70 percent of the reps. If that’s the case and he has to be the guy, I think he’ll be better.”

The injuries to Bolfing and fellow part-time starter Daniel Sams are just the latest in a long list that have derailed this season.

“I was thinking about it coming home on the bus,” Viator said. “I wish we would have beat them, because I think we had as good of players as they do. I just wish we could get our guys healthy at the right time. And even the other night with who we were playing with, we had our chances. It’s not for a lack of effort. As coaches we’ve got to put them in better position to make those plays.”(American Press Archives)