While it was far from perfection, it was a step in the right direction.

McNeese State won a football game, at home, for the first time since upsetting nationally-ranked Incarnate Word 11 months ago.

And with the Cardinals up next, McNeese has come full circle.

Forget for a moment the final score, or the opponent, this is about McNeese and its need to show improvement.

After an 0-3 start, more than a few of the locals were getting a bit restless. And while Saturday night’s game won’t cure any wounds, it will for a week calm some nerves.

“We needed this game to remind ourselves we are a good team,” said linebacker Micah Davey.

Since that victory over UIW on Oct. 23, 2021, the Pokes had gone just 1-6 until knocking off Division II Mississippi College Saturday night.

If they had lost to the Choctaws, it would have been McNeese’s first 0-4 start since 1954. That’s before color televisions were in every house.

You can Google that fact.

The 32-17 victory didn’t take any monkey off anybody’s back, but it sure put a few smiles on some faces.

It also means first-year head coach Gary Goff doesn’t have to answer any more questions about when his first win as a Cowboy was coming.

You can all move onward to San Antonio. And maybe the Pokes found an identity for the remainder of this season.

Yes, you have to check the competition but McNeese responded when challenged.

Clinging to a four-point lead early in the third quarter, the Cowboys of recent seasons would have folded up and proclaimed themselves victims once again. It has been the easy way out for a few years around the Doland Fieldhouse.

But this time when pushed the Cowboys shoved back, scoring on two long drives that put the game away after things got surprisingly and uncomfortably close. Instead of panic and confusion this time there was resolve and intensity.

It won’t win a league championship or any national title but it does give reason for hope. They are  clearly still in the stages of baby steps in this rebuilding, so winning any game is a positive.

The Cowboys learned over the first four weeks what this team can and can’t do. McNeese seems to be able to run the football.

The Cowboys had two runners go for over 100 yards as both Deonta McMahon and D’Angelo Durham turned the trick for the Cowboys, who didn’t allow a sack either.

For McMahon, it was his third straight 100-plus outing and fifth in last six games dating back to last season. So it may not be the promised air show but instead a pound and grind attack that is this team’s true identity.

While there are those who still want to know how, when and why this program got off its winning tracks, the important thing now is getting it back going. That can only be done by winning games, ugly or not.

Winning shows progress and gets more folks behind the rebuild.

No matter what it looks like, it does beat losing.

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Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com