Why Marshall Will Win The R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
The defensive line has to take this over from the start.
The Marshall offense has been hit-or-miss throughout the season, and the defense has been a tad spotty against the run – to be kind – but the pass rush has been a terror with a whole lot of big things happening in the backfield.
Yes, Louisiana will want to run, but this isn’t the offense of the last few years – it relies on more quick-hitting passes and balance now. Marshall’s D should be able to hurry the process a bit.
Offensively, throw well, don’t turn the ball over a ton, and win.
The passing attack can take over games and should be able to push a Ragin’ Cajun secondary that wasn’t pressed too often by many high-powered passing attacks. It got torched when it did.
Marshall has chilled a bit with the turnovers after giving them up in bunches over the first half of the season, but the two against WKU didn’t help the cause in the regular season finale.
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Why Louisiana Will Win The R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Again, Marshall has been better with the turnovers, and it only lost the turnover margin twice over the final seven games – and it lost both of them.
Louisiana might not be the killer it was in 2020, but the 2021 team is far more careful with the ball. It hasn’t turned it over in any of the last four games and just once in the last six – it’s second in the nation in turnover margin.
The Marshall lines might be terrific, but Louisiana has no problem playing low-scoring slugfest games. It does a good job of getting the defense off the field, the offense is just fine at controlling the clock, and the running game should be able to crank up enough yards on the ground to get by.
Other than UAB, the teams on Marshall’s schedule that can run were able to do it, and so were some teams that weren’t that great on the ground.
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