Picking Every Bowl: New Orleans Bowl, Louisiana vs. Marshall

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Louisiana (12-1) vs. Marshall (7-5), Caesars Superdome, New Orleans, 9:15 p.m., ESPN
Louisiana -4 – O/U 55.5

For your after-dinner treat, consider this intriguing matchup between the best team from a lesser conference facing off with a familiar bowl face. Louisiana had an incredible season, going 12-1 and losing only to Texas early in the season. (One could reasonably argue that the Ragin’ Cajuns would have beaten Texas toward the end of the season.) The Cajuns were so good that they lost their head coach, Billy Napier, to the Florida Gators two weeks ago. Offensive coordinator Michael Desormeaux (now also the new head coach) will lead Louisiana into this matchup, so there really shouldn’t be any drop-off from the Napier era, at least in the bowl game. Marshall, meanwhile, has been a fixture in bowl games, going to bowls in 10 of the past 13 seasons. In the previous nine, Marshall had gone 7-0 before losing the last two. The Cajuns are the highest-ranked team (and maybe the best) that Marshall has ever faced in a bowl, and they arrive in the New Orleans Bowl on a very hot streak. Two adjectives that describe Louisiana’s style of play? Efficient and consistent. The Cajuns will have several long, productive drives and will put enough pressure on the Herd to force several punts and a couple of turnovers.
Prediction: Louisiana 34-20
Result: Louisiana 36-21
The Ragin’ Cajuns finished their best season ever with a huge fourth quarter that made this game look like the blowout that it wasn’t. Marshall controlled the tempo for most of the game and led 21-16 entering the fourth. That’s when the Louisiana offense finally came to life. Two huge passes from Levi Lewis to Michael Jefferson set up two scoring drives, and the pounding of the Cajuns’ rushing attack did the rest. Louisiana finishes the year at 13-0 and holds the FBS record for the second-longest active winning streak, pending Cincinnati’s outcome in the College Football Playoff.

Record:
Bowl season: SU – 5-4; ATS – 3-6-0; O/U – 5-4-0
Overall: SU – 599-186; ATS – 372-327-6; O/U – 338-355-12

About Douglas Blaine

Capnpen is a writer who was a newspaper and magazine journalist in a previous life. A college journalism major, he now works as an English teacher, but gets his writing fix by blogging about a variety of topics, including politics, religion, movies and television. When he's not working or blogging, Capnpen spends time with his family, plays a little golf (badly) and loves to learn about virtually anything.

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