Louisiana plows through sleepwalking Georgia Southern, 36-17

Louisiana took advantage of a Georgia Southern team that looked like it was informed it had to play the game an hour before kickoff, manhandling the Eagles by a final score of 36-17 on Thursday.

Punctuated by a second quarter that saw the Cajuns outscore Southern by a 20-7 margin, UL took advantage of three touchdown passes from quarterback Ben Wooldridge who piloted the team in the victory. Two of the passing scores came in the second frame as Louisiana jumped out to a commanding 27-7 lead at half.

From there, it was a matter of simply running out the clock as GS struggled to sustain drives on offense behind an awful game plan by offensive coordinator Bryan Ellis, and a nonexistent defensive effort that should have Clay Helton looking for a new defensive coordinator and position coaches when the season is said and done.

Louisiana had a trio of rushers helping lay the hammer down on the Eagles’ hapless, hopeless and helpless defense, as Chris Smith (80 yards), Dre’lyn Washington (74 yards) and Terrence Williams (50 yards) were seemingly ripping off chunk gains at will in this one. Southern proved with this performance that they are undoubtedly a top-three worst defense in the country with this performance.

Photo by Adam Davis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

While the final stats look even on paper, the massive first half lead built up by UL was too much for Southern quarterback Kyle Vantrease and company to overcome. Vantrease finished the game with 325 yards and a score, but most of that was racked up in garbage time as the Eagles’ one offensive bright spot in the first half came on a halfback pass touchdown from OJ Arnold to Derwin Burgess to make sure the team wasn’t completely blanked as it struggled to establish any momentum.

Louisiana will look to keep this effort rolling into next week but has a tough task against #23-ranked Florida State in Tallahassee. Georgia Southern looks as if it can’t wait for the season to be over and gets Marshall at home, as Thundering Herd running back Khalan Laborn may set single-game rushing records against the Eagles sieve of a defense.