Louisiana-Lafayette 49, Texas State 27: What We Learned

[caption id="attachment_19355" align="alignleft" width="300"]Photo by Diana Porter Photo by Diana Porter[/caption] Texas State tumbled to 1-4 on the season with Sun Belt-opening loss to Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday. What did we learn? DCTF's Greg Tepper breaks it down.If Texas State’s defense doesn’t show up, it doesn’t matter. In some respects, Texas State had a solid showing in Lafayette. The Bobcats got a decent game from QB Tyler Jones (we’ll get to him in a moment) and got a special teams touchdown on a kick return by Brandon Smith. In all, 351 total yards should be a pretty solid showing for an offense in the Sun Belt Conference. But the Texas State defense simply isn’t giving its team a chance to win, once again getting torched in every aspect. RB Elijah McGuire looked unstoppable at times in this game, and QB Jalen Nixon had his way with an overmatched Bobcats secondary. This team’s chance to win will come down to its defense, and tonight, the Bobcats never had a shot. Tyler Jones is good, but he still has growing to do. We’ve spilled considerable digital ink on this website praising Texas State’s terrific signal-caller Tyler Jones, but it’s worth pointing out that he’s still got a ways to go. Tonight’s game was a good example, as he forced a number of passes (some of which should’ve been intercepted) and consistently overshot receivers. He finished a paltry 13 for 33 on the evening, and while he made some big plays with his feet, that wasn’t enough tonight. Tyler Jones is immensely talented, but he’s not quite there yet. The Bobcats just aren’t very good away from San Marcos. One of the reasons that Texas State exceeded expectations in 2014 was because of their play on the road — the Bobcats went 4-2 away from San Marcos, helping them to a 7-5 record. But that is turning out to be the exception, not the rule for Dennis Franchione’s bunch. Consider this: taking away last year, the Bobcats are a mere 3-12 away from Bobcat Stadium. Texas State is still a young program; winning away from home will need to be a priority to take the next step.