PAINFUL TOLL

I have always thought teams can lose football games because of injuries.

You are free to stop reading now if you think this is a cop-out because you aren’t going to like my reasoning or agenda.

In public, coaches and players will say any reliance on injuries to explain a defeat is an excuse and can’t be supported. But behind closed doors, those same coaches and players will wonder out loud about how different outcomes might have been if the line-up had been at full strength.

Excuses or not — you can call it what you will — but injuries can and do decide football games.

Injuries are part of the game and every team has to deal with them. You hear it every week from coaches across the country at every level. It’s true from midseason on all teams, which are constantly shuffling their rosters due to various injuries to starters or key reserves.

McNeese had to shuffle a whole lot more than others, and the inordinate number of walking wounded has resulted in the Cowboys’ hope for a conference championship season or playoff berth slipping away.

It’s hard to ignore the costly toll the mounting injuries have had on the Cowboys’ offense in particular. For the most part, the defense has been spared the experience of a football team masquerading as a MASH unit.

That was the case until the time when starting senior linebacker Deonte Thompson had his season and football career ended early after suffering yet another concussion in the loss to Stephen F. Austin.

“He’s just a super kid,” said Matt Viator. “But after talking with him and his family, it was just the right thing to do [to end his career].”

What Viator couldn’t explain was another year of being blindsided and cut off at the knees (no pun intended) with an onslaught of injuries to offensive starters.

He really couldn’t say if this year was any worse or any more of a challenge compared to past seasons of dodging players on crutches while pacing the sidelines.

I’ll help him out. This season is absolutely the worst when it comes to injuries. What swung the pendulum, in my opinion, was the thumb injury to starting quarterback Daniel Sam — another injury that occurred in the defeat to SFA. (That loss was costly on many fronts.)

I recall a few years ago when McNeese started the season with the “Four Horsemen” at tailback, but then proceeded to lose every one of them to some sort of injury. That was a bad stroke of luck. But I still think 2014 tops it.

It started way back in August, when starting senior receiver Wes Briscoe was lost for the year with another knee injury suffered in preseason practice. Briscoe was the Cowboys’ go-to possession guy, especially in the red zone, and he could stretch the field as well.

It got worse for the passing game when redshirt freshman receiver Kent Shelby’s promising campaign ended with a leg injury against lowly Arkansas Tech the fourth week of the season. The 6-foot, 3-inch, 190-pound Shelby was a big downfield target with strong hands and a knack for catching the ball in coverage. He was Viator’s most lethal deep-ball threat.

When Shelby limped off the field that night in September, three to four critical plays a game went with him: plays that could very well sustain a key drive and win a tight game.

This year’s hard luck candidate was the oft-injured Ernest Celestie. He was shelved for two games with an ankle injury. The senior receiver from Lake Charles was the team’s second-leading wideout in catches and yards before he was confined to the bench.

The hits kept coming to the offense.

Arkansas transfer running back Nate Holmes was the first tailback sidelined early in the season. Holmes wasn’t going to be a 10- to 15-carries-a-game type player, but McNeese had plans to use his team-leading speed and open field skills, along with his kick and punt return abilities.

The next tailback to go down was junior starter Kelvin Bennett, the Cowboys’ second-leading rusher from the previous year. Bennett missed all or parts of games for five weeks with a high ankle sprain, which is the worst ailment for a shifty speed runner. To his credit, Bennett tried to play through it, but to no avail.

The trainers welcomed Mississippi State transfer running back Derrick Milton to the sidelines some time during the blowout win at Incarnate Word. Until then, Milton had nearly 400 yards of rushing with six touchdowns, and was the Cowboys’ leading power runner.

If you’re keeping tally, that’s two starting receivers lost for the year, with another out for two pivotal conference games. Add three of the top four running backs sidelined either for the season (in the case of Holmes) or for long stretches of games (Bennett and Milton). Viator had planned to redshirt talented freshman tailback Ryan Ross, but that plan was scrapped early on when the injuries mounted and Ross went on a tear.

Now let’s get to the all-important quarterback situation.

Everything was going hunky dory with Sam at quarterback. He was leading the team in rushing with 711 yards coupled with 624 yards of passing. He was taking some pretty hard shots, but kept bouncing up off the turf. Viator acknowledged the obvious several times, describing Sam as “one very tough football player.”

But you had to wonder how much more Sam could endure before he came up limping. That’s the risk you take with a running quarterback. The hits take a toll at some point, and any given run and tackle could put him on the sideline.

That occurred in the second quarter with a nondescript short keeper against Stephen F. Austin. Sam came out of the pile shaking his throwing hand. He had re-injured a thumb ligament. It was the same injury that required off-season surgery while he was at Kansas State before transferring to McNeese.

At first, it was thought Sam would not play again. But he strapped on a cast with heavy tape and got in for a few inconsequential plays at Southeastern Louisiana.

Back-up quarterback Tyler Bolfing left the game in the fourth quarter in Hammond with a knee injury after a tough tackle. He is expected to be available for the season finale against Lamar.

No offense, not even the best of the FBS, or mighty North Dakota State from the FCS, can replace 90 percent of its offensive production as McNeese has had to do, without a crippling drop off.

In the 10 quarters since the halftime of the Northwestern game, McNeese has scored a meager 25 points. Just a few weeks ago, this offense was third in the Southland Conference, averaging over 38 points per game. Since that first-half offensive explosion in Natchitoches, the Cowboys have been outscored 87 to 25 in back-to-back losses to SFA and league leader Southeastern.

Give Viator and this bunch credit. They went into a Lion’s den in Hammond with a hobbled and punchless offense. But they were within five points early in the fourth quarter in spite of lousy field position. A diluted attack was finding some spark behind tailback Dylan Long and a revived Celestie.

The game turned on an apparent fumble recovery and return to the SLU 2 yard line by Gabe Hamner that could have set up the Cowboys for a go-ahead touchdown and swung the momentum going into the fourth quarter. The ruling on the field was that the Lions’ receiver fumbled before hitting the ground. But the booth replay official correctly reversed the call, judging that the fumble occurred after Dylan Bossier hit the turf.

The short-lived spark was extinguished after Southeastern quarterback Bryan Bennett burned the Cowboys’ secondary with two fourth quarter touchdown passes, giving him four scores for the game in a 28 to 9 runaway win.

McNeese fought through a blocked punt that resulted in a Lions’ touchdown and two costly interceptions of third-string quarterback Will Briscoe, who, to his defense, was seeing his first meaningful college game action in five injury-filled years.

So, a season that began with a historic near-upset of Nebraska and open talk of chasing a national championship will limp home to a season-ending matchup against cross-state rival Lamar at Cowboy Stadium.

Four losses scratch you from conference contention and out of the playoffs.

When you lose seven starters (including Thompson) for any meaningful period of time, that’s not an excuse to excuse the losses. It is, though, a valid reason why McNeese faltered down the stretch.

Coaches and players will boldly say, “next man up,” in these injury-plagued situations. But there’s something called the depth chart that clearly shows who the better players are. The guys who give you the best chance of winning are listed as the number ones. Then come the twos and threes, who are back-ups for a reason.

Often the next man up isn’t as good as the man who went down.

You can’t solve it with more coaching or better game plans. You win with your best talent on the field. And when it’s not there, you often lose.

Sometimes the law of the depth chart is proven wrong and someone comes to the rescue. In the case of the 2014 Cowboys, the injuries were many; the voids too big to fill; and the well ran dry.

I too am left wondering what could have been if the injuries this year had not been so plentiful and painful.

Get Rick Sarro’s perspectives on sports on Soundoff 60, which airs Monday through Sunday nights at 9 pm on Suddenlink Channel 60 and Saturday and Sunday mornings at 10 am as well.