TOURNAMENT TIME

No it’s not March Madness.

Let’s call it a December to Remember.

The McNeese Cowboys are hoping that’s the case as they open up the post-season, hosting Southland Conference rival Sam Houston State in the second round of the FCS playoffs.

Sam Houston advanced with a hard-fought, come-from-behind 42-39 victory over Southern Utah in Huntsville, Texas. The BearKats were down by 13 points in the third quarter before they rallied to score 16 unanswered points for the right to face McNeese for the second time in less than a month at Cowboy Stadium.

Matt Viator, fresh off his second undefeated regular season and fourth Southland Conference championship in his 10-year-run as McNeese’s head coach, is seeking his first playoff victory when the Cowboys line up against this familiar foe. A win will send the fourth-seeded Cowboys into the quarterfinals, but it will also erase some painful post-season failures.

This is a team that just may get this program over that pesky play-off hump. It has a defense that’s one of the best in the FCS ranks, a running game that’s averaging 220 yards per game along with a daredevil quarterback, who, no matter how shaky his passing arm looks, always seems to come up with a Marvel-worthy superhero play.

All those components — coupled with a steady Eddie head coach; a fiery, aggressive defensive coordinator; and an experienced coaching staff — were the building blocks of an unexpected 10-0 regular season, another conference crown and a Top 4 seeding in the field of 24 playoff teams.

The Cowboys are the only undefeated team in the tournament field. But Viator’s been there before with a perfect record (2007). He knows all too well your record and seeding get you in the tournament but have no bearing on keeping you in.

“The pool (24 playoff teams) is condensed so much you are going to play a really good team,” said Viator. “The margin of error reduces drastically. You have to play very good, and we haven’t done that (in past playoff games). The attention to detail has to be greater. The focus has to be greater, and you have to play really good at that time.”

There were some grumblings among the McNeese fan base over the seeding and the possibility of playing Sam Houston State for the second time this year. There are pros and cons, of course. The obvious is you know their tendencies and talent as they do yours. You’ve done reams of film study, already having played and beaten Sam Houston 27-10 on Nov. 7.

The flip side is the old adage that it’s hard to beat the same team twice — especially in a span of four weeks. Add the revenge factor for Sam Houston that might come into play during locker room pep talks.

Viator admitted he has yet to play a team twice in the same season on the collegiate level. The last time it happened was during his high school coaching days at Sulphur and Jennings. So this will be new ground of sorts, along with the fact that in 15 previous playoff appearances, McNeese has never faced a Southland Conference rival.

He noted the preparation time for Sam Houston will be reduced because of all the work the team has already put in on player breakdowns and schemes. This will allow more time to key in on internal improvements and devise a few new twists and turns for the game plan.

Expect Viator and this staff to take a different approach to these playoffs — and rightly so.

To a man, they’ll admit past McNeese playoff teams didn’t play very well. (There’s a 155-44 point differential in Viator’s four playoff games dating back to 2006.) The coaches are quick to add they didn’t coach very well either.

There will be no reinventing of the wheel. But Viator is constantly critiquing and inspecting what and how he does things. So, if changes are needed, he will target them and make adjustments — to everything from pregame preparations to practice time, player rotation and the all-important play calling.

The Cowboys just had an open week before the Lamar game. The high seeding earned them a first round bye. That meant extra prep time and available days over the Thanksgiving holiday to take a break from the season rigors and rest the bodies.

Fresh legs are high on Viator’s wish list for any post-season run. “You want to stay sharp and practice enough to stay sharp — especially offensively. Defense is more about lining up and getting geeked up. Offense is about execution. You have to be precise in everything you do. Defense is lining up and knowing what they will do. Balancing all that to have fresh legs is critical. You want to be fresher than what you were from before.”

More times than not this season, the defense had the “fresher” legs.

Viator recently quipped that his defense is “worth the price of admission.” I would bet the paying public would pony up a few extra dollars in hopes of seeing this McNeese defense continue to dominate opponents.

You’ve seen the SLC rankings in this column before. The Cowboys defense finished the regular season No. 1 in the conference in total defense, rushing defense, and defense of the red zone; they tied for second in turnover margin, with +7 takeaways; and were tops in critical scoring, with the defense allowing just 12 points per game.

The defense has carried this club all season, and will probably shoulder that load through the postseason. And that’s OK with the offensive-minded Viator.

“If you go back and look at the success of McNeese in the past playoffs, the common denominator has been that we were good on defense. We’ll see, but I think we have the make-up of a team that can win in the playoffs. But you’re going to play good teams, and the margin for error is very, very slim, so you better play good.  Really good.”

The former Sulphur, Jennings and Vinton High School head coach recalled some advice from former McNeese coach Ernie Duplechin, who told a young Viator at the time to make sure the defense is top-flight, because no matter the weather or field conditions, “defense travels.”

This defense, led by coordinator Lance Guidry, is special. They aren’t loaded with All Conference stars or future NFL prospects. What they have are fast, hard-hitting, sure-tackling and committed players who’ve bought into Guidry’s aggressive pressure schemes. Their intent is to blitz and harass quarterbacks from every angle and on any down.

And it’s worked so far. There’s no reason it can’t and won’t continue to work in the playoffs.

The defense is healthy, with solid depth at all positions, and is well coached — so well coached that Viator said that while he isn’t one to lobby or cause waves, he may just scream from the pulpit if Guidry isn’t named National Defensive Coordinator of the Year in FCS football.

On the other side of the line of scrimmage, don’t think of this team’s offense as the red-headed stepchild. (Nothing against red heads, mind you.)

The offensive line is experienced, healthy and has led the way for one of the nation’s best running attacks.

The recent suspension of transfer tailback David Hamm due to sexual assault charges stemming from his days at UT-El Paso put a kink in the three-man rotation. But this offense can plow forward with Ryan Ross and Derrick Milton, who cut through Lamar for 126 and 138 yards respectively in the 20-14 win a few weeks ago.

This offense will go as far as quarterback Daniel Sams can take it. The senior from Slidell, La., doesn’t crack the SLC’s Top 10 in passing efficiency, but he is the Southland’s third most productive runner … that’s including running backs.

Sams has had games in which he should have thought twice about loading up to throw. He has been that erratic at times. But in the midst of his passing woes, Sams will break through with a game-changing completion or an on-the-money deep throw to keep the defense honest.

During a critical stretch against Lamar, as he was nursing a 6-point lead, Sams made an incredible play by fighting off two defenders (one with a handful of his jersey) to avoid a sure sack and find Tavarious Battiste on a third-down-and-10 completion. The first down allowed the Cowboys to run out the clock and claim the conference title.

Sams did have 19 rushes for 104 yards in that win, and will be any opposing defense’s main target going forward.

“As bad as (the passing) has been in certain games, he always comes up with a throw or two that put us over the top,” said Viator. “The main thing with Daniel is his health. He’s nursing a bad hip pointer and thigh bruise. We have to get him healthy.

“He’s such a tough, competitive kid — the more he is in it (running and getting hit), the better he plays.”

A healthy roster and starters free of nagging injuries should be a football stat that’s logged and tracked weekly, just as pass completions and rushing yard are. A team’s health at this juncture of a season could decide who wins and who loses.

Injuries and sidelined starters have plagued the Cowboys a number of years, and in preparation for a few of their playoff match-ups in particular.

When this team is healthy, it has a much better chance to win. This is the healthiest state the Cowboys have been in for a number of years. They’ve been lucky on that front — no doubt. The cancelled LSU game meant fewer snaps overall and less opportunity for injury. The late season open date helped the team heal up in time for the playoffs. Garnering the treasured bye week gave the Pokes more time to rest and recover.

That’s the positive end of the story.  The two-week layoff, which is deserved and welcomed, says Viator, is still a concern when a coach worries about staying game-sharp. “Two weeks is an eternity in football. Right now I really like their attitude. The thing that impresses me about this team is how competitive they are. We are very competitive in practice. These kids love to play and compete. I am hoping that competitive spirit carries over into the playoff, because you better have it.”

Viator’s four conference championships, his two undefeated regular seasons, and his fifth appearance in the FCS playoffs, are all noteworthy, and helped earn him a place among the finalists for this year’s Football Championship Subdivision’s National Coach of the Year Award.

The blemish on his otherwise impressive coaching resume has been that 0-4 record in the postseason.  To Viator’s credit, he doesn’t run from it or wave off questions concerning the winless playoff record. He knows it’s one of the central themes and his most nagging frustration over his 10 years as the Cowboys’ head coach.

“I’d be lying if I said I never think about it because you do. You have to judge every year on its own and each team as different. There’s no way I could go back to 2013 (the playoff loss to Jacksonville State) and draw what happened then to this team. We just didn’t play good — bottom line. We didn’t coach good enough and didn’t play good enough to get it done.”

Viator has a theory that there are two types of teams that make national championship runs: the ones with a history of winning national titles and set that lofty bar every year; and those that may catch lightning in the bottle and begin to believe a championship is possible, and ask, Why not them?

In 1997 and in 2002, McNeese came up short in two national championship games. Over a 10-year span, the program had those title expectations. It’s been 13 years since that last playoff win (the national semi-final 39-28 win over Villanova). The Cowboys’ return to national prominence has been long overdue.

“We’ve held up the bargain in terms of winning games and conference championships. In the last of how many years, we’ve won four or five and three seconds. It’s not like we are not winning games. It’s going to take a group of kids that say, ‘Hey, it’s our time. It’s our year, our time and we’re the ones that can get this thing back.’ Until you do, that’s how the expectation comes back again. We have to get it back.”

I think these Cowboys have what I call the grit and grind quotient it takes for a playoff run.

Their defense has a high level of steely grit and will that carries them deep into fourth quarters.

The offense may be led by the flashy legs of quarterback Daniel Sams, but they are really grinders who prefer the ground-and-pound running game and control time of possession.

It’s worked to this point — unbeaten in 10 games. But the slate is clean come December, and everything begins anew.

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.