Ess-Bee-Cee!!! Ess-Bee-awww crap...
One week after going on the road and stunning then-No. 8 Arkansas in overtime, very few individuals thought Louisiana-Monroe could go on into Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday and drop an SEC opponent for the second consecutive week.
Unbelievably, that’s exactly what happened. Almost.
Continuing one of those most entertaining and intriguing storylines of the 2012 season, the Sun Belt Conference school took on Auburn and once again took an SEC school into overtime with the score tied at 28-apiece. Unlike last week, however, there would be no fifth-quarter magic for the Warhawks.
With the first possession of the first extra session, ULM was only able to muster a 37-yard field goal attempt -- which they missed. Auburn’s first possession netted a 35-yard field goal as the Tigers escaped with a 31-28 win.
The Tigers seemingly had the game in hand in regulation, leading 28-14 late in the fourth before a pair of ULM touchdowns in the last six minutes knotted the score at 28.
While AU was able to claim its first victory of the season, it’s yet another data point on an arc that’s hurtling toward Gene Chizik‘s seat being quite warm by season’s end.
The most distressing part of today’s game for the Tiger faithful was the fact that, unlike last week, ULM was a known entity. UA knew it wasn’t facing a “normal” SBC school, knew what ULM was capable of on the road against SEC-level competition -- and still got taken to overtime.
1-2 is certainly better than an 0-3 start to the season, but it sure as hell doesn’t look like it at the moment.