Box Score  
NATCHITOCHES – For the 10^th time in the last 14 meetings between rivals Northwestern State and McNeese, the outcome came down to a touchdown or less, and the visiting Cowboys held just enough of an edge to escape Turpin Stadium Saturday night with a 20-18 victory that was still stinging the Demons on Sunday.
 
“We're throwing to win at the end. For the first time in a long while, we didn't win a close game, and that's the ones that hurt the most,” said NSU football coach Bradley Dale Peveto.
 
“They're gutted, they're hurting,” said Demons' offensive coordinator Todd Cooley, talking about the NSU players. “Two very good teams played and McNeese made more plays on Oct. 1 than we did. The effort was there, and from an offensive standpoint, we've just got to play better, play smarter, and we will.”
 
There was no shortage of pivotal plays but the decisive factor was McNeese collecting four turnovers, the last an 18-yard interception return touchdown with 14:07 remaining, while the Demons came up with only two McNeese mistakes.
 
“Whoever won the turnover ratio battle in this game was going to win the game, and it was them,” said Peveto. “We've got to protect the ball better and create more on defense.

“There were so many different places, so many different opportunities, where if we make a play here or there, we win. Give McNeese credit for getting it done, they're a good team as well, and I want to give our players credit for the great effort they gave us. We played well, real well.”
 
The Demons (2-3 overall, 1-1 in the Southland Conference) outgained the Cowboys (3-1, 2-0) 315-295, but didn't have enough to show for it, said Cooley.
 
“We can't make mistakes like we did against a good team like McNeese. We had self-inflicted wounds,” he said.  “Pre-snap penalties, there's no excuse. The turnovers really hurt us. We had too many dropped passes.”
 
Defensive coordinator Brad Laird, whose unit held McNeese to 78 yards rushing, said the Cowboys' only offensive touchdown with 16 seconds to go before halftime was a big blow to the Demons. McNeese moved 55 yards in eight snaps to go ahead 13-12.
 
“Keeping them out of the end zone right before the half would have been huge. We had held them to a couple of field goals earlier when they were in the red zone, but this time we had a couple of wrong checks, and they took advantage,” said Laird. “It hurt us.”
 
The coaches were not second-guessing their decision to run a two-point conversion play out of an apparent extra-point kicking unit 9:03 before halftime after NSU scored a touchdown to go up 9-6. Running out of a swinging gate formation, which the Demons use to start each extra point try before shifting into a conventional kicking set, the snap came before the shift and kicker John Shaughnessy's pass to tight end Tucker Nims was tipped away by a diving McNeese defender.
 
“It was wide open. We've just got to make the play, execute it as a unit. There were things we didn't do as a team that resulted in the opportunity for McNeese to make a great play, and their safety did to tip it away,” said Peveto.
 
The outcome, while painful, isn't crushing for the Demons' conference championship dreams, he said. Northwestern travels to play Saturday night at Lamar, a 48-38 winner at Southeastern Louisiana last week, then the Demons come home to face SLU.
 
“We're playing for a championship every week, that's the way we still look at it. Rarely does the Southland champion go through unbeaten,” he said. “We went to the brink of the national championship game when I was here (as defensive coordinator) in 1998, and we lost a game early in the conference race that year, but came back to win the conference outright.
 
“It's just one loss if we rally back and the way these players compete, I have no doubt we will be ready to get after it Saturday night in Beaumont.”
 
The Demons took Sunday off and will resume practice Monday night getting ready for their first football matchup with Lamar's Cardinals since 1979.