NATCHITOCHES – Down 10 points to Lamar less to than 20 minutes into this past Saturday's game against Lamar, the Northwestern State football team was in a precarious situation.
 
"We're down 10-0, and it's fourth-and-goal at the 1, staring 17-0 in the face," fifth-year head coach Brad Laird said. 
 
Less than 3 minutes of game time later, the Demons had produced the first of three straight touchdown drives that turned a double-digit deficit into an 11-point lead and set the tone for a 35-27 win in NSU's Southland Conference opener.
 
"I think we're going to look back at that five-minute stretch as this year goes and see how important that was," said Laird, whose team hosts Nicholls at 3:30 p.m. (ESPN+) Saturday at Turpin Stadium in the Demons' annual #ForkCancer game.
 
The foundation for a goal-line stand that was punctuated by Isaiah Longino's tackle for loss on Lamar's second fourth-and-goal opportunity was laid in Missoula, Montana, Shreveport and Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
 
Those were the locations where the Demons played during a season-opening, three-game stretch of games away from Turpin Stadium. While the results were not what the Demons wanted, the opportunities to learn – and to bond as a team -- were plentiful.
 
"We're more like brothers than a team," said junior cornerback Cedric Anderson, who collected his third career interception in Saturday's win against Lamar. "When brothers get after each other, there's a little back and forth. Then you settle down and think, 'Oh, he was right. I need to pick my stuff up.'
 
"Through the first three weeks, we didn't hold each other accountable enough. We realized that, and we turned it around."

Accountability was a key word for Longino following the victory, but controlling emotions was a common theme he shared with Laird.
 
"(Laird) preached for us to stay level," Longino said. "Be in the game like a boxer. Boxer's go into their rounds and they may get punched in the face, or they may get some big hits. They may knock their opponent down or get knocked down. Then they go to their corner, and they're calm and collected regardless of how things are. That's what we decided to do."
 
The Demons also checked off a couple of items on Laird's to-do list – overcoming adversity and managing emotions.
 
"We've talked about it throughout the first three weeks," Laird said. "Early on against Grambling, we got so emotionally high. Then adversity hit, and we crashed. Since then, whether it's good or bad, we've talked about handling emotions."
 
While handling adversity and remaining calm seemingly go hand in hand, so did the momentum shift following NSU's goal-line stand.
 
Those moments led to the Demons' first win of the 2022 season and a rediscovered air of confidence and identity.
 
"This week, we got to show our true colors on who we are," nose tackle Maurice Campbell II said. "The first couple of weeks didn't define us. We talked about it as a team. None of that defined us.
 
"We got things rolling early. I still feel like we have things to overcome the rest of the season, but this win was long overdue."