Tops stumble in CUSA race with 12-7 loss to Bulldogs

Published 10:15 pm Saturday, November 16, 2024

by Jeff Nations

Western Kentucky’s football team started slow and ended short in Saturday’s 12-7 homecoming loss to Louisiana Tech at Houchens-Smith Stadium.

Despite another game effort by the defense, the Tops never could generate much offense against Conference USA’s top defense in a deflating loss that narrowed WKU’s path to the Conference USA championship next month.

That goal is still in reach, and even winning the CUSA regular-season title remains attainable — there just isn’t any margin for error left with a road game against defending CUSA champion Liberty on Nov. 23 followed by the home finale against Jacksonville State. Win both, and the Tops are champions and headed to the championship game. Lose either, and a lot of outside factors would have to come together to attain even one of those.

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“We’re very much in control of it and that’s what you want to do,” WKU coach Tyson Helton said. “We’ll see how we respond. Hopefully we can go get it done. There’s a lot of guys in there that had a good look in their eye, even after a tough loss. So we’ve got to get going to work and get ready for Liberty.”

Louisiana Tech (4-6 overall, 3-4 CUSA) was ready for the Tops on Saturday. The Bulldogs’ defense proved tough to crack, as WKU (7-3, 5-1) managed just one scoring drive in eight possessions — one touchdown, two turnovers on downs and five punts, all of the quick three-and-out variety.

Combined with an effective run game that saw the Bulldogs run for 209 yards on 49 carries, and WKU’s offense had precious little time to get right as Louisiana Tech dominated time of possession by nearly 39 full minutes.

“LA Tech played good football,” Helton said. “They did a nice job offensively in their run game and controlling the clock. I thought defensively though we did what we were supposed to do for the most part. We gave up some big plays, but we didn’t give up a lot of points. So the onus is on offense that we’ve got to go out there and score those points and go win the game.”

The Tops stayed in the game by refusing to allow the Bulldogs in the end zone, coming up with three red-zone stands that resulted in field goals by LA Tech place-kicker Buck Buchanan.

Another stand in the fourth quarter nudged Louisiana Tech into going Buchanan one more time, but WKU defensive lineman Hosea Wheeler batted the ball down on a 48-yard field goal attempt and the Tops had new life with 1:55 to play.

Starting at the Bulldogs’ 48, WKU moved up 18 yards on a short run and then a defensive pass interference call. An incompletion on first down followed by David Blay sack of Tops quarterback Caden Veltkamp (18-of-26 passing for 152 yards) set up third-and-long at the 35.

Veltkamp’s third-down pass to Dalvin Smith fell short, and the Tops went to that combo again on fourth down — this time, Veltkamp made the connection with Smith on a 14-yard completion, but the Tops needed 15 yards for the first down. From there, the Bulldogs ran out the clock.

“We tried to take a shot on third down with Dalvin and (Caden) underthrew it a little bit, and he wasn’t able to come back on it,” Helton said. “Fourth down, we executed it well. We came up a yard short. The distance was too much to gain up.”

Buchanan’s 35-yard field goal early in the first quarter put LA Tech up early, but WKU grabbed the lead on Elijah Young’s 7-yard touchdown run with 14:16 left in the first half.

The Bulldogs answered with a numbing 13-play drive capped by Buchanan’s 42-yard field goal, then after forcing another WKU three-and-out they retook the lead on Buchanan’s 24-yard field goal with 2:25 left in the first half.

The Tops put together a promising first drive of the second half, but stalled at the Tech 5 when Veltkamp was stuffed for a two-yard loss on fourth-and-1.

WKU got a quick stop to force a punt, but the Tops fumbled the return to set the Bulldogs right back up for another time-consuming drive finished with a Buchanan 24-yard field goal.

“Tough one, didn’t get it done,” Helton said. “Had a lot of opportunities. The defense responded when they needed to and got a big field goal block there at the end, gave us an opportunity. We really struggled offensively. Going into to it, we knew they were a really good defense. (We) had some penalties early that kind of hurt drives, some errors in there. We’ll rebound, we’ll turn the page and when we come back in here (Sunday) we’ll get ready for the next.”

Louisiana Tech outgained the Tops in total offense 275-215 and held them to just 63 rushing yards.

“They make it hard on the quarterback and the passing game because they’re always getting an extra dropper in the passing game,” Helton said. “We’ve got to be able to run the ball better. We weren’t able to do that. We weren’t able to control the line of scrimmage, so it went to their advantage. And when they tackled, they tackled you and got you down where you were at.”

Young, who produced WKU’s only points, thought poor execution cost the Tops on Saturday.

“I feel like we just beat ourselves,” Young said. “It’s just totally on us. We’ve just got to do better.”

WKU linebacker Darius Thomas, who led the team with 10 tackles, said the team is focused on fixing the mistakes and getting ready for the next two pivotal games.

“We angry, but we’re just trying to turn the page and move on and focus on the rest of the season,” Thomas said. “We’ve got to worry about conference and Liberty coming up, Jacksonville State, too. Good teams in the conference, so we’re just turning the page and moving forward.”

WKU is back in action Nov. 23 against Liberty in Lynchburg, Virginia. Game time is noon with ESPN+ scheduled to broadcast.

About Jeff Nations

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

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