The Texas State Bobcats and the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns meet Saturday in college football action from Cajun Field. Texas State is fresh off a matchup against Southern Miss. The Bobcats would go on to power out a high-scoring victory. As for Louisiana, they played Minnesota back on Saturday. In that one the Cajuns fell by 11 points. Check back all season long for free college football picks at Sports Chat Place.

Texas State Bobcats 

The Bobcats posted an impressive road win over Baylor 42-31 in their opener this year, but then lost to UTSA 20-13 the next week. Texas State would follow that up with consecutive wins over Jackson State 77-34 and Nevada 35-24, though. In the Nevada game, Bobcats quarterback TJ Finley finished with 295 yards, two scores and a pick. Ismail Mahdi added 216 rush yards and two touchdowns. 

In the Southern Miss game, Texas State jumped out to a 42-10 lead at the break. The Bobcats would eventually cruise to the win 50-36. Finley managed 239 yards and two touchdowns this time, and Mahdi rushed for 89 yards with three scores. Joey Hobert had 126 yards with a TD off 10 catches. 

Texas State Bobcats Team Facts

Texas State has lost each of its last nine road games in October.
Texas State has failed to cover the spread in seven of its last eight road games in October.
Texas State has lost the first half in each of its last three games against conference opponents at Cajun Field.
Nine of Texas State’s last 10 October road games against non-AP-ranked teams have gone UNDER the total points line.

Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns 

Over on the Cajuns’ side, they also kicked off their season with a win, 38-13 versus Northwestern State. Game two was Louisiana’s first loss of the year, 38-31 against Old Dominion. Two more wins over UAB 41-21 and Buffalo 45-38 came after that. Louisiana QB Zeon Chriss put up 249 pass yards and a score with a pair of rushing TDs as well. 

Matched up against Minnesota last weekend, the Cajuns were up 17-14 at the break but faded from there in a 35-24 loss. Chriss had 172 passing yards, two TDs and two picks while also leading the rush with 74 yards. Jacob Bernard was the leading receiver with his 48 yards off two catches. 

Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Team Facts

Louisiana has won each of its last 13 games as a home favorite.
The favorite has covered the spread in seven of the last eight games between Texas State and Louisiana.
Louisiana has won the first half in five of its last six home games against conference opponents.
Louisiana has won the first quarter in 10 of its last 12 games against conference opponents.
Sixteen of Louisiana’s last 17 home games against conference opponents have gone UNDER the total points line.

Matchup/League Facts

Louisiana was one of only two FBS teams to lose 4+ games when leading at HT last season.
Louisiana ranked T4th among FBS teams for Q1 win percentage last season (.692).
Texas State was one of only 27 FBS teams to lose 2+ games when leading after Q3 last season.
Texas State ranked 27th among FBS teams for Q1 points allowed per game last season (4.3).

ANDREW’S FREE PICK 

I’ll lean toward Texas State in this one. We should have a pretty good matchup on our hands overall, though. The Bobcats got off to a great start in their win over Southern Miss last weekend. That said, Texas State also faded after halftime and had a few rough areas (namely three lost fumbles and eight penalties for 87 yards). The Bobcats have scored 35 or more points in three straight games, though. 

As for Louisiana, they did reasonably well against a pretty good Minnesota team in their last outing. The Cajuns also had a rough second half though, and only collected 15 first downs overall. This should be a much more manageable game but I like Texas State a little more cover/win-wise.