JONESBORO -- With the clock ticking into the final minute of the first half Saturday afternoon, television cameras focused on James Blackman on the sideline. Even though Arkansas State had the ball, its quarterback was not on the field, out of action with a nagging leg injury.
Blackman appeared to look up at the clock on the scoreboard, then glanced back at the Red Wolves' offense down inside their own 30-yard line and trailing 24-9 before peering back at the clock once more.
There were 50 seconds remaining, but ASU had two timeouts and needed about 30 yards to get into field-goal range for freshman placekicker Dominic Zvada.
Blackman, facing away from the camera gesticulated with his hands and shoulders as if he was wondering why the Red Wolves weren't already running their next play.
Coach Butch Jones attempted to detail his thought process Tuesday during his weekly news conference.
"We hadn't moved the ball consistently," Jones explained. "If you turn the football over and then you go in 31-9, you don't have a chance. It's all about managing the game."
In some respects, ASU's end-of-half scenario at Louisiana-Lafayette mirrored a similar situation in Week 3 at Memphis.
Against the Tigers, the Red Wolves trailed 21-17 and were closing in on field goal position just prior to halftime. But Johnnie Lang was unable to get down on a screen pass in Memphis territory, allowing time to expire and Jones headed to the locker room with two timeouts in his pocket.
That was a four-point deficit, and ASU was going to receive the third-quarter kickoff.
Against the Ragin' Cajuns, the Red Wolves had just surrendered back-to-back touchdowns and seen their deficit swell to 24-9. Plus, ASU was going to kick off at the start of the second half -- a drive on which Louisiana-Lafayette wound up a touchdown anyways.
Even if Jones was rightly concerned about giving up another explosive play that would bury the Red Wolves before the break, his team all the points it could get on a day when its offense scuffled throughout.
"It's easy to sit there and 'should've, could've,' but you've got to understand the game," Jones continued. "We'd given up two scores, so you've got to get to halftime, you've got to regroup.
"The momentum of the game has a lot to do with your decisions and how you manage [the game]. We just don't take a magic wand or stick a finger and decide to do that."
It wasn't Jones' only in-game decision that left some questions to be answered afterward.
ASU's second-year coach opted to decline a holding penalty in the second quarter that would've pushed the Cajuns back to third and 20 from their own 39-yard line. Instead, he allowed the result of the play to stand and Louisiana-Lafayette converted on a fourth and 6 from the Red Wolves' 45 with a catch-and-run to Jacob Bernard that went for a touchdown.
Jones detailed Tuesday that in the seven previous scenarios where the Cajuns had faced a similar down and distance from that spot, they'd punted. But the play before, Louisiana-Lafayette had run, at least suggesting it might be open to going for it on fourth down.
Although Jones added Tuesday that he isn't necessarily focused on preserving freshman quarterback Jaxon Dailey's redshirt season, the choice to play him for a single snap a week prior at Southern Mississippi -- when Blackman had to come to the bench after his helmet was knocked off -- now looms even larger.
After stepping in for an injured A.J. Mayer in Lafayette, Dailey can only appear in two more games this season if he is going to enter 2023 with four seasons of eligibility remaining.
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ARKANSAS STATE VS. SOUTH ALABAMA
WHEN 3 p.m. Saturday
WHERE Centennial Bank Stadium, Jonesboro
TV ESPNU
RADIO Red Wolves Sports Network
LINE South Alabama by 10 1/2