SAN ANTONIO – McNeese head coach Lance Guidry said at his Monday press luncheon earlier in the week that the best is yet to come.
 
McNeese looked like it was well on its way to achieving that through the first three quarters in Saturday's Southland Conference game at Incarnate Word but a 42-14 lead in the fourth quarter dwindled as turnovers and penalties allowed the Cardinals to score 21 unanswered in the final frame to cut the margin to 42-35. McNeese recovered an onside kick with just over a minute to play to seal the win and pick up their first league victory of the season.
 
The win also snapped a two-game losing streak as the 20^th-ranked Cowboys improve to 2-2 overall and 1-1 in league play while UIW fell to 1-3 and 1-2 in the conference.
 
"We turned over the ball twice and you can't do that," said head coach Lance Guidry. "When you do that you're going to lose to good teams. We just happened to survive tonight. We were very lucky to survive tonight."
 
The game had a little bit of everything. Passing and rushing touchdowns. A kickoff return for a touchdown and a fumble return for a TD.
 
Quarterback James Tabary set a new school record with his fourth straight 200-plus yard passing game to start a season as he completed 14 of 20 passes for 223 yards and two scores. McNeese finished the night with 287 passing yards and 370 total.
 
Darious Crawley made it two straight games with 100 yards or more receiving after he brought in four passes for 132 yards and a touchdown.
 
Ryan Ross led the running game with 63 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown.
 
The Cardinals rolled up 165 yards rushing and 227 passing while quarterback Trent Brittain completed 20 of 40 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns and an interception.
 
"You can't win games if you can't stop the run and you can't run the football," said Guidry whose Cowboys totaled 83 yards rushing. "At times we were able to run the ball but not like we need to. But we had some success throwing the football early on. We kind of backed off but we couldn't run the ball when we needed to there in the end.
 
"We have given up more rushing yards this year than we probably gave up combined last year. It's not acceptable."
 
Two McNeese first quarter touchdowns in a 1:50 span snapped the early momentum Incarnate Word built after the Cardinals grabbed a 7-0 lead with 8:09 to play in the opening frame after Brittain hit Jordan Hicks on a 34-yard strike.
 
Following that touchdown march, McNeese and Tabary wasted little time in getting the Pokes on the board. A 36-yard over-the-middle strike to tight end DeonDre Skinner was followed by back-to-back completions of 12 and 4 yards to Parker Orgeron to set up a 5-yard Ryan Ross touchdown run to tie things up at 7-7 with 4:50 to play in the first quarter.
 
On the ensuing Cardinals' possession, McNeese's Ed Duplessis picked off a Brittain pass to set up the Cowboys at the UIW 39 yard line. That was McNeese's first interception of the season.
 
Tabary followed with a 37-yard pass to Nick Edwards who fell down at the 1-yard line but Lawayne Ross barreled in for the score on the next play to put McNeese up 14-7 with three minutes to play in the first.
 
The defense held UIW on two straight possessions to get the ball back to set up a beautiful 85-yard touchdown strike from Tabary to Darious Crawley on the first play of the second quarter to make it 21-7. The touchdown ranks as the fourth-longest passing TD in school history.
 
McNeese tacked on another score in the second quarter on a 2-yard pass from Tabary to Damon Gladney to make it 28-7.
 
UIW cut the margin to 28-14 with 1:15 to play in the half but on the ensuing kickoff, Thomas fielded the kick at the 3-yard line and sprinted untouched for a 97-yard score to go in at the half leading 35-14. It's the first kickoff return for a touchdown since Diontae Spencer returned one for 85 yards against Stephen F. Austin in 2013.
 
The Cowboys got their second non-offensive touchdown of the game in the third quarter when Christian Jacobs scooped up a UIW fumble at the Cardinals' 22-yard line and ran it in for the score to make it 42-14 early in the third quarter.
 
UIW made it closer than it should've been in the fourth quarter when it scored three touchdowns to make it a one score game.
 
EXTRA POINTS:
• Team captains for the game were C Mason Martin and LB Ashari Goins.
• For the first time this year McNeese did not win the toss but for the fourth time, received the opening kickoff.
• WR Kent Shelby extended his streak to 18 straight games with a reception before leaving the game after reinjuring his foot.
• Khalil Thomas' 97-yard KO return for a touchdown is the second longest in school history
• With TE DeonDre Skinner's 36-yard catch in the 1^st quarter, that makes a total of 19 different set of hands to catch a pass for the Cowboys on the season.
• Ed Duplessis' first quarter interception was the first for the Cowboys this season.
• Christian Jacobs scored his first career touchdown.
• McNeese improves to 3-0 against UIW in the all-time series.
• The Cowboys have scored 40 or more points in all three meetings.