There's a lot of ways to win a football game.

For the UL Ragin' Cajuns, having the defense make a play to spoil the opponent's potential game-winning drive was the perfect way in coach Michael Desormeaux's mind.

"When I tell you, that's what we needed, I can't say it any more clearly than that," Desormeaux said after his Cajuns' 28-26 win over South Alabama. "On defense, we needed for them to come up and make a stop.

"I'm so proud of this group. It's been challenging in a lot of ways. For them to get the win like that at home to get bowl eligible is really cool."

Indeed, nervous UL fans were beginning to see the similarities between how Saturday's game was unfolding and the Cajuns' last-minute losses at Louisiana Tech and at Southern Miss.

Many fans began predicting yet another agonizing loss after Tony Sterner's 47-yard field goal try bounced off the left upright to keep the game 28-26 with 4:02 left.

Even more were foreseeing doom when Bishop Davenport hit tight end Rod Gibbs for 23 yards on fourth-and-5 at the 2:00 timeout.

"So on fourth down, and you got them in fourth down, and he scrambles around and finds one," Desormeaux admitted. "That's what's happened in the past, and it's turned into a touchdown the other way."

This time, though, UL's defense had something left in the tank.

On the next play, Jake St. Andre's blitz got home for an 8-yard sack of Davenport.

Two plays later, linebacker Micah Johnson came up with the game-saving interception at the UL 35.

"I was reading the quarterback's eyes, seeing the ball and got ball," Johnson said.

It was Johnson's first interception since playing safety in high school.

It was also similar to a play in practice this past week and he didn't make the play.

"It's crazy," Johnson revealed. "We had that same scenario Thursday in two-minute and I dropped the pick. Coach got on me, but I made it today, thank the Lord."

Known more as a run-stopping linebacker, it wasn't his typical assignment.

"I was really reading the running back," Johnson explained. "He blocked, so I just got depth and I just read the quarterback's eyes and just broke on the ball."

As Desormeaux said, it was exactly what the fans and the defense needed.

It just brightened the heart of redshirt senior safety Collin Jacob, who return to play after missing a month with a broken arm.

Jacob contributed eight tackles - just one behind St. Andre with nine. Johnson was next with six, including 1.5 stops behind the line and the interception.

"Man, it was big," Jacob said of the defense's game-saving stop. "It's always a hard feeling or bad taste in your mouth after losing. Carrying that mindset into this week, we weren't going to let that happen in this game."

At halftime, Jacob was motivating his teammates as much as he could to achieve what the defense ultimately did in the fourth quarter.

"I said, "I don't care what you've got to do - forget how you feel, I don't care if you're hurt, we're going to win this game,''" Jacob unveiled. "It didn't matter what it was going to take - offense, defense, special teams, we're going to win this game."

There were certainly a few obstacles along the way.

After forcing two punts to open the second half, Davenport drove the Jags 89 yards in two plays to cut UL's lead to 28-23 with 3:18 left in the third.

But even then, the defense stopped Davenport short on the two-point conversion attempt.

That was huge, because the Jags still trailed by two points after Dylan Freebury nailed a 50-yard field goal with 10:26 left to play.

"In our defense room, we've got our brothers' back," Jacob added. "Whether we mess up, whether we have a misassignment, a bust. Whatever it may be, we look at each other, 'Hey, next play.' We don't harp on it. We don't look down or point fingers. The majority of the time we say, 'Hey, bro, it's OK ... we got this.'"

This time, Johnson did have his teammates' back with the highlight play of his career.

"We needed it desperately," Johnson said of the win. "We feel like we tell each other, e can't cry no more,' meaning we, we don't want to lose any more.

"The rest of our games are like, we play playing good teams. So it's like each game, you got to bring your 'A' game or you can lose it."