Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
By Hunt Palmer
LSU’s final three offensive snaps punctuated and encapsulated a frustrating night.
Given a first and goal from the three yard line, the Tigers mustered just one yard on gives to running backs Kaleb Jackson and Harlem Berry. A 48-yard drive netted just three points and further anguish for an offense that hasn’t found a groove through two weeks.
It’s fair to ask questions. The answers will come in time.
Was LSU flat after a massive season-opening win at Clemson, one that the program had pointed to for eight months?
Did the loss of center Braelin Moore on the game’s first snap severely hamper the ground game?
Was LSU intentionally bland with its play design because Tech was never going to threaten the Tigers with enough points to make things competitive?
Is LSU a poor offensive team?
Nothing is off the table, and the answers to those questions are coming. We don’t have them yet.
The Tigers moved the football all night. There was just one three-and-out and a pair of first-half scoring drives that went 98 yards for a touchdown and 85 yards for a field goal. The Bulldogs pinned LSU inside the 20 with four different punts and yielded an average starting field position of the LSU 31 yard line.
LSU just didn’t finish enough drives.
While Garrett Nussmeier’s accuracy and decision making were questionable throughout the night, especially early, it was the lack of a consistent ground attack that plagued the offense.
LSU ran the ball 34 times officially and gained 128 yards for 3.8 yards per carry. Zavion Thomas’s 48-yard burst in the first quarter and Harlem Berry’s sensational scamper for 43 yards in the fourth accounted for 91 of LSU’s 128 ground yards. The other 32 carries managed just 39, and Caden Durham ran the ball 13 times for 29 yards on a long of five.
That’s putrid.
What makes matters worse is that Louisiana Tech appeared bound and determined to make sure the passing game didn’t burn them for big plays, playing deep coverage. That gave LSU a numbers edge in the box that wasn’t capitalized on.
LSU is finding different ways to try the running game. The official stats don’t count the pop passes that Nussmeier shovels to sweeping wide receivers who cross his face four yards behind the line of scrimmage. Those are glorified runs that go in the passing statistics.
Thomas gets involved on the ground. We also know that Ju’Juan Johnson will get a look as a running quarterback at some point.
Still, the traditional stuff has to work more effectively.
As the answers to the above questions reveal themselves, the story of this LSU team will be written.
The good news for the running game is that a 4,000 yard passer is still taking the snaps and trying to get the ball to wide receivers with a truckload of talent. And on the other side of the ball, LSU’s defense is suffocating teams.
LSU doesn’t need the Pony Express to break out in Baton Rouge, though both rosters may have been similarly compensated. LSU just needs to be better.
It’s possible that Saturday night was a letdown worsened by an injury. It’s possible that Clemson, who trailed Troy 16-0 on Saturday night, isn’t very good and this team will be exposed in the coming weeks.
Next week when a wounded Florida team comes to town, we’ll learn more. Should LSU dispatch the Gators with ease, this Tech game will be a blip on the radar. That happens all the time.
The 2007 team was in a tussle with a pitiful Tulane team at halftime. The historic 2011 squad led Western Kentucky 14-7 at halftime in November. No one was talking about LSU’s earlier issues with Nicholls last October when the Tigers were unbeaten in SEC play and leading Texas A&M on the road at halftime.
Those games drift into anonymity because those teams got back to work and won games.
Questions will linger, but one thing is for certain, LSU has to get back to work.
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