LSU put on a clinic on Saturday night.
The offense ran and threw for over 300 yards. The defense essentially pitched a shutout. The early field goal was courtesy of an interception. The late touchdown was in an empty stadium.
Time will tell how good Clemson and LSU actually are. Saturday night wasn’t really about answering that question. LSU scored 51 unanswered points while forcing punts on 10 of 11 drives. The other ended with an interception returned for a touchdown.
Pro Football Focus has released its grades for the game, and LSU’s transfers shone. With so many players playing late, I set the snap minimum at 20.
TOP FIVE
- Jordan Ross, DE – 94.4
- Sam Leavitt, QB – 91.1
- TJ Dottery, LB – 88.2
- Princewill Umanmielen, DE – 83.2
- Jordan Seaton, LT – 78.8
LSU’s transfers essentially claimed the highest grades on the roster. Their Tiger Stadium debut was exceptional.
Ross made highlight plays early with the pick six dropping in coverage and a violent sack that followed. He finished with three hurries in addition to the sack, and he only played 13 pass rush snaps.
Leavitt’s passing statistics weren’t eye-popping. His rushing numbers and highlights were. He graded a 90.0 in the running game and 76.9 in the passing game.
Three of his 12 incompletions were ruled drops. He was credited with one “Big Time Throw.”
Dottery gets a look at both of his former teams in the first three weeks. On Saturday night, he graded 82.2 in coverage and 74.1 against the run.
His grade looks better if he gets his head around more quickly on a Christopher Vizzina pass that went right through his hands.
Umanmielen was everywhere, it seemed. He had two sacks and two hurries. His pass rush grade was a 90.0.
Seaton graded an 88.2 in pass protection. In 38 pass block snaps he didn’t allow a single pressure of any kind.
In the running game, he graded 77.4 and was often seen leading the way down field showing his athleticism.
BOTTOM 5
- Zach Grace, TE – 41.9
- Stacy Gage, RB – 52.9
- Deuce Geralds, DT – 54.9
- Sean Thompkins, LT – 56.6
- Jayce Brown, WR – 56.7
These are all reserves aside from Geralds. The freshman defensive tackle did hurry the quarterback once. He was dinged for a missed tackle which dropped his tackling grade down to 30.6.
Grace played 22 snaps as a blocking tight end. Gage averaged 4.1 yards per carry.
Brown had a 14 yard catch and didn’t drop a pass. He got open and should have drawn a pass interference on a sideline route early in the second half.
Thompkins graded 80.6 in pass protection, which is excellent. He was dinged for his effort with the ground game.
Bottom line, I’m not going to spend much time on backups grading questionable when LSU scored 51 unanswered against Clemson.
It was a damn strong effort.
