LSU sophomore safety Ty Benefield doesn’t see anything to get distraught over.
Sure, the Tigers dropped their first SEC game of the season, and also lost the services of two key players moving forward, but there’s no reason to sound the alarm bells with nine regular season games left to play with eight of those in Southeastern Conference play.
“Treat them all the same,” Benefield said during player interviews Tuesday with the local media. “I’m not worried about playoffs, not worried about future weeks. (I’m) Worried about the Texas A&M Aggies right now.”
LSU’s first appearance away from home resulted in a 32-24 loss to Ole Miss in the SEC opener for both teams.
The No. 10 Tigers (2-1, 0-1) return to action to host No. 23 Texas A&M (2-1, 0-1) at 6:49 p.m. Saturday at Tiger Stadium.
“Dial it in and focus in,” LSU sophomore wide receiver Winston Watkins said of the week ahead. “I feel a lot of us are ready to focus, just get ready for the game plan. At the end of the day, we’ve just got to keep working, keep building. We’re a great unit and that unit has to come together and keep stacking days.”
Slow start
Ole Miss (3-0, 1-0) roared out to a 17-0 lead in the second quarter before LSU showed a pulse on Dilin Jones’ 2-yard touchdown run with just over two minutes remaining before halftime.
The Rebels, which outgained the Tigers 289-117 in the first half, regained a 17-point margin (24-7) on Trinidad Chambliss’ 20-yard TD pass to Deuce Alexander with five seconds to go.
“No matter the adversity that happens in the first half of a game,” Benefield said. “Slow start. I come out and I compete with everybody. I have tremendous faith in my teammates to do their jobs, so they allow me to make plays. Without my teammates doing their jobs I couldn’t have made those plays. (I have) Tremendous faith in my teammates, and I don’t care what happens the play before.”
Benefield found himself playing with a new teammate in the secondary when junior star DaShawn Spears suffered a torn ACL and was lost for the season.
That opened the door for redshirt freshman safety Jhase Thomas of Destrehan to move into the lineup and tie for fourth on the team with five tackles.
“It was great to see Jhase get in,” Benefield said. “(I was) Very impressed with how quick he filled in. He played at a high level. Obviously, there’s some things to work on, but (it’s a) great start.”
Second half surge
LSU regained its footing in the second half and registered 17 unanswered points to tie the game at 24-24 with 11:21 to play.
Quarterback Sam Leavitt accounted for the first two scores with a 4-yard rushing touchdown and connected on a perfectly thrown ball to Watkins for a 26-yard score with 3:05 left in the third quarter.
The Tigers pulled even early in the fourth quarter on Scott Starzyk’s 23-yard field goal.
“Sam threw a great ball on that play,” Watkins said of the third-and-13 pass. “He put it to a place where I would get a chance on the ball and where I could attack it. Anytime Sam puts it in a range, vicinity where our guys can make the play, nine times out of 10 we’re going to come down with it.
“Guys like myself, we’re in this situation playing at a high-level school, that’s what we’re here for,” Watkins said. “We’re not here to make wide-open catches. I was determined to make sure I made that catch.”
LSU outgained Ole Miss 104-58 in the third quarter, limiting Chambliss to 53 yards on 5 of 12 passing with an interception by Ja’Keem Jackson.
Leavitt was 3 of 6 for 68 yards passing to go with 14 yards and a touchdown on the ground during that stretch. He would lose his top target, 6-foot-7 tight end Trey’Dez Green, to a knee injury in the fourth quarter.
Green’s timeline for a return to the field has not been announced.
“We’ve got to our true self,” said Watkins, who had three catches for 54 yards and a score. “In the second half, we picked everything up. We understood we played a bad first half. We had to make sure we came together and dialed into whatever we had going on. Just understand (the) execution, being physical and execute. We had to come out the second half and understand that we had to go and put our foot down.”
The game would be determined over the next 11 minutes.
Ole Miss put together a successful 13-play, 75-yard drive that included two third-down conversions and a fourth-down conversion.
Chambliss utilized his speed to get outside on second down and scored from 14 yards out. Former LSU running back J.T. Lindsey of Alexandria added the two-point conversion to provide the difference in the game.
LSU countered with its final drive, converting on fourth down when Leavitt reeled off a 13-yard gain, and the Tigers advanced the ball to Ole Miss’ 10-yard line with a pair of first downs, the second of which was on a defensive pass interference penalty.
However, facing a fourth-and-goal from the 6-yard line, Leavitt was intercepted in the end zone by Jaylon Buxton with 58 seconds showing.
“Sam’s the quarterback, he’s our guy,” Watkins said of the team’s offensive leader. “It’s definitely on him at the end of the day. He’s the quarterback so most of the things are going to affect him the most. He came in and talked to everybody. We all came together and we’ve all got to do our jobs. It’s doing what he’s supposed to do in being a leader, being the guy. I trust him fully.”
Benefield didn’t feel there were any words to express the team’s approach to Saturday.
“The best answer is (to) see what happens on Saturday,” he said. “Action speaks louder than words.”
Watkins said because of the length of the season, a unified front will be vital.
“Starting the week, we came together, talked, and understood we all got a goal,” he said. “We go 0-1 early is nothing. We’ve got a long season, a very long season. We’ve got to keep stacking days and keep going. We’ve got eight more games to go in the SEC.”
