By Chris Marler
Sunday night marked the fifth straight season that LSU started off their season with a loss. There were plenty of reactions following the game in Vegas, and there were a lot of things we were told in the preseason about this team as well. So, after one game let’s discuss the facts and “alternative facts” as some might say. Here’s two truths and a lie.
Truth No. 1 – The Defense is improved
The overhaul on defense that Brian Kelly committed to this offseason wasn’t talked about nearly enough. Blake Baker’s first game back in purple and gold had some hiccups, but the defense was much improved. The Tigers were going up against one of the best play callers in the country and an offense that had way more weapons than casual fans in the SEC cared to learn about this summer.
They gave up some yards and gave up a fourth quarter lead, but there were plenty of signs of encouragement like holding USC to 3-of-9 on third down and the reemergence of letting Harold Perkins play with his hair on fire in his natural position as he led the team in tackles.
Truth No. 2 – Nuss and Kyren Lacy are going to have a big season
You saw it from the opening drive that this combination is going to be a problem all season long for LSU’s opponents. In their first regular season game as THE guy at their positions, both of these guys showed out. Nuss had over 300 yards passing and completed over 76 percent of his passes. Lacy was his go to target for most of it hauling in seven catches for 94 yards and a TD. He also just missed getting another TD in the corner of the endzone. Lacy was targeted five times on the opening drive, and it was very apparent early on that this offense wants to get him going and get him going early.
The Lie – This is NOT the best offensive line in the country
This O-Line may be very good, they may have the most NFL first round draft picks next April. But it is not the best offensive line in the country, and that was very clear on Sunday night. Without taking away anything from Southern Cal, this was just not the physically imposing unit that we expected to see. It also wasn’t the physically imposing unit we HEARD we would see after left tackle Will Campbell said they were going out to Vegas to “get into a fist fight” earlier this week.
Outside of John Emery Jr., the rushing attack was meh at best. Ball carriers not named Emery had a total of 16 carries for 56 yards averaging just 3.5 yards per carry. They rarely, if ever, ran it behind Will Campbell, and it was pretty clear from early on that the run game was not going to be something they could depend on to push around what was expected to be a very underwhelming defense.
