Coulda woulda shoulda
I’m trying to think of something witty or engaging to open with but I got nothing. I’m coming up short much like Brian Kelly’s team has in each of the past three week one openers. Let’s just get into it.
304: Garrett Nussmeier’s passing yards.
Nussmeier looked good last night in his second career start. Not just good, he looked comfortable. Nussmeier was 20-24 in the first half and was six inches shy of throwing a touchdown pass to Kyren Lacy on the first drive of the game. I’ll defer to Max on the film breakdown, but to my untrained eye LSU’s got another pro lining up at QB1.
4: Number of LSU defensive stops
LSU’s defense wasn’t great, but I felt like they were good enough to have won last night. Heck you could bump that number up to five considering USC missed a field goal to end the first half.
The defense got off the field after LSU turned the ball over on 4th and goal in the first quarter. They forced a three and out on USC’s opening possession of the second half, forced another on USC’s final possession of the third quarter, and made a stop on 4th on SC’s first possession of the fourth quarter. You win as a team and lose as a team and all that but…I think the offense let down the defense?
38.3: LSU’s punting average
I wouldn’t say punting cost LSU the game but the Tigers did end up using two different punters and neither looked particularly impressive. Peyton Todd punted three times while Blake Ochsendorf got one. To be fair, two of the four punts were downed inside the 20 and USC didn’t return a single punt. But neither Todd nor Ochsendorf had a single punt go for 50 yards, while USC’s Eddie Czaplicki averaged 55 yards with a long of 57. Last night’s game against USC likely won’t be the last close one LSU plays this year, so we’ll keep monitoring the punting situation.
94: Kyren Lacy’s receiving yards
Lacy looked like the best player on the field in the first half last night. Many of us, myself included, wondered could Lacy be a true No. 1 receiver now that Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas are off to the NFL and through one game it looks like the answer is a resounding “yes.” Will Lacy end up being a first round pick come April? If he has more nights like he did yesterday then he’ll have a chance. Which makes the next stat all the more frustrating becauase…
1: Number of Kyren Lacy targets in the second half
Say what you will about Lincoln Riley, but if he was calling plays for LSU last night I doubt Lacy would have gone MIA in the second half. Joe Sloan’s got to keep feeding the hot hand.
4.5*: LSU’s yards per rush
I put an asterisk here because the number’s a little deceiving. Josh Williams averaged 3.7 yards a rush; Kaleb Jackson averaged three. John Emery busted a 39 yard run, but if you take away the outlier he finished with 9 carries for 28 yards. Will Campbell said last week that LSU was going to run the ball but when push came to shove, the best offensive line in the country couldn’t get enough push up front and the LSU run game was virtually non-existent.
5: number of season openers LSU’s lost in a row
LSU hasn’t started 1-0 this entire decade, and Brian Kelly is now 0-3 in his season openers at LSU. The season is by no means over, especially in this new 12-team playoff world we’re in, but coming out of the gate unprepared for a fifth year in a row is getting old.