THE GOOD Big plays. Harris connected on three passes over 55 yards. Career high 286 passing yards and 3 touchdowns Dupree and Dural again made multiple big receptions, looking like pros. Fournette got his 150 yards in a workmanlike manner with no long runs against a stacked box. Jamal Adams had huge night with a forced fumble and and interception Keehn got off four good punts including one downed inside the 10. Defense played strong, holding WK below their season averages despite two starters out with injuries. Guice got only three carries but busted a long TD run and ended up with a 16-yard average. Tyron Jackson got his first TD on a big reception. Cameron dialed up play-action passes to back the defense out of 8-man boxes. Defense allowed 5 of 15 third-down conversions and 1 of 4 fourth-down conversions. THE BAD Big Plays. Busted coverage led to two WK touchdowns and many other easy yards. Anybody that gets into our red zone will score. Red Zone defense is #121 out of 126 teams in the FBS. Absolutely no attempt to pressure their punter who would sometimes hesitate 2 or 3 seconds before punting, giving his team time to be downfield before the ball. This has happened all year. Wide open receivers covered by linebackers. Beckwith has a keen nose for the run, but is still badly victimized in coverage. Jones seemed improved, though. Special teams were not wretched, but still not up to par. No big returns, a punt foolishly fielded inside the 10, and short kickoffs, one out of bounds. Consistency at QB. Harris is very good when he is good, but still is bad when he is bad. He scattered some passes, went the wrong way on a play and took a sack that he shouldn't have. Western Kentucky more or less contained the LSU running game, except for some good, hard runs by Fournette which did not come easily. Senseless penalties cost us yardage and a TD on a fumble return. THE UGLY Mental mistakes. Uncovered receivers caught about 9 passes, seven penalties for 65 yards, quarterback goes right when the rest of the backfield goes left, bungled punt formation, etc. This is fixable, but it is past time to fix it. We are a young team but still not in mid-season form. Players are big, strong and scary fast but their mental agility needs to improve.
Jefferson had a horrible night. he also allowed the WK running back to run right past him for 35 yards setting up a TD. Beckwith made an amazing come-from-behind tackle to keep it from being a TD run.
Excellent GB and U. I would add. Props to Cam/Miles/Harris for the success of the downfield pass. I thought there was room for a Fournette screen out of the backfield on a number of occasions. If there were any, I missed them. One more "bad." The weather...As I said in the game thread, LSU just seems to NEVER play well in any significant rain event. I was worried as soon as I heard rain was in the area. The field... Not totally sure. But, it looked fairly torn up in spots.
One more - the stadium was half empty. I give folks a pass on the USCe game and I know this one was a non-Conference game in the rain, but seriously, what's up with that? I missed the attendance when it was announced, but it couldn't have been good.
Playing in weather lie they had last night might be helpful if we have this down the road. Also, LSU needs to quit having that country music show at Tiger stadium so the grass can grow some roots.
