Grading LSU’s 23-17 regular season finale win over Texas A&M. 

OFFENSE: B

The running game was absolutely dominant all night, and the Tigers found all kinds of new ways to run the ball that they hadn’t showed much of this season. They overloaded the left side with Jerald Hawkins and ran over Myles Garrett all night, they put the ball in Travin Dural’s hands on jet sweeps four times (with another big one called back for holding), Anthony Jennings flashed a running ability he hadn’t showcased all season, keeping the ball on read-option plays and breaking off huge chunks of yards and, of course, Leonard Fournette was a monster. As is par for the course, the passing game didn’t do much. Jennings completed for than half of his passes (12-for-21 for 107 yards) and hit on some throws throughout the game, but was inconsistent and missed on several passes that should have been completed. The problem was that the Tigers could finish drives, settling for field goal attempts on four drives that got deep into Texas A&M territorry.

DEFENSE: B

The young Tigers defense did a good job limiting Texas A&M for the entire first half, forcing Kyle Allen into a stat line that looked a lot more like LSU’s passing offense than the vaunted Aggies attack. Allen was averaging less than 3 yards per attempt during the first half and the Aggies punted of four their five first half drives. LSU did a good job playing A&M’s physical receivers close at the line, helping to keep all of Allen’s completions to short gains in the first half. A&M was able to mount some offense in the second half, eventually hitting on a few deep throws and jump balls. LSU was excellent against the run, save for Trey Williams’ 41-yard scamper up the middle for a touchdown in the first half. Remove that and the Tigers limited Texas A&M to 2.2 yards per carry. LSU also came up with a big-time interception late in the game when Jalen Collins intercepted a jump ball on a play that Allen thought would be flagged for offsides.

SPECIAL TEAMS: D

The coaching staff apparently doesn’t trust Colby Delahoussaye much, as they subbed in Trent Domingue for a few field goal attempts after Delahoussaye missed his first try of the game, a 22-yard attempt. Domingue also missed a 39-yarder later in the game. When LSU brought back Delahoussaye for a 43-yard attempt in the fourth quarter, they were extremely lucky that DeVante Harris whiffed on the block after flying off the edge unblocked. LSU also came within a shoelace tackle of watching Speedy Noil take back a kickoff return for a touchdown on them.

COACHING: B+

LSU might have sputtered in the red zone, but the offensive game plan found new ways to take advantage of a weak Texas A&M defense. They completely wiped out defensive lineman Myles Garrett by lining up both tackles on his side of the line, and it paid off when Garrett couldn’t take Jennings down for a sack in the fourth quarter. The defensive game plan was on point too, as A&M’s quick-hitting passes weren’t hitting for much for long stretches of this game. The only failure was once again leaving Brandon Harris on the bench, something Les Miles copped to after the game.

OVERALL: B-

LSU should have won this game comfortably, considering they held the ball more than twice as long as Texas A&M and more than doubled their yardage total as well. The kicking and execution issues almost came back to bite them when the Aggies pulled within a score late. The Tigers still found a way to claw to 4-4 in the brutal SEC West, which could get them as high as fourth in the division.