It’s a good thing for LSU that it doesn’t play an SEC opponent this week.

And it’s probably a good thing that the Tigers don’t play one next week either.

After a 37-7 loss at Mississippi State, LSU has lots to evaluate and tweak. Perhaps nothing needs to be overhauled, but if anything does, the schedule provides an opportunity.

The Tigers face Syracuse in Tiger Stadium this Saturday and then welcome Troy to Baton Rouge the next week. After the performance at State, LSU can’t take anyone lightly, but it can take a close look at all the breakdowns against State and implement any changes, personnel or otherwise, and see how they work against these next two opponents before jumping back into the SEC fray Oct. 7 at Florida.

Any time a team is in a predicament where changes must be contemplated, all eyes turn first to the quarterback position because it’s the position that has the biggest impact on any team. Additionally, Tigers coach Ed Orgeron said the preseason competition between fifth-year senior Danny Etling and true freshman Myles Brennan was very close before Orgeron opted for Etling.

Brennan saw mop-up duty in LSU’s first two games — comfortable victories against BYU and Chattanooga — but Orgeron resisted the temptation to turn to Brennan when the game against State got out of hand. Etling went the distance while the Tigers endured their biggest margin of defeat against Mississippi State, LSU’s oldest rival.

The decision to stick with Etling made sense because Etling wasn’t the cause of the Tigers’ problems. Tom Brady couldn’t have salvaged that game, and throwing Brennan to the wolves as State overwhelmed LSU wouldn’t have been a useful spot for an impressionable freshman’s SEC baptism.

That doesn’t mean Orgeron won’t turn to Brennan at some point, maybe even playing him more against Syracuse and Troy than he did in the first two games, it just means Saturday wasn’t the right time for the start of the Myles Brennan era.

The offensive line didn’t do Etling or any other ball handlers any favors. Etling was under pressure most of the time, though he was sacked just twice, both coming in the fourth quarter. He finished 13-of-29 for 137 yards, and the Tigers finished with 270 total yards on 58 plays, rushing for 18 yards on 11 second-half carries.

Speaking of lines, the one on the defensive side was no better than the one on the offensive side. That’s a concern going forward.

The Bulldogs ‘offensive line won the battle at the line of scrimmage, and that yielded 285 rushing yards as quarterback Nick Fitzgerald expertly ran the option and burned the Tigers with the pass as well.

The Tigers started the game short-handed on the defensive line because of Rashard Lawrence’s ankle injury. The line was further depleted when Ed Alexander left the game briefly because of injury, and the linebackers lost two players who were ejected for targeting — Donnie Alexander and Neil Farrell.

The secondary finished the game with the same group it started with, but it didn’t help as all three units were outplayed by their State counterparts.

One of the few positives coming from the game was that the place-kicking situation was better than it was the first two games, simply because neither Jack Gonsoulin nor Connor Cook attempted a field goal after being inaccurate in the first two games.

There’s never a good time to panic, but for LSU this is a good time to re-evaluate a few things with a sense of urgency.