As LSU continues to manage its quarterback situation with Myles Brennan banged up, coach Ed Orgeron was asked how LSU would proceed going forward after T.J. Finley struggled against Auburn, and was replaced by fellow freshman Max Johnson.

“He played so well last week,” Orgeron said of Finley, via NOLA.com. “He had some throws that could have went either way, the receivers should have caught them. I wasn’t going to pull him out right away. You can’t keep pulling quarterbacks in and out like this. We had to give him enough time to see what he could do. When we finally made the decision to put Max in, we just felt like we had to go in another direction.”

Finley was 13-for-24 passing for 143 yards and two interceptions on Saturday in the loss to Auburn. Johnson was 17-for-24 passing for 172 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. The critical development was Auburn scored 21 points off of 3 LSU turnovers.

Orgeron maintained that Brennan is the starter when healthy, and he will have more time to heal as LSU is off next week, and will next play against Alabama on Nov. 14.

“We’ll have to look at it, but Myles is our starting quarterback, that’s clear,” Orgeron said. “If (T.J.) was able to have an outstanding game and beat Auburn, we’d have to discuss things, but Myles is definitely our starting quarterback. These guys are two young freshmen, they’re going to be inconsistent because they’re freshmen. But you know what, I can’t expect them to perform well when we can’t block. Those defensive linemen were all over these guys and they were running for their lives. … I can’t put it on the young quarterbacks, we’ve got to do a better job of protection.”