Rapid Reaction: LSU gets bounce-back win, but let's not get carried away
No. 20 LSU bounced back.
Sort of.
The Tigers played better in their 41-7 victory at Vanderbilt on Saturday than they did in a 44-34 home loss to Mississippi State a week earlier in Baton Rouge.
They did what they needed to do, but it was hardly a chest-thumping performance.
In fact the biggest factor in the Tigers’ improvement might have been simply the quality of the respective opponents.
There was a significant talent gap between LSU and Vanderbilt that didn’t exist between LSU and State.
So the Tigers blocked better and ran the ball better than they did in the opener. John Emery Jr. took the lead role this week and provided a spark.
That made things easier for Myles Brennan, who seemed more comfortable in his second career start than he did in his first. Brennan threw a career-high 4 TD passes.
This time, Brennan didn’t have to throw constantly to try and bring the Tigers from behind. He was able to pass out of favorable down-and-distance situations, be patient and operate under minimal duress after being sacked seven times a week earlier.
He took advantage by throwing 4 touchdown passes – 2 to Terrace Marshall Jr. for the second consecutive week and 2 to Jontre Kirklin, who gave new meaning to the term “late bloomer” by catching the first 2 touchdowns of his career in the second game of his senior season.
Derek Stingley Jr. was back from the illness that kept him out of the opener and that provided a spark for the secondary. The pass defense was much better than last week, but that was pretty much unavoidable after being historically bad in allowing 623 passing yards to State.
LSU’s defense kept the limited Commodores offense in check. Vanderbilt didn’t run the ball with any consistency, though it did have a few nice gainers.
The Tigers applied pressure consistently on true freshman Ken Seals, but didn’t take the ball way, which was the only thing the defense did well in the opener as it forced 4 turnovers by State, until Todd Harris made an interception in the 4th quarter.
The Tigers had a 21-7 lead after a methodical first half and received the kickoff to start the second half. But they went 3-and-out when Brennan was stopped for no gain on 3rd-and-1.
On their next possession they drove into Commodores territory and Cade York kicked a 53-yard field goal for a 24-7 lead. Stingley’s 48-yard punt return to led to York’s 31-yard field goal and a 27-7 lead midway through the quarter.
Then on a flea-flicker, Brennan found Kirklin for a 29-yard touchdown on which Kirklin did some nifty footwork to come down in bounds in the back of the end zone.
On the Tigers’ second possession of the game they focused on Emery and he responded with two rushes for 31 yards and an 11-yard pass reception.
That led to a wide receiver screen that Kirklin turned into a 28-yard touchdown.
LSU put together another scoring drive early in the second quarter and Brennan found Marshall for a 16-yard touchdown pass on third-and-6.
The Tigers took over at their 40 after stopping Vanderbilt on a fourth down, but Brennan threw an interception as his pass was badly overthrown and behind Racey McMath.
That gave the Commodores a lift and Seals connected with Cam Johnson for a 40-yard completion. On third-and-goal, Seals completed the drive with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Ben Bresnahan to cut the lead to 14-7.
LSU came right back as Brennan and Marshall teamed on a 51-yard touchdown for a 21-7 lead.
Donovan Kaufman caught the ensuing kickoff deep in the end zone and returned 58 yards. Vanderbilt drove to a first-and-goal at the 9, but stalled and Pierson Cooke was wide left on a 22-yard field-goal attempt, leaving LSU with a 21-7 halftime lead.
That sequence kind of summed up the game. Things turned out well for the Tigers, thanks in part to the Commodores.
Thanks to Vandy. LSU needed a practice game.
Poor Vandy…
Definitely an improvement over last weeks game on both sides of the ball. Hopefully Myles will improve with every game. 18/30 is just meh..Gotta get better on 3rd down. Only 1 in the first half is just horrible. I thought John Emery ran really well tonight as well.
23/37* stat corrections.
Vandy’s glorified new offense produced another inept result. 274 yards and the savior QB goes 11-25-2 for 113. His AY/A for this game is 1.7.
The competition wasn’t good, but LSU definitely played better in all aspects tonight. We still have a long way to go, but second in the West looks very attainable after what happened today.
I need to see more from Myles. It was an improvement for sure.
Via the like opponents scale Arkansas is second in the west. I know I’m way ahead of my self but hey… When in Rome.
Everyone but Alabama in the West is 1-1. It’s already a crazy year.
Better than last week, but Brennan was definitely overthrowing his receivers constantly. I suspect that’s largely because they haven’t fully developed their chemistry.
The third down conversion rate was atrocious, but at the same time, LSU either didn’t get to third down, or it was third and long.
On defense, LSU gave up a bunch of yards rushing – or at least it felt that way.
Still room for improvement, so here’s hoping.
Next week against Mizzou will be telling. If Brennan and Co can own the Tigers and build some confidence for the Florida game, I’ll be feeling pretty good. They will need momentum going to the Swamp.
Bo Pelini had the easiest job in the world today. Vandy every possession, run, run, try to pass. Didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how predictable it was going to be. Every single time Vandy has the ball, it was the same sequencing. They still don’t trust the true freshman to throw it more than 10 yards down the field. With Arkansas beating Miss State, the West is definitely Bama’s to lose, they have been the most complete team.
Seals couldn’t possible throw the ball more then 10 yards down the field, because by the time his receivers get that far, all of the offensive linemen have lost their assigned defenders. It’s like trying to play sandlot ball and allowing the defense to rush after “1 Mississippi,” when other QBs in the league get “5 Mississippi.”
Vanderbilt has no passing game through two weeks. Passing the ball on average is a negative result. Factor the sacks and penalties to the total passing plays called, and they don’t average 4 yards per attempt. The last time teams routinely went consecutive games with such pathetic passing production was one-platoon football in the 1950’s.
It’s not the coaching either. They have very competent coaches. If you take Gary Kasparov and pit him against Bobby Fischer, and then you allow Fischer to replace 3 pawns with 3 queens, and you take away Kasparov’s queen and replace it with a pawn, you know what the result will be. Vanderbilt’s academic and elitist policies force their coaches to play with no queen and an extra pawn, while the other 13 SEC schools get the three extra queens.
It used to be that there were still enough gullible fans to trick, but the final game of 2019 with maybe 200 VU fans, most of them on free tickets, and a little less than 200 ETSU fans, meant that the final hoe game of 2019 had fewer fans in the stands than the Covid games in other SEC stadiums this year.
Still very rough around the edges, alot of freshman everywhere, still not impressed by our 3rd down caller, and defensive coordinator is still disappointing me, but D showing some improvement. Let’s hope improvements continue in the upcoming weeks. At least we’re tied for second in the west,lol. GEAUX Tigahs. Congrats
You forget about Elias Rick’s Interception? Brennan made a few mistakes but was head and shoulders above his last performance. He will get better with more reps and games. Next year will be a championship run.
The offense looked really good when John Emery was in. When TDP was in they looked slower and not in sync.