Jayden Daniels was exceptional in LSU’s 49-39 victory at Missouri on Saturday.

He was exceptional even in defeat a week earlier at Ole Miss.

He was nearly perfect in a victory against Mississippi State and has been exceptional in virtually every quarter during the 1st half of the season.

In fact, if it weren’t for Daniels, the Tigers’ mediocre 4-2 start (3-1 in the SEC) would look less impressive than it does.

It’s Tell The Truth Monday at mid-season, and the truth is that Daniels looks like a much stronger candidate to be invited to New York City on the second Saturday in December than his team does to earn a trip to Atlanta on the Saturday before that.

If somehow LSU does make it to the Sec Championship Game it would be on the back of Daniels, who would almost certainly be a finalist for the Heisman Trophy ceremony a week later.

He has ceded the role of leading rusher that he had last season to Logan Diggs (but barely), put Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas in position for post-season honors of their own and managed to keep an erratic team in the Top 25 and competitive (at least for now) in its quest to repeat as SEC West champions.

Daniels, who is completing 72.9% of his passes this season, has established a new career-best for passing touchdowns in a season before this season is halfway over. His 42-yard touchdown pass to Thomas in the 3rd quarter Saturday was his 17th of the season, surpassing his previous best – set during his freshman season (2019) and matched last season.

He added another to Nabers in the fourth quarter and figures to soar up the rankings for most touchdown passes in a season by a Tigers quarterback. He’s not going to reach Joe Burrow’s record-shattering total of 60 in 2019, but he’s on pace to easily surpass the second-best total of 28 by Matt Mauck (2003) and JaMarcus Russell (2006).

Daniels is on pace to surpass his career-high of 2,943 passing yards by roughly 1,000 yards and finish on the cusp of 4,000, which would be 2nd to only Burrow’s 5,671.

Throw in his 422 net rushing yards, which puts him on pace to approach his team-leading total of 885 last season, and it’s easy to see why LSU has managed to average 46.5 points and put up 49 in each of the past 2 weeks – against ranked SEC opponents on the road.

The truth is that Daniels is guiding a team that only split those last 2 games because it allowed 55 points in the loss at Ole Miss 2 weeks ago. It got past Missouri by allowing “only” 39.

If Daniels had been anything less than exceptional – 27-of-36, 414 yards, 4 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 99 rushing yards, 1 rushing touchdown – the Tigers would have lost by a significant margin to the Rebels.

If he had been anything less than exceptional – 15-of-21, 259 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 130 rushing yards, 1 rushing touchdown – LSU almost certainly would have lost to Missouri, dropped out of the Top 25, slipped to 3-3 and seen its position in the West become even more precarious than it already is.

Although the LSU defense finally gave Daniels some much-needed help by allowing just 14 second-half points against Missouri, the defensive trend is not encouraging. In the Tigers’ last 29 defensive series over the last 10 quarters – dating to a 34-31 victory against Arkansas on Sept. 23 – they have allowed 14 touchdowns and 4 field goals for a total of 111 points.

In that same time frame, Daniels has led 27 possessions that weren’t cut short by the clock and produced 15 touchdowns and 3 field goals for 115 points.

No matter how many yards and points the LSU defense has been giving up, Daniels has either been able to overcome it – as he did against Arkansas and Missouri – or go blow for blow as he did against Ole Miss, which had 1 more score than Daniels’ offense had.

Even a rib injury that briefly sidelined Daniels against Missouri couldn’t slow him down.

If he’s able to stay healthy, the Tigers are always going to have a puncher’s chance, even if the defense doesn’t get its act together.

Tell The Truth Monday requires an honest assessment of wins and losses.

This latest win was a fitting end to the 1st half of LSU’s season because it demonstrates the state of the team heading into the 2nd half.

Daniels is having as productive and Heisman-worthy a season as any offensive player in the country.

And yet each week it’s a struggle for him and his high-scoring offense to keep pace with the opponent.