LSU cannot run the football.
It couldn’t run it against UCLA. Or McNeese State. Or Central Michigan. Or Mississippi State. Or Auburn.
That’s 5 games – nearly half a season.
So it’s time to stop trying.
It’s Tell the Truth Monday and the truth is it’s time for Ed Orgeron to go full-blown Mike Leach. Throw the ball 40, 50, 60, 70 times.
Ditch the running game – all 70.6 yards per game, all 2.6 yards per ill-fated try.
The Tigers’ running game is producing the 3rd-fewest yards per game among 130 FBS teams. Right behind them is Leach’s Air Raid Offense at Mississippi State at 56.2 yards per game, though Leach’s bunch is doing better per carry (2.99).
LSU isn’t merely struggling when trying to run the ball. Its running game isn’t inconsistent. It isn’t just a weakness. It isn’t a work in progress.
The running game is something the Tigers are incapable of doing competently.
So stop trying.
LSU couldn’t run the football when the starting offensive line was intact. It couldn’t run the football when multiple o-line starters were injured. It can’t run the football now that the line is healthy again.
Orgeron brought in Jake Peetz and DJ Mangas from the Carolina Panthers to coordinate his offense and the passing game respectively, saying he wanted to run “Joe Brady’s offense.”
That seemed like a good idea, but it turns out that the offense Brady ran during the 2019 season, earning him the Panthers’ offensive coordinator position, doesn’t run so well without Joe Brady’s offensive line.
LSU can have a de facto running game with quick, short passes into the flat or over the middle – plays that have a completion rate almost as high as that of a handoff or a pitch and can gain 3 or 4 or 5 yards and keep the offense on schedule.
But running between the tackles is a lost cause.
Max Johnson can occasionally pick up useful yardage by scrambling when the pass blocking starts resembling the run blocking.
So there are ways to advance the football without throwing it downfield, but trying to do it with conventional running plays is futile.
Johnson and the passing game have been productive enough to make defenses respect them, but the running game has not been able to take advantage of that.
Kayshon Boutte has 9 touchdown catches; LSU has 2 rushing touchdowns.
The Tigers have a whole bunch of other talented receivers that have shown an ability to get open, catch the ball and produce – Jack Bech, Trey Palmer, Brian Thomas Jr. and Deion Smith.
Throw them the ball more and more and more.
There’s nothing wrong with running backs Ty Davis-Price, Armoni Goodwin or Corey Kiner, except that they can’t run through holes that don’t exist.
It would be foolish to think a running game will miraculously and spontaneously arrive as the Tigers enter the teeth of their SEC schedule. Will they suddenly start blocking and running effectively against Kentucky? Florida? Alabama? Arkansas? Texas A&M?
There are also games against Ole Miss and Louisiana-Monroe that might appear conducive to getting the running game going, but so did games against McNeese State (36 carries, 124 yards) and Central Michigan (24 carries, 84 yards) and where did they get the Tigers?
LSU is 3-2 and 1-1 in the SEC and could be staring at a losing streak if it continues to squander a couple dozen offensive opportunities per game in the name of “establishing the run.”
The Tigers have established this much: They cannot run the ball in 2021. So they’d be better off red-shirting the running game for the rest of the season.
And that’s the truth.
Les East is a New Orleans-based football writer who covers LSU for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow him on Twitter @Les_East.
