Tell the Truth Monday: LSU was dominant, but what does it mean?
It took 3 games before LSU started to look like it was supposed to look.
The Tigers were ranked No. 5 in the AP preseason poll, meaning they were supposed to look like SEC championship and CFP contenders.
They didn’t look the part in a season-opening loss to preseason No. 8 Florida State, and there was no telling what their 72-10 rout of FCS Grambling in Week 2 meant because of the disparity in talent.
Week 3 was going to be a better gauge.
SEC opener. Pretty good Mississippi State team. On the road, cowbells, et cetera.
The game wasn’t competitive: No. 14 LSU 41, State 14.
It’s Tell the Truth Monday, and that means staying grounded in victory and defeat. Find silver linings in defeat and don’t overlook blemishes in victories.
But the truth on this Monday is that it’s difficult to find blemishes of much significance in the Tigers’ dominating performance.
Nonetheless, the point of Tell the Truth Monday is to analyze the previous weekend’s performance and place it in a useful context.
Sometimes there just aren’t many positives to be found in a particular defeat (see 2 Mondays ago). And sometimes, like this Monday, there just aren’t many negatives to be found in a particular performance.
But the bigger picture can provide a more useful context than an individual game might. And that’s where LSU is on this Monday.
Analyzing the few scattered imperfections within the performance in Starkville isn’t going to be as useful as placing the performance within the context of the entire season, who the Tigers were expected to be, what they appear to be after 3 games and where the most encouraging performance of the 1st 3 suggests they might be headed.
State certainly isn’t the best that the SEC or even the West division has to offer. And perhaps this win won’t seem as impressive in December as it appears now if the Bulldogs can’t figure out some stuff in Zach Arnett’s 1st season as a head coach and in Will Rogers’ transition in 1st-year coordinator Kevin Barbay’s much different offense.
We’ll see.
Arkansas (2-1) visits Tiger Stadium next Saturday night. The Razorbacks were lurking just outside the Top 25 and figured to be a bigger challenge than State, but they lost to visiting BYU 38-31 on Saturday.
The truth is that the SEC West last season didn’t quite live up to its lofty standard of recent seasons, and the 1st 3 weeks of this season suggest it might fall even farther from that standard.
Alabama already has a loss, has changed quarterbacks twice (and counting) and was uninspired in a 2-touchdown win against South Florida, which was an underdog by nearly 5 touchdowns.
Texas A&M’s hope of having a bounce-back season took a big hit in its loss at Miami 2 weeks ago.
Arkansas’ loss left just Auburn and Ole Miss as teams from the West that made it through 3 weeks without getting beat.
The most impressive win among those teams came in Week 2 when Ole Miss went into New Orleans and beat Tulane, which was No. 24 but played without its starting quarterback.
As for Auburn, which opponent provided the stiffest challenge? Massachusetts? Cal? Samford?
No one stands out in the West yet. That’s not uncommon so early in the season, but usually a few teams in the West would have looked the part of a CFP contender by now.
But we’re still waiting.
As for Mississippi State, it was 2-0 going into the game against the Tigers and has yet to leave Starkville. It opened the season against FCS Southeastern Louisiana, then edged Arizona in overtime.
So as dominant as LSU was, it’s difficult to know if that performance is a sign that the Tigers are putting it all together. Or did they just take advantage of an opponent still trying to figure itself out?
We’ll start to get more answers as games against SEC opponents get stacked in the coming weeks.
LSU might or might not be growing into the team it was projected to be. And it might not need to be a great team to win an increasingly suspect division.
But it’s worth noting that during the first quarter of the regular season, the Tigers have done a good job of fixing stuff, which was a trademark of Kelly’s 1st team on its way to the SEC title game.
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I definitely think we took advantage of State’s poor oline, pro style offense is dependent on a solid oline. Our secondary took big steps, they’ll continue to improve as the season progresses. If I had to pick a flaw our kickoff coverage let the returner gain yards consistently, I’m sure that’s getting addressed at practice today.
Running the ball more consistently needs to be addressed. However, with the success the passing game had, they didn’t have to run the ball a ton. Hopefully, that gets worked on more in practice also along with kickoff coverage.
I agree, I do think the RBs are showing they can be counted on when needed be it running or blocking. It was nice seeing them start fast, they were definitely well prepared
It’s looking more like the East and the West are up for grabs. My two picks are still UGA and LSU, but the SEC as a whole is going to beat itself up even more this year than last.
Les, I didn’t count the words, but I’m guessing it’s close to the record for words used to say nothing.
My thoughts too
LSU looked like a completely different team than the one that showed in the second half against Florida St, and I loved every minute of it.
There’s nothing louder than silenced cowbells.
It’s unfortunate that LSU is being judged by the media and pollsters based on how it played in only one half (actually 1 quarter). They have played 12 halves of football so far….10 have been outstanding, one was above average, and one was poor. I believe most ranked teams would be happy with that.
It’s simple. It was a dominant performance because the better athletes, coached by the better coaching staff, did what they were supposed to do. They bullied a weaker team. We should get used to seeing this as the season progresses. This LSU team is prepared to bully weaker teams. It’s been a while since we could say that, but that’s what we saw.
LSU should be prepared to play that way week in and out, regardless the opponent. I expect them to keep up the intensity and great play.
I was kind of appalled that Les East had to ask “what does it mean?” when any LSU fan should know what it means. Experience plus talent and depth should always add up to games like this. I guess it’s easy to forget the last time LSU played like this. Thanks, Ed.
Ed is fitting right in with the other lump headed SDS writers.
Why does the picture of Coach Kelly make him look like he wears his pants slightly under the nipple line? I guess he is preparing to be another out-of-towner retiring to Florida.
With Mississippi State needing home field advantage, 4 INT’s, and OT to defeat Arizona…
it may not be possible to know if Kelly’s first week clunker is ready to race, but the motor was in sync at Davis Wade Stadium.
LSU played great, but it was one game against a team trying to find itself. I’m very happy with the outcome, but we need to see LSU play a better team.
I hate that there is no margin for error in CFB. Teams that schedule cupcakes to open the season are rewarded. The LSU team that you will see at mid season will likely be much different than the one that played the FSU game. The Perkins experiment at MLB didn’t work out, Diggs who is the best RB didn’t play, Smith was suspended, Heard will likely end up at right tackle, and there was an entirely new DB backfield trying to figure things out. This isn’t the NFL with pre season games.