Brian Kelly didn’t want to face the music about his offense earlier this month. The concerns he seemingly wanted to overlook are now a full-blown crisis for the LSU Tigers.
LSU’s offensive struggles persisted in their 24-19 loss to Ole Miss in Week 5. The Tigers recorded just 256 total yards of offense — and only 59 rushing yards — in Oxford on Saturday. On the Always College Football podcast, Greg McElroy chalked up a big portion of LSU’s offensive stagnation to the ground game.
“A lot of this has to do with an inability, right now, to run the football on a consistent basis,” McElroy said. “They did not run the ball well in this game.”
LSU has not averaged 4 yards per carry in a game this season. Not even versus Southeastern Louisiana, where they posted 35 carries for 135 yards (3.9 YPC), did they crack the 4 YPC threshold. The Tigers averaged a paltry 2.8 YPC against the Rebels, which “put a tremendous amount of pressure on the passing attack,” in McElroy’s opinion.
Teams simply aren’t afraid of the Tigers picking up yards on the ground, so they’re dropping 8 defenders into coverage. This effectively eliminates open receivers downfield for Garrett Nussmeier.
There’s still time for LSU to rectify things, but they may not be getting better any time soon. Based on McElroy’s comments, everything wrong with the Tigers’ offense stems from a problem up front.
“Their offensive line is a problem right now. And we had a feeling that that group… would struggle maybe a little bit early in the season. Well, it’s come to fruition in a big way,” McElroy said. “They didn’t do a great job in pass protection in this game, too. When [Ole Miss is] just rushing 3, and Garrett Nussmeier is still feeling pressure… still having to leave the pocket against a 3-man rush? That just can’t happen.”
Fortunately, LSU has a bye this weekend. If Kelly and his staff can get in the lab and find a cure for what ails them, their season-long outlook will be as rosy as it looked after their victory over Clemson. The Tigers return to the field with a matchup versus the South Carolina Gamecocks on Oct. 11.
