LSU got 2 big plays to equal 1 big touchdown and a sudden lead on Saturday night in Death Valley against Texas.
In the huge primetime SEC ranked matchup on ABC, with both teams desperate to stay afloat in the College Football Playoff discussion, it was LSU taking a 14-7 lead with 9:17 left before halftime thanks to a huge interception of Arch Manning by safety Ty Benefield that was followed by an equally huge 9-yard touchdown catch by star wideout Jackson Harris.
It was Harris’s second touchdown grab of the night, and they added to the 7 TD catches that the red-hot Harris already came into Saturday night with.
Sam Leavitt found Harris with the go-ahead score with a beautifully timed pass over the middle that Harris, of course, had no problem hauling in.
Harris’s first TD catch of the night, a 10-yard scoring grab from Leavitt with 5:16 left in the 1st quarter, gave the Bayou Bengals life as it tied the game at 7-7.
After Benefield returned his interception 33 yards to the Longhorns’ 7-yard line, it only took LSU 2 plays to cash in, with Leavitt finding Harris for a touchdown for the 2nd time on Saturday night.
Suddenly, it was 14-7 Tigers, and the home crowd at Death Valley was going wild.
Texas would kick a field goal to close the gap to 14-10, but Harris’s big-play ability was shining through in primetime in giving LSU a lead in a game it absolutely had to have.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
