It should’ve been a night of celebration.
The LSU football team defeated TCU in the Cowboys Classic by a score of 37-27. The passing game was as good as it’s looked at any point in the Les Miles era as the Tigers produced a pair of 100-yard receivers for the first time since the 2001 season — all in a nationally televised game.
But Miles and the team think differently.
“It was a sloppy opener at times for us,” Miles said. “Things we could do to improve certainly have made a very, very significant difference in this game.”
Although the general consensus seems to be that the offense took several steps forward with the installation of Cam Cameron’s new system, the Tigers chose to focus on improving rather than celebrating Saturday night.
“We didn’t click on all cylinders like we wanted to, but we’ve got to start somewhere and for us it was a great start,” said junior wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. “Like coach always says, ‘We haven’t arrived, we haven’t shown up or anything — we’re on our way there.’ Each and every day we have to keep with our progression and get better on offense.”
Beckham was pleased with his 118 yards in Arlington, but said he could’ve done more and needs to do more as the season progresses.
The New Orleans native said he owes Mettenberger “two” for dropping a pair of deep balls during the game, including a 55-yard bomb that slipped through his fingertips.
“No matter what it is, these are the plays we expect to make this year,” Beckham said. “We’re going to come out and get better everyday.”
It didn’t even take Beckham a full game to make reparations for some of his mistakes when he returned a fourth-quarter kickoff 75 yards after uncharacteristically letting a punt bounce to the 1-yard line earlier in the quarter.
“After that punt return where I let it roll to the 1-yard line, I felt like I needed to take it upon myself, and I told [wide recievers coach Adam] Henry, I said I need to make a play for this team because I felt as if I messed up,” Beckham said.
Mettenberger joined in on the harsh self-assessment as well, acknowledging the need to be more accurate and limit his mistakes during the game.
The senior quarterback had one of the best performances of his LSU career Saturday, but much of his efficiency tapered off once reaching the red zone where the Tigers settled for only a field goal on three of their six appearances within the 20-yard line.
Mettenberger completed only one pass in his nine attempts in the red zone against TCU, but the sole completion was a 20-yard touchdown pass to junior wide reciever Jarvis Landry late in the game.
After the game, TCU coach Gary Patterson said he predicted what was about to happen prior to LSU’s lone passing touchdown — a slant route to Landry — but the Horned Frogs simply weren’t able to make the coverage.
“Oh, we knew it was a slant. They beat us with the slant before I called press coverage,” Patterson said. “Everybody on our sideline knew they were going to throw it to 80. They were going to throw the slant and we didn’t stop it. Simple as that.”
Miles said the offense needs to be able to rely on the run game more in the future after the tailbacks struggled to gain traction in the red zone earlier in the night, despite running for 32 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the Big 12 conference’s best run defense.
“[TCU] made some significant changes in their front and the way they played it,” Miles said. “We have to be better there. We have to be able to run the football when we’re in striking distance, at times.”
Mettenberger had a response to the offense’s red zone production as well, promising improvement in the unit.
“We’ll get better. I can promise that we’ll get better,” Mettenberger said.

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