Saturday night was one to forget for LSU football.
The defense gave up over 700 yards and despite scoring 49 points, LSU lost to Ole Miss 55-49. Now sitting at 3-2, any hope at a College Football Playoff appearance seems lost.
Here are three takeaways from the loss:
Jayden Daniels is playing at a Heisman level
For as bad as the defense was on Saturday, Daniels and the LSU offense were near perfect. Daniels threw for 414 yards and four touchdowns on 27 of 36 passing and ran for another 99 yards and a touchdown.
Through five games, he leads the SEC in both passing yards and touchdowns and ranks second in the country in total offense. Daniels has more than answered the questions coming into the season about whether or not he could take the next step as a passer.
The Ole Miss game might’ve been the best he has looked in his career throwing the deep ball, completing the slot fade at will throughout the game. His accuracy keeps getting better, and he looks comfortable enough in the offense to make any throw.
Daniels is the silver lining of this LSU team to this point, and however far this LSU team goes this season will likely be led by him.
LSU will likely have to score over 40 points to win games in the SEC
The biggest takeaway of Saturday’s game was just how bad LSU’s defense really is. The only other time in program history LSU scored 49 points or more and lost was a seven-overtime game against Texas A&M in 2018 that ended 74-72.
Two of LSU’s three SEC games have been shootouts, and the one that wasn’t came against a heavily overmatched Mississippi State offense. Against Arkansas, LSU gave up 31 points, and if it weren’t for poor execution in the red zone by the Razorbacks, LSU might’ve fallen short in that game too.
LSU’s next SEC game is a road matchup with Missouri, a team that features the nation’s leading receiver. With how LSU’s secondary continues to perform, another high-scoring game feels like a given.
After that, LSU’s remaining SEC games are against Auburn, Alabama, Florida and Texas A&M. While none of those offenses are elite on paper, it’s hard to trust the LSU defense against anyone right now.
Fortunately for LSU, the offense is capable of winning shootouts. But when there’s immense pressure on the offense to score on every single drive, that pace can be hard to keep against a good team. Saturday night proved that.
As bad as the loss seems, LSU is still a contender in the SEC West
While this seems silly to even bring up after a loss like that, LSU still matches up relatively well against the rest of the division. Ole Miss was LSU’s first conference loss and Ole Miss already has a conference loss against Alabama.
With how dominant LSU’s offense is, the Tigers are still going to be competitive in every game remaining on the schedule. Missouri on the road won’t be easy, but LSU still opens as a 6.5-point favorite against a team that has yet to face the caliber of athlete LSU has on offense.
The Tigers will likely be favorites against both Auburn and Florida at home, and Alabama and Texas A&M both already have losses this season. Texas A&M and Alabama play each other in the upcoming week which will give a clearer picture of who the top team in the division is.
Despite how bad LSU’s defense is, it still doesn’t have to improve much given how dominant the offense is. If the unit can just make marginal improvements and get one or two extra stops per game, LSU is still a dangerous team.
