Though the season isn’t close to over, it certainly feels that way.  

Once again LSU didn’t appear competitive in a game it had a realistic chance to do so, facing off against the only SEC team it had previously beaten in Arkansas. And the first half may have been the worst the team has looked at any time this season. 

Not only did it score a season-low 14 points in the first half, beating out the previous by a touchdown and shooting a staggering 12% from the field, but it also made Arkansas look like last season’s version of itself, as if it wasn’t missing two of its best players heading into the game. The Razorbacks put up 38 points in the period, shooting 58% from the field, finishing the half on a 23-3 run against a Tiger defense that seemed completely unmotivated to stop them. 

Similar to its game against Auburn, a game where it got off to a rocky start before temporarily making things interesting early in the second half, LSU once again had a resurgent start to the period, beginning it with a 15-2 run that most fans probably missed.

Adam Miller scored nine straight points amidst that run, his only nine points of the entire game, as the Tigers narrowed their deficit down to 11 with just under 15 minutes remaining.  

But again, after such a strong start to the period, the bottom of the net seemed foreign to Matt McMahon’s squad. It put up more points in the first five minutes and four seconds of the second half than it did in the entire first, only to follow it up by scoring two points within the next five-minute increment. By the time the game concluded, 37% of LSU’s scoring had come within that single rally, as it finished another tough-to-watch stinker with just 40 points and another double-digit loss. 

While its upcoming stretch is slightly more forgiving than the previous one, the team’s tournament outlook isn’t looking amazing. Its upcoming matchup with Texas Tech is important, but it likely needs a win over No. 2 Alabama next weekend if it wants to have a chance to succeed come March.