It’s never supposed to rain in Tiger Stadium, but something must’ve kept making the ball slippery for LSU. The third-ranked Tigers fumbled 5 times, losing 3 of them, en route to a 38-22 victory over their FCS opponent, The Towson Tigers.
Head Coach Les Miles said after the game he had not seen such lack of ball control in his time at LSU.
“In my eight years, I can’t remember putting the ball on the ground five times,” Miles said.
Ball control wasn’t the only problem the Tigers had. A much larger concern for this team was their apparent lack of motivation against inferior teams.
“I thought we played down to our opponent,” Miles added.
This is the second week LSU could be accused of downplaying opponents, after the Tigers escaped Auburn with a 12-10 victory last Saturday.
Starting Quarterback Zach Mettenberger got off to a slow start, fumbling once and completing only 4 of his first 11 passes for 31 yards.
“Right now we’re not playing LSU football,” Mettenberger said, “It’s really frustrating, we’ve got to hold on to the ball and make plays.”
Mettenberger finished the day with 238 passing yards and 2 touchdown passes.
While the Tiger rushing attack struggled with fumbles, the receiving corps made big steps against Towson. Wide Receiver Odell Beckham caught his first two touchdown passes of the season, one a 27-yard strike from Mettenberger that put the Tigers up 14-9 in the second quarter. Russell Shepard scored the games’ first touchdown with 10:24 left in the first quarter on a 78-yard counter play where he lined up in the backfield, took the handoff, and sprinted down the right sideline until he dove into the end zone.
“Receiving wise, we had a pretty decent game today,” Shepard said.
Beckham said that a game like the one he had against Towson is only going to help him down the road.
“It’s a confidence thing, the more balls you catch the more confidence you get,” Beckham added, “Tonight was a confidence builder.”
That confidence is going to have to spread quickly with the rest of the team. The Tigers face back-to-back challenges with eleventh ranked Florida, and sixth ranked South Carolina. When asked if LSU could win against Florida playing like they did against Towson, Shepard said no.
Miles will look for LSU to take a step forward that they didn’t take from their performance against Auburn.
“To say we made improvement, I can’t say that,” Miles said, “The team should come to work harder Monday.”
