It was an ugly win for the Tigers Saturday from Death Valley, but the purple and gold notched its third win of the season with a 35-26 victory against the Syracuse Orange.
The Tigers struggled along the offensive line all night with senior quarterback Danny Etling constantly on the move. After one quarter of play, LSU had run 10 plays and gained just 11 yards.
Junior center Will Clapp thought the line struggled with giving Etling time to throw throughout the game.
“We started off pretty rough,” Clapp said. “We struggled with some of the stuff they were doing with their blitzes but we were able to put together drives when we needed to.”
Starting right guard Ed Ingram was replaced by junior Adrian Magee midway through the second quarter.
Etling was sacked twice but was pressured numerous times. In the second half, more poor blocking led to a safety which started a 16-0 run for Syracuse.
LSU coach Ed Orgeron said the Syracuse defensive line won the battle Saturday night against the Tigers depleted offensive line.
“Obviously there was too much penetration,” Orgeron said. “Danny was under duress the whole night. Those guys did a good job of knowing what we were going to do.”
One area the Tigers did improve was the penalties. After giving up 30 penalties for 272 yards in the first three games, LSU surrendered just three penalty for 25 yards.
In the fourth quarter of a 28-19 game, the penalty bug hit LSU at the wrong time as freshman edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson was called for roughing the passer on third and 19. The next play the Tigers were called for illegal substitution.
Orgeron was proud of the way his team kept the penalties to a minimum after spending time working on it in practice this past week.
“We had zero penalties in the first half,” Orgeron said. “We didn’t want to have three penalties, but we improved on that.”
Freshman quarterback Myles Brennan also got some snaps taking over for Etling midway through the second half. The Tigers were only up 21-10 at the time
Brennan drove LSU 91 yards down the field on his opening drive for a LSU touchdown and went four of six for 75 yards and a interception.
Orgeron wanted to put Brennan in a situation where the game had not yet been decided.
“He did well in some situations,” Orgeron said. “He’s got to get better in others but Danny is our starting quarterback. Just wanted to give Myles a chance with the game on the line.”
