The Tigers have only played one game, but man, Joe Burrow sure looked impressive in LSU’s 33-17 route of Miami Sunday night.
The stats don’t particularly paint a very good picture — 11-for-24 for 140 yards — but the transfer quarterback from Ohio State stepped up when it mattered most and delivered catchable passes to his receivers.
Postgame, Burrow thought the offense as a whole wasn’t up to the standard they set for themselves, despite rattling off 27 of the 33 points between the kicker and the run game.
“I thought I played OK,” Burrow said. “As an offense, I think we played average.”
Burrow’s emotions were strong even before the game, being one of many players involved in a pre-game scuffle with the Miami players.
“I saw people scuffling a little bit so I decided to run over there and help them out,” Burrow said. “This was the first chance I’ve had in a long time to lead a football team.
Two dropped passes in the first quarter from receivers Justin Jefferson and Derrick Dillon didn’t help with Burrow’s start, nor did the lack of protection from the offensive line.
But Burrow showed great touch on a corner pass to wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, which put LSU down to the one and was punched in by running back Nick Brossette on the next play. Burrow said converting on a throw like that was huge for his confidence.
Burrow was also money at the line of scrimmage with his playcalling. Two times in the first half, Burrow was able to draw Miami offsides with a fake play call. On a key fourth and one handoff to Brossette, Burrow seemed to change the play call at the line of scrimmage as a handoff to the left side, which was converted and led to a touchdown.
“When we get fourth and short, we’re expecting to go for it so it really wasn’t a conversation,” Burrow said. “I saw the safety come down on the front side like he was going to blitz off the edge. We couldn’t block them all, so I changed the play and the o-line picked it up well, and obviously Nick finished the play.”
The 8-for-15 and 101 yards passing doesn’t do Burrow’s first half performance justice as the confidence and leadership oozed out to the rest of the players.
The run game became the priority in the second half with a 27-3 lead firmly in place, but that didn’t keep Burrow from creating plays in a variety of ways.
Burrow’s first throw of the second half was a bullet to Jefferson that went for 23 yards followed by a slant route to Dee Anderson, showing he picked up exactly where he left off.
An 11-yard rush on 3rd-and-10 in the early moments of the fourth quarter brought a loud applause on the LSU sideline. The play was a microcosm of what Burrow did the entire game: make winning plays through toughness and effort.
The one knock that can be made on Burrow’s performance was that early on, the Tigers had to burn two timeouts because the offense wasn’t getting to the line in a timely fashion. Coach Ed Orgeron took the responsibility for that after the game but said it’s something that Burrow needs to learn from.
Orgeron said after the game that he was pleased with Burrow’s performance and “managing” the gameplan.
“I think he did great,” Orgeron said. “Obviously there’s a lot of things to fix. I thought he kept his poise, same we saw all camp. We’re 1-0, and that’s all that counts.”
