For the second straight home game, the Tigers came out flat in the third quarter, allowing Louisiana Tech to not only make the game competitive, but also put it in question.

The team was running smoothly on both sides of the ball through one and a half quarters, jumping out to an early 24-0 lead and more than 250 yards of offense — how quickly the outlook of the game changed.

Pick any stat, and LSU was thoroughly outperformed in the second half, giving up 234 yards of offense to LA Tech while putting up just 151 on the offensive end.
The defense allowed LA Tech to go 6-for-10 on third down in the second half and let quarterback J’Mar White light up the secondary for 197 passing yards.

Linebacker Devin White said the defense got complacent at times in the second half, which has been a bad trend in the two home games.

“We let up and gave up too many big plays,” White said. “We have to be able to get off the field and not let them convert on those big third-down plays.”

The third quarter in particular has been a rough spot, as the Tigers have put up just nine points total through their first four outings. Against LA Tech, LSU posted just 48 yards of offense in the third quarter after a successful first half of 258 total yards.

It didn’t matter which LSU secondary player the Tigers stuck on Louisiana Tech receiver Adrian Hardy — he simply carved them up. Hardy finished with 10 receptions for 181 yards and two scores.

Coach Ed Orgeron said the second-half play in the first two home games has been unacceptable.

“There’s a lot of things we need to fix on film, and obviously we didn’t finish the game,” Orgeron said. “They kept us off balance and we just couldn’t finish.”

A key fourth-down stop was made with 7:06 to go in the game, with LSU clinging on to a 31-21 lead which led to a touchdown run from Edwards-Helaire.

LSU made the plays down the stretch it needed, but there’s no question about it — this was a humbling experience this team will have to use as a reminder of playing hard for 60 minutes.