Without playing a game in 14 days, LSU, anxiously, welcomed Southern Miss into Tiger Stadium Saturday evening prior to defeating the Eagles 45-10 later in the evening.
Except as the clock hit zero to signal the end of the first half, LSU ran into the tunnel outgained, out-possessed and tied with a Southern Miss team who quickly grabbed its attention.
Southern Miss marched down the field the tune of a 15-play, 75-yard touchdown opening drive, aided by two penalties which provided the Golden Eagles with two first downs. It was the first touchdown in the first quarter the LSU defense had given up all season and only the fourth redzone touchdown allowed.
LSU interim coach Ed Orgeron had one way of describing the drive: LSU was “hit in the mouth.”
“We let them run the football in the first half,” Orgeron said. “The penalties, foolish penalties. We need to be disciplined and we still have a long way to go on special teams.”
As LSU walked into the locker room, there wasn’t much needed to be said to the team, said junior wide receiver Malachi Dupre.
“We know we needed to pick it up,” Dupre said. “10-10 at halftime with Southern Miss was unacceptable for us.”
Dupre said he couldn’t repeat the same exact words Orgeron said at intermission as, perhaps, expletives were involved, but his message was clear.
LSU wasn’t playing ”LSU football.”
In a matter of 10 plays in the third quarter, LSU tallied 235 total yards, scored 28 points in four minutes and 45 seconds.
Sophomore running back Derrius Guice, who started in place of Leonard Fournette, began the fireworks, breaking the line of scrimmage and dashing for 61 yards untouched, into the north endzone.
“I saw the fans,” Guice said. “That was the only thing I saw. I saw the endzone and the fans, everybody was gone.”
The momentum carried to the LSU defense when junior safety Jamal Adams ripped the ball loose from Southern Miss running back George Payne and scooped the ball up, setting the LSU offense into Golden Eagle territory.
“We needed that spark,” Adams said. “We made a stop on defense and got the ball and they punched it in.”
Guice crossed the goal line from 20 yards to pad stretch the Tigers lead to 24-10 and was apart of a 28-point third quarter.
Two more possessions later, junior quarterback Danny Etling connected with junior wide receiver D.J. Chark for an 80-yard pitch catch touchdown.
All of sudden, LSU’s offense had become explosive, racking up three scoring plays of more than 20 yards in the third quarter.
The last scoring touchdown of the stanza was another 63-yard pass to Dupre, who was so wide open and the fans remaining Tiger Stadium even tried to get Etling’s attention.
“I don’t know what the cornerback was thinking,” Dupre said. “I started screaming. He just turned and saw me and threw it as far as he can. I was screaming at the top of my lungs.”
