Green Bay, Wisc — With 18 returning starters, LSU didn’t expect to have much trouble during its season opener on Saturday.
The veteran group said they struggled with executing plays during fifth-ranked LSU’s 16-14 loss at Lambeau Field against Wisconsin.
“We have to execute better in all facets of the game,” senior defensive end Lewis Neal said.
Wisconsin beat LSU at its own game — the “ground-and-pound,” run-first style of offense — in the first half, with senior running back Corey Clement and junior running back Dare Ogunbowale for 76 yards while the Wisconsin defense bottled up junior running back Leonard Fournette for only 35 yards.
Neal explained that defensive coordinator Dave Aranda made adjustments at halftime, but the team still had trouble figuring out their assignments.
The 6-foot-2, 272-pound defensive end said the Badgers’ offensive line didn’t do anything special to confuse the defense.
“It was about what we were expecting to face,” Neal said. “It wasn’t anything surprising or anything extravagant.”
On the other side of the ball, the Badgers disrupted the LSU offensive line throughout the game.
Wisconsin hurried and sacked junior quarterback Brandon Harris twice and had three tackles for loss. Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst noticed at times that his offensive and defensive lines was more physical at the line of scrimmage than LSU.
“There were times where we really were physical and were where we needed to be today,” Chryst said.
On one occasion, Wisconsin senior linebacker Vince Biegel went completely untouched.
“It’s called a ‘Psycho Track,’” Biegel said. “ I came inside the tackle, and I was surprised I was unblocked. I actually thought it was a screen at first because I was unblocked so much.”
The pressure Wisconsin put on Harris often flustered the 6-foot-3, 218-pound quarterback and attributed to the last minute interception Harris threw.
The Badgers also controlled time of possession holding the ball for 37 minutes compared to LSU only having the ball for 23 minutes.
LSU struggled to convert on third down, too, as it went 2-for-10 and gave the ball away to Wisconsin three times on two interceptions and one fumble.
“In the first half, we couldn’t convert third downs on offense,” said LSU coach Les Miles. “[Wisconsin’s] defense played their behinds off. They played hard for four quarters.”
While Miles didn’t say much about the offensive line’s physical play, he did note some plays where the offensive line missed assignments.
“It seems to me that there were some guys that were not necessarily blocked,” Miles said. “I don’t know if it was a safety stepping down in there or not.”
Senior center Ethan Pocic didn’t want to put the entire blame on a lack of execution — he said some plays were a result of miscommunication.
“There were spots here and there where we weren’t all on the same page,” Pocic said.