When the first question to LSU head coach Brian Kelly in the postgame press conference following LSU’s 20-10 victory over the Florida Gators was critical of the offense, Kelly lost his temper.
While he has since publicly and privately apologized for the outburst, the question was more than pressing considering LSU’s offense only put up 66 points and 876 yards of offense through three games. It ranked 94th in the country for total yards and tied for 107th in total scoring.
And to the surprise of many, it has been the defense and not the offense that has been the rock of this LSU team in a drastic shift following the Matt House era.
If you ask Kelly what the difference is, he might say it’s because of better players, but until Saturday night, that only seemed to apply to the defense.
Kelly recently revealed that Garrett Nussmeier is dealing with what was described as a torso injury and hasn’t been able to perform at his best this season. Following “his best week at practice yet,” offensive coordinator Joe Sloan, Kelly and Nussmeier dialed up the offensive intensity in their matchup against the Southeastern Lions.
“Offensively, coach Sloan is doing whatever he has to do to win the game,” said defensive tackle Jacobian “Tank” Guillory.
In their first three matchups, the Tigers only managed to put up a combined 66 points, but tonight, the Tigers racked up 35 in the first half alone against the Lions.
Kelly admitted that against Florida, he had been “pumping the brakes” on his offense, electing to play a game of keep-away instead.
In its matchup against the Gators, LSU punted the ball seven times, with Kelly even deciding to go against the analytics to ensure Florida quarterback DJ Lagway was constantly working from negative field position.
While playing to win is never a bad thing, fans were left speculating that Nussmeier’s torso injury was more serious than what Kelly had initially let on.
The question in the press conference about LSU’s inefficiencies on third down was prompted by what many described as questionable playcalling and decision-making by both Kelly and Sloan. Kelly even admitted that he “ignored the analytics” when they said to go for it in short yardage, electing to punt instead or call more conservative plays.
Just seven days later, in LSU’s matchup against Southeastern, the Lions didn’t take a snap in LSU territory until 7:58 was left in the third quarter. The Lions also only gained 10 first downs the entire night compared to LSU’s 32.
LSU went 9/14 on third down, 3/3 on fourth down conversions and at one point, elected to go for it on fourth and 11.
The Tigers went 6/6 in the red zone as well, scoring points on every trip.
In the first three weeks of the season, fans and analysts alike were beginning to fear that the status quo for LSU might be lopsided yet again, but the big win over Southeastern proves that LSU’s offense, with a healthy quarterback, can score plenty of points.
“He felt good running the football, and we knew during the week that he was healthy just by the way he was throwing the football,” Kelly said. “That’s the version I’d say you’ll get the rest of the year.”
The status quo has shifted, meaning expectations as well as the standard have risen greatly for the 4-0 LSU team.
It will have to rise to the occasion on Saturday as they go on the road to face the Ole Miss Rebels for the first road game in almost a month.
