I take back everything I said about the LSU run game last week. That performance was pitiful.
Although the blame for LSU’s rushing woes will be placed on the absence of Caden Durham due to an ankle injury, the offense looked completely hopeless against this extremely weak Ole Miss run defense.
Ole Miss came into this game as the worst-ranked run defense in the SEC, letting up 655 yards to Arkansas, Tulane, and Kentucky in the three games prior to LSU. The Tigers put up an awful 59 rushing yards and were unable to break any runs past 10 yards.
Ju’Juan Johnson looked to be LSU’s new offensive spark after the Southeastern game, but instead of increasing his workload and utilizing him more, Brian Kelly and Joe Sloan only gave him six attempts on short runs. Johnson finished his day with only 18 yards and didn’t get a catch, when I thought he would’ve been a key part of the receiving game.
Harlem Berry also struggled, only getting one more attempt than Johnson and finishing with 22 yards. Berry was able to find the end zone late in the game from six yards out, which was one of the only real bright plays in the run game for the Tigers.
In the following play, LSU would go for two, handing the ball off to Johnson from the shotgun, a formation in which the handoff occurs around five yards behind the line of scrimmage, making Johnson need to cover around seven yards instead of just an easy two.
As expected, this play was blown up completely, with Johnson being tackled behind the line of scrimmage, keeping the Tigers five points down instead of only a field goal away from losing. This play enraged LSU fans, many calling out offensive coordinator Sloan for the abnormal playcall.
Plays like this are a huge reason LSU lost. Sloan did not create a running plan to counter the weaknesses of the Ole Miss defense. The blocking schemes were awful and made the LSU offensive line seem like it couldn’t push back against the Ole Miss defensive line, which has struggled all year.
Sloan also misutilized players. Instead of handing the ball to goalline back Kaleb Jackson in short-yardage situations, such as the two-point conversion or third-and-short, Sloan chose to hand the ball off to smaller backs like Johnson and Berry, and instead used Jackson more in the passing game.
These roles should have been flipped, with Johnson and Berry being 210 lb and 190 lb and better receiving backs, while Jackson is 234 lb and better at gaining yards after contact. Jackson even dropped a wide-open pass on a vital first-and-10 while LSU was trying to make a comeback.
With these decisions by Sloan, easy plays looked hard for the Tigers. Every third down looked like it was going nowhere, and the Tigers finished off with an appalling 2-of-11 on third downs.
The offensive line also looked awful in whatever scheme the Tigers were running, giving up three tackles for loss while averaging only 2.8 yards per carry, the worst average for LSU all year.
LSU also had one of the worst blocking plays I’ve ever seen, where, in crunch time down by five, Ole Miss’ three-man rush quickly slipped past the LSU O-line, giving up an extremely easy sack. There are more little things I can nitpick, but whatever the Tiger coaches had drawn up for this game was not good enough for the No. 4 team in the country.
Playing a top offensive team like Ole Miss puts a lot of pressure on the opposing offense to play smart and limit opportunities for its opponents to get on the field and score. LSU did not focus on the run game, and instead, it lost the time of possession battle, giving the Rebel offense too many opportunities.
Kelly and the whole coaching staff had too much faith in their passing offense, and too many mistakes caused the game to get out of reach and forced LSU to fight back in the second half.
Overall, for facing such a bad run defense, LSU should’ve relied heavily on its run game and tried to get that part of the offense going instead of forcing the pass game. This game could’ve gone completely differently if the Tigers had converted on a few extra third downs and shaved some more time off the clock to make Ole Miss’ job a little bit harder. Hopefully, with Durham back, the offense can get the run game going again against some tough upcoming SEC opponents.
