After a momentum-boosting victory on the road against Florida, LSU now returns home for another top-10 SEC matchup. The Tigers are set to face Ole Miss, who is currently ranked No. 7 in the AP Poll. At his weekly press conference, Brian Kelly previewed the game and recapped the previous game against Florida.
Here are some takeaways.
Offensive improvement
The biggest takeaway from LSU’s win over Florida was the offensive performance, especially quarterback Jayden Daniels. Daniels threw for 348 yards and 3 touchdowns, and added 44 yards and 3 more touchdowns rushing.
As a whole the offense put up 45 points and 528 total yards. Kelly attributed much of the improvement to making the big plays that had been missing to this point in the season.
“There’s gonna be times where guys just gotta step up and make plays,” Kelly said. “Maybe early in the year, we throw that [touchdown to Jaray Jenkins] out of bounds. So just staying at it, being consistent with coaching again, and then telling our guys that, ‘look, sooner or later, we got to step up and make these plays.’ And they did on Saturday. And now we’ve got to be consistent at it.”
Along with Daniels, it was also Kayshon Boutte’s biggest game of the season so far. The star wide receiver has been quiet to this point in the year, but he finished this game with six catches for 115 yards. This was the first time Daniels and Boutte seemed to have a connection, which paid dividends on the scoreboard. Boutte’s early emergence in this game was emphasized by Kelly as a major factor of the victory.
“Sometimes what you need is your big-time players to step up. And I think that was the first time this year that our best players stepped up to that level,” Kelly said.
The offensive line
LSU’s offensive line has been a topic of discussion all season, mostly due to inconsistency and constant personnel changes. Against Florida, LSU was without one of its best offensive lineman in Garrett Dellinger, but the line still had arguably its best game of the year.
In pass protection, LSU was able to keep a clean pocket for Jayden Daniels for most of the game, allowing him to have a big game through the air. On the edges, true freshmen Emery Jones and Will Campbell both had impressive games, with Campbell earning SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week honors.
“Their mental approach to the game is so far above any freshmen that I’m used to having,” Kelly said of Jones and Campbell. “Emery Jones and Will Campbell physically have the traits to go in the weight room and be as strong as anybody that we have, and are able to move their feet to obviously get out and set these guys.”
The offensive line will need another good performance to slow down Ole Miss’ productive pass rush. The Rebels’ defense has shown improvement this year, and Kelly talked about being prepared to handle pressure.
“You’ve got to be on your toes, this is a week where recognition and understanding where it’s coming from is going to be really important,” Kelly said.
Defensive focuses against Ole Miss
While its last performance showed a lot of improvements offensively, LSU had problems on the other side of the ball. Kelly highlighted fundamentals as one of the primary defensive focuses, heading into the matchup against Ole Miss. One of the fundamentals he brought up was tackling.
After obtaining a 42-21 lead heading into the fourth quarter, Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson took a designed quarterback run 81 yards to the endzone. On the run, four Tiger defenders got their hands on him, but none of them were able to bring him down. That wasn’t the only instance of poor tackling for LSU last weekend and in the games prior, but it was the most notable example, as it allowed Florida to get back into the game despite LSU’s lead.
That play also leads into the next concern: the ability to prevent the big play. Along with the 81-yard run, the Tigers also gave up two 30-plus yard touchdowns in the first quarter, resulting in a 14-7 lead for the Gators. The first one featured exploited LSU’s coverage, as Richardson found Justin Shorter for a 51-yard pass, and the second came on a 39-yard run by Montrell Johnson in which practically no one touched him.
“It starts with the fundamentals,” Kelly said on what needs to be improved. “Leverage, staying on top of the football and tackling. I don’t want to make it simple, but it’s not that hard.”
“If we get better in the fundamentals, we’ll be better on the back end of our defense.”
That’s important considering the offense LSU is facing this week, which places third in the conference (10 in the country) in offensive efficiency according to ESPN’s Power Index. The Rebels place third in the country in rush offense behind two triple-option offenses in Air Force and Army, but have still had success passing the ball with Jaxson Dart at the helm.
The focus here is not to key in on either the run or the pass. Auburn tried to key in on the pass in its matchup with Ole Miss on Saturday, which resulted in the Rebels running the ball for nearly 450 yards.
“It’s an offense that has been set up to force the ball outside, but they have a quarterback now that can run it so effectively as well,” Kelly said on Ole Miss. “[But] when your safeties are dropping down and you’re trying to load the box, now they’ve got one-on-one matchups that they can throw the football to.”
If the defense can’t fix its problems with tackling or giving up big plays, or gets caught keying in on either the run or the pass, it’s going to have problems stopping the Ole Miss offense from lighting up the scoreboard.
Injury Updates and Special Teams
Brian Kelly gave an injury update on running back Armoni Goodwin and wide receiver Jack Bech on Monday with the prospect of both of them playing on Saturday being possible.
Fans received exciting news regarding Goodwin, who had been electric against Mississippi State before getting knocked out of the next game against New Mexico with a hamstring injury. After sitting out the last three games, he’s been cleared to play and will start practicing again on Tuesday.
“He wants to play and our doctors have cleared him,” Kelly said on the back. “We’ll see what kind of volume we can get out of him and hopefully it goes well during the week.”
Bech went out against Florida with what Kelly described as a back injury, stating it involved the L5 vertebra. Despite that, Kelly hopes they can get Bech ready to play on Saturday.
Speaking of Bech, the punt return situation remains a point of emphasis, over a month and a half after it was initially cited as a problem in Week 1. With the game tied at 14-14 early in the second quarter, Bech muffed a punt, which led to an easy touchdown for Florida just a few plays later. That came after the special teams unit had already given the Gators great field position on the opening kickoff.
“Those guys know they have to be accountable, and we’ve got to put them in a position to succeed,” Kelly said on special teams. “We’ll keep coaching it, and we know we’ve got to get better there.”
Of the 131 teams in the FBS, the Tigers ranked No. 126 in efficiency on special teams according to ESPN’s Power Index. That inefficiency arguably caused the loss to Florida State and the bad start against Tennessee. If LSU is able to fix their problems with that unit, it would eliminate opposing teams’ biggest point of exploitation when facing the Tigers.
