Tragedy transcends the game of football, even in the Southeastern Conference.
From countless players drawing a simple Eiffel Tower peace sign on their wraps to the Tigers’ captains taking the field with a French flag Saturday, LSU embraced the international support shown for Paris in the wake of Friday’s terrorist attacks.
“It meant a lot, just showing our support,” said senior safety Jalen Mills. “Showing that we care. LSU cares. It’s bigger than the game. … We’re talking about actual people who live their lives every day and good to work to feed their families.”
As the Tigers went through their usual routine for Friday before game day, the news of the attacks and the rising death tolls broke through the team’s usual isolation.
“It was ridiculous,” Mills said. “I was going to my room, and it was like 100 people had been killed. Then I went to my room and came back maybe five minutes later, it had jumped up from 100 to 134. We went to our meeting, and we got back. It was from 134 to like 146. It was crazy that type of stuff is really going on in the world. ”
Enter the “One-Game Season” Mantra
With a national championship and conference off the table for 2015, the Tigers’ lofty goals come down to a simpler one — beat Ole Miss.
“We have to rebound and bounce back from these two loses we’ve just taken,” said sophomore wide receiver Malachi Dupre. “Just coming into this Ole Miss game, there has to be a different mind set that we can’t lose.”
The Tigers’ veteran leaders preach the importance of learning from each mistake and moving on because past plays can’t be changed.
Defensively, Mills and company focus on limiting big plays against the SEC’s leading offense in scoring, total offense and passing offense.
While learning from the downturn of the last two weeks is crucial, the Tigers look to finish the season strong.
“We know that we lost two games,” said redshirt freshman offensive guard William Clapp. “But at the end of the day, we still have a lot to play for. We have two teams left that we need to play. Each team is really good, and that’s setting us for what we could in do in the postseason.”
The Search for Offensive Rhythm
After averaging 466 yards of total offense per game during the Tigers’ seven-game winning streak, LSU’s offense combined for 512 total yards in its back-to-back losses, including just 113 yards on the ground and two rushing touchdowns.
Against the Razorbacks, LSU couldn’t establish any offensive rhythm, stalling themselves with penalties and blown blocking assignments.
“Every play, it was somebody,” said senior offensive tackle Vadal Alexander. “It wasn’t everybody on every play. … It seemed like every time we had something going or had a play that should have hit something happened or the one guy who made a mistake that guy cost a play or the guy he was supposed to blocked cost the play dearly.”
The dominant Tiger offensive that spearheaded one of the nation’s best rushing offenses for seven weeks went missing in action against the Razorbacks, facilitating only 59 rushing yards.
For the veteran Alexander, LSU’s struggles come down to attention to detail and efficiency.
“We’ve got to be more crisp and clean,” Alexander said. “Everything has to be more smooth on first and second down. …I know that we’re going to work our butts off today and the rest of the week.”

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Javier Fernández

LSU junior offensive tackle Jerald Hawkins (65) walks out of the locker room with a French flag before the Tigers' 31-14 defeat against The University of Arkansas in support of the terrorist attacks in Paris on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015 in Tiger Stadium.