They couldn’t catch the ball.
He couldn’t catch a break.
Multiple drops by the LSU wide receivers in their matchup with Washington on Saturday masked a highly efficient performance by junior quarterback Zach Mettenberger.
“If you take the number of drops out of the equation and you look at the quarterback play, he was on the money,” said LSU coach Les Miles in the postgame news conference. “We would be well over 200 yards passing, which is kind of a landmark for us.”
An individual LSU quarterback has passed the 200 yard mark only three times in the past two seasons.
Mettenberger was five yards away from that landmark, going 12-for-18, but he would’ve been nearly perfect had the receivers not dropped the majority of the incompletions.
Sophomore Odell Beckham Jr. acknowledged having dropped three passes after the game. Senior Russell Shepard mishandled a ball in the end zone, which would have doubled Mettenberger’s touchdown output. Junior James Wright also dropped a Mettenberger pass.
Had the receivers done their jobs, Mettenberger could have reached 94 percent completion, but he didn’t show any signs of frustration after the game.
“It’s part of the game; it happens,” Mettenberger said. “Things in the game are going to happen. You’ve got to keep rolling.”
Mettenberger wasn’t the only one plagued by unreliable hands. While it was a bit underthrown, junior running back Spencer Ware threw a catchable, trick-play pass to sophomore wide receiver Jarvis Landry, who recorded a drop of his own.
“Hopefully they bounce back next week,” Mettenberger said.
Wright led all receivers with five catches for 75 yards. Junior Kadron Boone made the most of his one catch, going 32 yards for Mettenberger’s lone score of the game. He also had a long touchdown catch in the game against North Texas.
Mettenberger said he was more comfortable this week and that he would continue to develop with more games under his belt. He had more time to throw than against North Texas as the pass protection was improved from last week, allowing the Huskies zero sacks.
“I’m really proud of the effort of the whole o-line tonight,” Mettenberger said. “I didn’t get touched, and that’s always a good thing.”
Miles said some of that increased stability was provided by senior Josh Dworaczyk. Dworaczyk, who Mettenberger called the Tigers’ most reliable offensive lineman, was tabbed as the starter at left tackle when junior Chris Faulk went down with a season-ending knee injury in preparation for the Huskies.
It was Dworaczyk’s first start since the 2011 Cotton Bowl after his own knee injury kept him out the entirety of last season. He’d never started at left tackle but has had plenty of experience backing up the position in his six years at LSU.
“It’s something that me and [offensive coordinator Greg] Studrawa have always been on the same page, as far as moving me out to the left tackle position if anybody went down,” Dworaczyk said. “It fits my body style, so being able to get in there and give Zach some confidence off that edge, which is something I tried to do tonight, hopefully we can continue to build off of it.”
Dworaczyk’s run blocking was also strong. Junior running back Alfred Blue scored the Tigers’ first points of the game when he took a handoff to the left side and found nothing but green grass running behind Dworaczyk.
