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by LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
In what has to be among the top 10 greatest offensive showings in program history, while on the other hand standing as the worst defensive display by an LSU team I've witnessed during my nearly 30 years on this earth, Brian Kelly's LSU Tigers suffered their 2nd loss of the season, falling 55-49 in a back and forth offensive festival that featured 1,343 total combined yards, 2 quarterbacks amassing outrageous numbers (a career-high 414 by Jayden Daniels and 389 from Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart ) both teams fielding 100 yard WR duos, 100 yard rushers, and a pair of porous, almost non-existent defenses that allowed it all to happen.
We pointed this out countless times in our prior content: Matt House's defense were poor through four games, only really showing up @ Mississippi State; however...tonight, LSU's defense became diabolical.
For the second straight week, Matt House's defense allowed a previously disjointed offensive unit to gather momentum early, Kiffin's Ole Miss racking up a 14-0 lead before the Tigers' defense even realized a football game was afoot.
Still, this disgraceful defensive showing was different.....it wasn't about the 55 points, or Ole Miss' 8 scoring drives of 65+ yards, or even the 708 total yards given up by this unit, set up to fail by its coaches....the dark reality that unfolded before our eyes centered around a true failure in the effort department.....we gazed on in utter dismay as one Tiger after another two-hand touched opponents as they flew past them....chewing up grass like they'd just received NIL deals from Toro.
Facing numerous double digit deficits, as each magnificent offensive drive from Denbrock's play-calling and Daniels and Co's execution would receive a rapid reply by Ole Miss' fast and furious attack, Matt House's defense became spectators within the first quarter until the last....watching big gains race past only inches away, missing or whiffing on tackles left, center or right with an all too familiar putrid effort from a variety of defenders at every position group on the field.
Giving up 708 total yards, allowing Ole Miss to drop 31 points and 387 yards over the first half alone, ending 9/16 on 3rd down (most backbreakers from 3rd and long), burned for 234 yards after catch, with one of LSU's best defensive players and another who can actually provide pressure standing on the sidelines (Whit Weeks & Dashawn Womack), while one patty-cake tackling attempt after another flooded our vision, this may simply be the worst single game performance by an LSU Tigers defense I've ever seen.....and I'm not saying that lightly...
.....I've lived through Troy, Miss St, Alabama, Ole Miss & Mizzou in 2020, Arkansas 2007, Ole Miss in 2019, A&M in 2018, UCLA in 2021....and yet in every one of those games, I can point to a few big time plays by defenders, individually or collectively, who stood up and said "enough is enough".
There wasn't a single defensive Tiger capable of standing up and saying "no more, not on my watch"...
There wasn't a single defensive coach who stepped up and tried something bold....every last change reeked of desperation (example: inserting Whit Weeks halfway through the 2nd quarter...once your defense has already been gassed and harassed for 28 points).
For the most part, defensive coordinator Matt House was content letting the same 9 out of 11 guys (who were burned all night) trot out there for one play or series after another....becoming easy, ready-made meat for the Kiffin grinder....a fate pre-destined.
The biggest tragedy from LSU's rock bottom defense, outside of their empty, pathetic performance clinching the team's 2nd defeat of 2023???
This 708 yard, 55 point capitulation will now overshadow what was / is a historic showing once again from QB Jayden Daniels and Mike Denbrock's offense.
Against all the odds, including his own defense, an early game-turning fumble following a vicious hit, drops from pass-catchers, untimely penalties, as well as a delirious Oxford crowd, Daniels led LSU back from an early 14-0 deficit into the gauntlet of a touchdown trading exercise.
Every time House's defense folded like origami, Jayden Daniels would jog back out on to the field, and Nabers, Thomas Jr alongside Logan Diggs would carve away at the Rebels' lead.
Despite zero help on defense, Denbrock's frenzied offensive juggernaut stole a 9 point lead during the 4th quarter thanks to Diggs & Daniels leading their bullish, quick-stab running game (223 total rushing yards).
Truly, the LSU senior was magic on both the ground or through the air, rushing for another 100 yard game while distributing an extremely efficient, accurate, "guns blazing" passing onslaught (completing 27/36 passes, with 4 drops).
In the process, JD5 topped his sensational production through 4 games by delivering a relentless, eye of the Tiger display, eviscerating another typically soft Pete Golding defense with savage aplomb:
414 passing yards, 4 beautifully precise touchdown passes, another 100 rushing yards with 1 rushing score, Daniels surpassed his previous career best of 408 yards vs Oregon back in 2019.
Racking up 513 yards from scrimmage as he connected with Brian Thomas Jr (3 touchdowns) & Malik Nabers for 16 catches and 226 combined yards, JD5 also hit Kyren Lacy for a TD on a deep route over the top, leading his receiver right in stride as Lacy stole a bit of much-needed redemption tonight (51 yards, 2 catches, 2nd TD of the season).
LSU WR Malik Nabers had a relatively quiet 102 yards and 8 catches, inexplicably receiving 0 targets on the Tigers' critical final pair of drives; although the star wideout's false start penalty also hurt the Tigers' chances on the last series.
Saturday night was another mammoth exhibition from Brian Thomas Jr:
LSU's third year Tiger continues to rise when called upon for this team, dragging his teammates back into the game facing a double digit deficit for a second straight week, catching two filthy back shoulder TDs in the first half, before burning Ole Miss on a 3rd "controversial" score when Daniels took full advantage of a free play opportunity.
Aside from his own hapless defense, even Daniels' own weapons let him down tonight:
Trusting WR Chris Hilton Jr heavily on LSU's first few drives (3 targets, 4 total), Hilton Jr unbelievably dropped a deep shot from Daniels, laying out for a diving catch he couldn't make. On replay, Hilton Jr's state champion track speed should've supplied him with enough pace to get under that pass and walk into the end zone, tying the game at 7-7....instead, it was an unthinkable error from the junior wide out to go sprawling for the ball.
Moments later, it was 14-0 Ole Miss.
Screwing up a drive where LSU built an 8 point lead to start the 4th quarter, the Tigers wasted a chance to really take a kill shot at Kiffin & Jaxson Dart when Kaleb Jackson dropped an 11 yard pass in the flat, bouncing right off his hands....bad play calling, combined with wayward execution (and of course a Casper the Friendly Ghost defense) gave Ole Miss a lifeline.
On another critical play, this time with 0:39 left in the game, 1st and 10 at the Ole Miss 33, Kyren Lacy let a crucial pass go sailing through his hands once again, his 5th drop of the season.
Regardless of their random dysfunction during a video game day offensively, Daniels was able to lean on his powerhouse duo at receiver and of course, running back Logan Diggs, earning his first 100 yard game as a Tiger after rushing for 97 last Saturday night. The Notre Dame transfer and Louisiana-native put the team on his back throughout proceedings, specifically during a turbulent 2nd half.
Diggs scored 2 touchdowns which played a major role in LSU's offense strangling the game back from Kiffin's vengeful bloodlust......instead, no matter how many points or yards our QB Jayden Daniels was able to orchestrate, Utah-native Jaxson Dart or 2022's SEC Offensive Freshman of the Year Quinshon Judkins provided an answer.
Judkins was struggling before Saturday night, averaging just 3.5 yards per carry (almost 4 yards below his usual), mostly underperforming over the first four games on Ole Miss' schedule.......that was until he met the 2023 LSU defense.
Infecting & dictating Kiffin's "NASCAR Meth" offensive orgy of speed with 177 yards from a gaudy 33 carries, Judkins finally broke out of his slumber, breaking tackles left, right and center, leaving a litany of Tigers in the ashes of his wake....
It was smash mouth, hardcore football inside the trenches just as we predicted....and we felt LSU were the men at the table going into this game.....but we failed to realize a startling truth: Maybe the "fixable flaws" we witnessed against Florida State, or at many points during Brian Kelly's second campaign, aren't all that fixable???
Regardless of however many pressures Pro Football Focus afford Matt House's "sour milk" unit, the eyeball test told the story:
There was an absolute and complete lack of pressure on Ole Miss' offensive line, backfield or QB Jaxson Dart; our defensive line would make the odd pressure, never threatening Dart, or a random run stuff, but the 1 sack from Harold Perkins on the night (alongside 6 tackles for loss) was all the Tigers could muster.....altogether, an embarrassing haul of just 10 total sacks through 5 games.
No playmaking, no penetration, no havoc created.....every movement was slow, labored, exhausted by the very thought of preventing a major gain....Matt House's defense aren't just out of their depth talent-wise or extremely lacking in their performance, they also appear unathletic, slow....even lazy....terms that haunt me to use when referring to an LSU Tigers defense.....but there they are....and the film doesn't get any better the more you watch.
As much as LSU's torrid, pathetic defensive dabbling is down to poor coaching from a schematic, adjustment and personnel utilization perspective (their lack of rotation, or flailing random changes don't fit the bill, either), the Tigers who participated in this atrocity must all answer for the crime they just committed upon all of us, with the chief victim being their quarterback, Jayden Daniels.
WE WILL HAVE MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE INCLUDING A SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE STREAM AT 7PM CENTRAL
By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
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