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Any doubts now? LSU’s comeback win over Ole Miss stamps Tigers as a Playoff contender
By Les East
Published:
LSU has been playing catch-up since losing its season-opener.
And the No. 13 Tigers showed just how good they have become at catching up in a wild, potentially season-turning 29-26 overtime victory against No. 9 Ole Miss on Saturday in Tiger Stadium.
LSU stumbled to a 27-20 loss to USC in its season-opener on Sept. 1 in Las Vegas, then managed victories against Nicholls, South Carolina, UCLA and South Alabama to barely remain nationally relevant.
But it was going to need its best performance of the season against the Rebels in order to become a viable Playoff contender during the second half of the season.
The performance Saturday night was flawed, but the outcome and the manner in which it occurred – with the Tigers (5-1) taking their only lead of the night on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Garrett Nussmeier to Kyren Lacy on the second possession of overtime – left them in control of their SEC title and CFP fates.
There’s a long way to go, but LSU already has come a long way from its trip to Vegas as well as the 10-0 deficit it faced against Ole Miss.
The Tigers are just 2-0 in the SEC, but only 2 other teams – No. 1 Texas (2-0) and No. 15 Texas A&M (3-0) – haven’t lost a conference game. LSU can make sure the Aggies wind up with at least 1 league loss when they visit College Station in 2 weeks.
First they have a trip to Arkansas next week and later they have games against Alabama, Florida, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, though the game against the Gators will be the only 1 of the final 4 that won’t be played in Tiger Stadium.
That’s a long to do list for Brian Kelly’s team before any of the Tigers’ loftier goals can be achieved, but the gutsy, character-building victory made that list doable – and put the Rebels’ in the rear-view mirror with their 2nd SEC loss.
It’s not just the standings, schedule and math that have things looking up for LSU, it’s the leadership of Garrett Nussmeier, the improving defense and the ability to come out on top in a game in which the opponent had an overall edge in the play-in and play-out competition that has the Tigers’ stock rising.
Nussmeier, making just his 2nd SEC start, barely completed 40% of his passes, but he threw for 3 touchdowns, 1 that came on 4th down to force overtime with 27 seconds left in the 4th quarter at the end of an absolute must-have touchdown drive that began with another 4th-down conversion. His next throw was another touchdown that ended the game.
Blake Baker’s defense let Ulysses Bentley IV break free for a 50-yard touchdown on 4th-and-1 to produce a 10-0 2nd-quarter lead for Ole Miss, but the defense made a series of big plays to give Nussmeier a chance against a team that produced 55 points and more than 700 yards in beating LSU last season.
The Tigers’ defense forced the Rebels to try 5 field goals and they made 4, but those 3s instead of 7s made a huge difference, especially when Ole Miss could have taken a 2-score lead late in the 4th quarter or put more pressure on Nussmeier by beginning overtime with a touchdown – if the defense hadn’t stiffened when the stakes were the highest.
A 4th-down stop near the goal line in the 1st quarter, 2 takeaways and 6 sacks of the slippery Jaxson Dart among 9 tackles for loss showed that this defense is approaching the level of play necessary to remain CFP relevant into December after a shaky September.
Lacy, Aaron Anderson and freshman Trey’Dez Green each had a touchdown catch as the Tigers cobbled together a good-enough passing game with a depleted receiver corps and an erratic Nussmeier.
Ole Miss had more yards, ran the ball better, passed it more efficiently, ran more plays and possessed the ball longer, but LSU made more winning plays than the visitors did.
Nussmeier is still a work in progress, as is the defense, but progress is being consistently made and if that continues LSU will have the ability to navigate the 2nd half of the season as expertly as it did the post-USC portion of the 1st half, as well as the uphill marathon Saturday night.
Les East is a New Orleans-based football writer who covers LSU for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow him on Twitter @Les_East.
