Motivated LSU produces some ‘ground’ pork with resounding win

On Monday of last week, when asked about the “Golden Boot,” the rivalry trophy for the LSU-Arkansas game, LSU interim coach Ed Orgeron admitted the hefty, awkward mass was hardly LSU’s biggest motivation.

But as time ran out in LSU’s 38-10 win over the Razorbacks on Saturday in Fayetteville, LSU players rushed from the sideline straight to the boot to claim it. A Tigers team that had looked unmotivated in two consecutive losses to Arkansas over the past two seasons played this one like the game, and the trophy, meant everything.

Derrius Guice’s 252-yard rushing day will grab the headlines, but really, this was total domination all over the field.

Five takeaways

1. The offensive line showed pride: Outside of maybe the Hillary Clinton campaign, few people on earth had to walk around last week with their pride stung more than the LSU offensive line. Coming off a humbling performance in a 10-0 loss to Alabama where the Tigers managed just 125 yards offense thanks in no small part to the Crimson Tide’s defense consistently moving the line of scrimmage backward, the LSU offensive line responded in a big way in a 547-yard offensive explosion. Certainly the difference in competition was part of it, but the Tigers executed well and opened holes for a running game that averaged almost 8 yards a pop.

2. Don’t pass on the Tigers: Check out these numbers: 53 completions in 102 passes, 616 yards, 3 TDs, 4 interceptions in three games. That’s a 104.55 pass efficiency rating, a rating that would be the second worst in the SEC, ahead of only Vanderbilt. So what are these stats? The combined passing numbers of the conference’s three leading passers — Chad Kelly of Ole Miss, Drew Lock of Missouri and Austin Allen of Arkansas — against LSU. With the combination of pass rush from the likes of Arden Key and elite coverage specialists in the back end, LSU’s pass defense has been outstanding, maybe better than it statistics.

3. Derrius Guice for Heisman?: When Leonard Fournette got a little banged up in the second quarter, Guice took over and ended up with the second biggest running day in school history, a 252-yard outburst that included a school-record-long 96-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Fournette will be gone after this season. With three starters back on the offensive line next season, it’s looking more and more like Guice has done enough this year (881 rushing yards on an SEC-best 8.7 yards per carry) to make himself worthy of preseason Heisman Trophy buzz next year.

4. One and done: What do Mississippi State and Ole Miss share in common? Well, a lot of things, starting with the home state and borderline bowl prospects. But, in this context, they are the only teams among the nine to play LSU to score more than one touchdown against the Tigers. Arkansas became the fifth team in the last six games against LSU to fail to score more than a single touchdown. Auburn kicked six field goals. Alabama managed one fourth-quarter touchdown. Missouri didn’t scratch the scoreboard until the game was out of hand. You can put LSU’s defense up against anybody’s.

5. The road clears up: LSU picked up its first road win of the year — the Tigers lost at Auburn and against Wisconsin in Green Bay previously — and the road opened up for the Tigers to possibly get to a New Year’s Six bowl. After unbeaten Alabama, the SEC has just one two-loss team in Florida. If the 6-3 Tigers beat the Gators on Saturday, that sets up a series of three-loss teams, including LSU, Florida, Auburn, Tennessee and Texas A&M.

The Tigers close the season at A&M. If LSU wins that, it would be 8-3, and will have finished strong. Could that prove to be a Sugar Bowl resume? The Tigers might need help from somebody upsetting Tennessee. But who else is looking more like the SEC’s second best team right now than the Tigers?

Report Card

Offense: A — The Tigers went from an “F” effort in a 125-yard day against Alabama to a solid “A” in a 547-yard outburst against the Razorbacks.

Everything worked well. You see a 390-yard rushing day and might assume that meant LSU was one-dimensional and protected Danny Etling (10-for-16, 157 yards passing). But the truth is, he was effective in the first half (7-for-11, 142 yards), and just not needed in the second half.

After all, when you have Guice and Fournette (17 carries, 98 yards, 3 TDs) both going off, who needs to throw?

Defense: A — Outside of one big run by Devwah Whaley for 34 yards, Arkansas could not get anything going on the ground. And Austin Allen was rushed, frustrated, and had to make perfect passes to move the ball.

It added up to a completely effective outing for LSU’s defense against a good Razorbacks offense. Arkansas managed only 291 yards and turned the ball over three times, including two interceptions thrown by Allen.

Arden Key picked up his ninth sack of the year and it can be argued that when the Razorbacks’ Dan Skipper did block him, it was mostly because he was holding. Add it together and you have a game where Arkansas couldn’t run consistently, didn’t have time to throw and didn’t have many open receivers.

In other words, the Tigers dominated.

Special Teams: B- — Tre’Davious White had a rough day. On defense, he allowed Arkansas’ touchdown on a 44-yard pass from Allen to Dominique Reed (White appeared to give up on the play, allowing Reed to run by him) and on special teams he muffed away a punt for one of LSU’s two turnovers.

Other than that, it was a pretty solid effort by the Tigers’ special teams. Kick coverage was again excellent — the Razorbacks’ average starting field position was four yards worse than a touchback — punter Josh Growden averaged 47 yards a kick and Colby Delahoussaye made his only field goal attempt.

The return game wasn’t good (again), but the Tigers always make up for that with outstanding kick and punt coverage.

Coaching: A — The biggest feather in the hat for Ed Orgeron and his staff was that LSU came ready to play at a venue where the Tigers don’t usually play well.

The Tigers, usually slow starters on offense, scored on their first possession for the first time all season and on three of their first four to jump to a 21-0 lead.

Credit Orgeron and his staff for not only having the Tigers motivated, but also prepared. LSU went after Arkansas’ weaknesses in run defense, took timely shots down the field in the passing game and negated Arkansas’ offensive strengths with a well-executed game plan.

Put simply, LSU played this game like it meant a lot.

Overall: A — When you go to one of the SEC’s toughest road venues and almost double your opponent’s total yards (547-291), that’s an A performance.

Fournette got banged up and Guice picked up the slack, plus some. Etling was effective when it was needed.

The defense pressured Austin Allen and forced three turnovers. Arkansas never matched LSU’s physicality.

There was very little for LSU fans to complain about in this effort, outside of a couple of turnovers.

Game Plan

LSU went after the same weaknesses Auburn exploited in a 56-3 blowout of Arkansas a couple of weeks ago. The Tigers rolled up 390 rushing yards on 51 carries and got big plays by getting on the edge of the Razorbacks defense and exploiting their speed advantage.

And when Arkansas overcompensated, LSU did enough in the passing game to keep the Razorbacks honest.

On defense, Dave Aranda’s group doesn’t have to do much fancy. The secondary covers well enough to not need too much coverage help. The front seven stuffs the run well enough to not need much safety help.

Aranda did dial up pressure well with linebacker Duke Riley wreaking havoc on a couple of blitzes. But LSU pressured from a position of strength. Arkansas struggled to block the regular four-man rush and the blitzes were mostly about bringing pressure from unexpected areas, not bringing extra numbers.

Top five LSU rushing games

Game Balls

Guice: Of course Guice belongs here. His slashing style is an interesting contrast to Fournette’s straight-ahead power and it proved effective against an Arkansas front seven that at times didn’t seem equipped to lay a hand on Guice in a phone booth. Before the Ole Miss game, no LSU back had ever topped 250 rushing yards. Now, after Fournette’s school-record 284 yards against the Rebels and Guice’s night Saturday, the Tigers have had two in the past three games.

Riley: The responsibilities put on the senior first-year starter have grown as the year has gone on. On Saturday, he had five tackles, a sack and a pressure, and broke up a pass. His speed in the middle of the field makes it hard for athletic quarterbacks to buy time or break away on runs. It’s simply hard to get away from the former 14.7-second 110-meter high hurdler in high school.

Orgeron: It’s no small task to get your team ready after it loses a game to a hated rival to lose its championship dream. But following last week’s deflating 10-0 loss to Alabama that killed LSU’s SEC West title chances, Orgeron had LSU ready to go. He preaches a one-day-at-a-time approach, and on this week it worked perfectly.

Gary Laney