OXFORD, Miss. — The LSU Tigers have issues. We’ve all known that all season long, but despite them, LSU ran its record to 4-0 anyway coming into Saturday’s showdown with Ole Miss.
At no time were they thrown into such sharp relief as they were by the Rebels here on a sunny afternoon.
Lane Kiffin may be an overgrown child but he is also an offensive whiz, as evidenced by him pulling a former Division II transfer named Trinidad Chambliss into his laboratory and producing his latest killer quarterback.
The Grove, Ole Miss’ much ballyhooed tailgating oasis, is hot, crowded and overrated. Chambliss, the vaunted LSU defense slayer, is not.
But despite Kiffin and his offense and his new wonderkid, this was a game that was still within the Tigers’ grasp to win. The Rebels committed a whopping 14 penalties and lost the turnover battle 2-1. They gave LSU chances.
The Tigers failed to take advantage. In LSU’s inability to execute when it needed to most lay the seeds of the Tigers’ 24-19 defeat, exposing some very big problems with LSU and its $18 million roster.
Let’s list those problems in order of urgency:
1. LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier still looks hurt.
2. LSU’s offensive line can’t block well.
3. Concurrently, LSU can not run well.
4. LSU’s receivers do a poor job of getting open.
5. It’s defense couldn’t get off the field on third and fourth down.
To have all those problems, plus injuries to key offensive cogs like starting tailback Caden Daniels (did not play, ankle) and Aaron Anderson in the second half (Nussmeier’s top pair of hands), it’s almost remarkable that LSU was one defensive stop away from having a chance of pulling out a victory.
But that didn’t happen. LSU coach Brian Kelly summed up the loss saying that his team did not play complimentary football.
“When our offense started to move the ball, our defense couldn’t make a stop,” Kelly said. “We couldn’t get this whole group playing together with effectiveness you need to win a game like this.
“We’re not clicking on all cylinders right now.”
The least clicky of all is Nussmeier.
Even when he completed a 50-yard pass to Zavion Thomas to set up LSU’s first touchdown, he badly underthrew him. Thomas just undercut his defender, made the catch and took off. Later in the game, Nussmeier had Chris Hilton seven yards behind a cornerback — Seven! — and underthrew a ball that fell incomplete.
Twice after the game, Kelly was asked about Nussmeier’s health and velocity throwing the ball and both times dodged the question. Nussmeier himself just flat out refused to talk about it.
Those are what we call in the news biz non-denial denials. Dodging and refusing to answer things don’t change what is obvious: Nussmeier can’t make the throws we all know he’s capable of making. He either has some core injury that looked better against SLU but really wasn’t, or he’s got something wrong with his arm.
Maybe next week’s open date will finally allow him to get right for South Carolina on Oct. 11 in Tiger Stadium. We won’t know the answer to that until we see him under fire against the Gamecocks.
We don’t need another game to know LSU can’t run or run block. Yes, Durham was out and so was starting right tackle Weston Davis. But the Tigers netted just 57 yards rushing against an Ole Miss team surrendering 190.5 per game. LSU should have been able to run Mardi Gras Mike at the Rebels (the float displayed at the College World Series) and have gained 125. A situation on LSU’s last scoring drive when Ju’Juan Johnson got stuffed in an olive jar trying to gain one yard — One! — spoke volumes.
Maybe this part of LSU’s offense can improve in time, especially when Durham returns. But I have serious doubts.
Watching Ole Miss players go up to high point pass after Chambliss pass is that harsh spotlight cast on LSU’s receiving corps. They don’t do a good enough job getting open. Whether that’s offensive coordinator Joe Sloan’s increasingly questioned scheme or the players I can only guess. But added to Nussmeier’s troubles, it’s a bad way for an offense to fly.
I still think LSU has a very good defense. It was a defense Saturday that was on the field for 84 plays, allowing 480 yards, but it still did enough to help the Tigers win. It is still a unit LSU can lean on.
One loss in the era of the 12-team College Football is not a torpedo amidships to a team’s hopes. That is the case for LSU today.
I still think the Tigers are going to run the table at home, even with South Carolina and Texas A&M coming to Tiger Stadium. But their remaining road games – at Vanderbilt, Alabama and Oklahoma – are all losable. If LSU can’t win at least two of those remaining three, and by doing that fixing its most pressing issues, the Tigers are getting nowhere near the CFP.