Shea’s Thoughts: Diving deeper into LSU’s blowout win
The LSU football team’s 72-10 win over Grambling State came with plenty of highs for the offense, while the defense struggled early before settling in and putting the clamps on GSU.
The Tigers also got both Jayden Daniels and Garrett Nussmeier involved at quarterback, defensive lineman Maason Smith made his season debut, plenty of true freshmen got involved and more.
With the start of SEC play on deck as the Tigers turn the focus to Mississippi State, what should LSU fans take away from the win over Grambling State?
Here are my biggest takeaways from the night in Death Valley.
LSU’s bright spots in the blowout win
The biggest bright spot was the offense scoring 10 touchdowns on the first 10 drives of the game, which extended deep into the fourth quarter when the Tigers ran the ball out and gave it back to GSU while up 62 points in the final minutes.
Yes, the competition wasn’t close to the talent level LSU will face in the SEC. Still, LSU executed time and again and did so with a balanced attack of 320 passing yards and 302 rushing yards. There’s not much more you can ask for when matched up in a game like this.
Jayden Daniels finished 18-for-24 passing for 269 yards and five touchdowns in the first half, which gave way to Garrett Nussmeier in the second half. Nussmeier had a chance at a couple touchdowns passes, but both were dropped by true freshman Shelton Sampson Jr.
The running game, which was non-existent a week ago in the loss to FSU, got a spark from two players who didn’t see any touches in Week 1. Notre Dame transfer Logan Diggs, who was held out with an injury in the opener, made his LSU debut and finished with 15 carries for 121 yards and a touchdown. He also caught his lone target for 18 yards. True freshman Kaleb Jackson finished with 11 carries for 62 yards and two touchdowns. Toss in veteran Josh Williams averaging more than seven yards per carry on six attempts, and the Tigers got things rolling with more than 300 yards on the ground. The competition wasn’t great, but it’s production for a backfield that’s lacked it. Kudos to the offensive line for helping out there.
Brian Thomas had a nice night with a pair of touchdown grabs and a team-best 78 yards, and Malik Nabers got into the end zone for his first touchdown of the year, finishing with 87 yards on five catches. After multiple drops a week ago, Kyren Lacy caught all three of his targets for 62 yards and a touchdown. Even Chris Hilton got into the mix with a pair of catches, including a 47-yard touchdown where he got free on a deep ball. Aaron Anderson caught all four of his pass attempts, and he made an impressive catch-and-run in the red zone that he nearly scored on. With Sampson dropping multiple passes and finishing without a catch, it’s clear the Tigers will head into SEC play leaning on Nabers, Thomas, Lacy, Hilton and Anderson as the top receivers in the rotation.
The offensive line gave up one sack, which is a solid showing given they got down to third-team players by game’s end. The biggest takeaway was the play of true freshman Lance Heard. He saw plenty of time at right tackle with the first-team unit, which slid Emery Jones to right guard in place of Miles Frazier. Will this be the look moving forward? At some point, I think the answer is yes. But will that be next weekend for an 11 a.m. kickoff in Starkville?
If there were some bright spots on defense, I liked what I saw at linebacker from not just Greg Penn, but also both Whit Weeks and West Weeks.
I also liked Denver Harris getting the starting nod, plus true freshman Ashton Stamps playing a lot early in the game. If the Tigers are going to have issues to work through at cornerback, they will have to find more options beyond the trio LSU used against Florida State (Zy Alexander, Duce Chestnut and Sage Ryan). Tonight, we got our first glimpse into Harris and Stamps. Perhaps both see an increased role moving forward.
What the Tigers need to fix
The biggest issue on the night was the start on defense. Grambling State drove 83 yards for a touchdown on the team’s opening offensive possession. Then they followed that up with an 80-yard drive that resulted in a field goal. On the third possession, GSU moved it 69 yards and went for the field goal, but missed. At that point, the game could have been 21-13 in the second quarter, which nobody would have expected.
The good news is the defense’s next eight times out resulted in no points, five punts (including a safety), an interception, a fumble recovery and a turnover on downs.
Still, Grambling put up more than 300 yards of offense on the Tigers. LSU had just one sack. There were struggles tackling, notably in the secondary. In his 41st career start, Oregon State transfer linebacker Omar Speights finished with one tackle and no other stats. Harold Perkins moved into an edge rusher role with Speights and Greg Penn at linebacker, but he closed out the game with just one solo tackle. Maason Smith, making his return on a limited snap count, logged one tackle before sitting out the rest of the game.
FSU looks like one of college football’s most talented teams, and plenty of SEC West teams struggled this week in either close wins or losses. So, plenty of teams are working through early season road bumps. But for the Tigers, there was a hope that the defense would come out and play a clean football game from the start. They fell short of that.
Mississippi State, a team that needed overtime to beat Arizona, is up next on the schedule. Defensively, the Tigers will have to be a lot more sound out of the gates.
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