Welcome everyone to another edition of #4Downs where I break down what went right and what went wrong for the LSU Tigers! This week, we look at LSU’s convincing win on Sunday night over the Miami Hurricanes.
1st Down: Special Teams On Point
The last couple of years for the LSU Tigers when it comes to special teams has been feast or famine. From Cameron Gamble underwhelming on kickoffs to the kicker carousel that happened last year, it has been a bit of a mess. Now with former Saints special teams coordinator Greg McMahon officially part of the coaching staff, this special teams group has looked great.
You saw Avery Atkins get each and every kickoff into the endzone on Sunday night and transfer Cole Tracy nail all of his field goals, including a 54-yarder off the crossbar. The third phase of the game doesn’t get enough love, but this is going to be a group that will get plenty of it throughout the season.
2nd Down: Time Management Issues Early
The first quarter looked eerily similar to some Les Miles ballgames marred by poor clock management with LSU burning all three of their timeouts before the first quarter finished up. The third timeout I can understand since you had 10 players on defense due to the amount of players that had to head to the sideline with an injury.
While things did work out for the Tigers at the end of the day, this is something that you will have to monitor as the season progresses.
3rd Down: Burrow Has Solid Debut
After committing to the program back in May, it’s safe to say that Joe Burrow had a lot of expectations headed into the season opener. While he didn’t throw for 250 yards and three touchdowns, he was able to do a lot more important things to have a solid debut. The most notable moment had to be when he noticed the safety blitz to the right and made an audible to run to the left and that led to Nick Brossette making a housecall to give the Tigers the lead.
His statline on Sunday won’t set the world on fire, but it was the little things that he did throughout the ballgame that made it a solid debut. Add the fact that he had his first career start under the bright lights of AT&T Stadium, his first night in the purple and gold grades out at about a C and much like college courses, C’s do get degrees.
4th Down: Third Down Defense On Point
The mad scientist known as Dave Aranda couldn’t have scouted their opponent any better on Sunday night. During the TV broadcast, they mentioned that Aranda knew that the Hurricanes didn’t have an intermediate passing game meaning that it was either a dink or dunk play or a deep ball. That really helped LSU shut down Miami’s offense on third down for the first half as they went 0-for-6.
If not for some second half adjustments by Mark Richt, it could have been a long night for the Canes.
Extra Point: Turnover Towel?!
Speaking of the defense, shout out to Jacob Phillips and John Battle for picking off Malik Rosier and keeping that turnover chain locked up. However, the turnover towel was a little underwhelming. It was done largely to poke fun at Miami’s hardware, but the Tigers could have done better. During The Producers on Saturday, I asked Scott Rabalais what would be the program’s equivalent of the chain and he mentioned that it would be a turnover link of boudin.
I liked the effort, but would have preferred to see a little bit more creativity from the program and maybe have some boudin handy.
-Clint Domingue