Welcome everyone to the latest 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 win over Texas A&M.
1st Down: Guice Dethrones Buga
We’ve seen that even without Leonard Fournette, the Tigers run game doesn’t skip a beat. Derrius Guice proved that and made a strong statement to end the regular season. It seemed like Fournette wouldn’t surpass the single game record set by Alley Broussard, but he was able to do just that against Ole Miss. Tonight, Guice went off for 285 yards and four touchdowns. He looked good everytime he got a hold of the ball and kept racking up the yardage and showing that he can be the workhorse for this team in 2017 barring injury. It was just a dominant performance for the sophomore.
2nd Down: Defense Falls Apart Late
This LSU defense has been stout for most of the season, shutting down teams especially in the second half. However, that wasn’t the case as they allowed 32 points in the second half after a strong start in the first half. Being without Kendall Beckwith and Arden Key hurt the Tigers in that aspect of their game, but they were able to perform at a nice clip against an Aggie offense that has had a tendency to have a high scoring game. It did show that perhaps there are chinks in defensive coordinator Dave Aranda’s armor.
3rd Down: Have Yourself A Day Etling
It’s not often that the passing game for LSU performs better than the run game, but that’s what happened as Etling went off with 324 yards and went 20-28 on the night. The Purdue transfer hasn’t had a whole lot of great performances and if he did have a good game, then someone else would have a better game and take some of the praise off of him. Etling got a chance to do what he does best and when he performs like he did, it’s amazing.
4th Down: What’s Next?
After the Florida loss, the chances of Coach Orgeron being the head coach on a more permanent basis took a nosedive. However, this win may be a good sign that he could be retained. I mentioned on Bumper to Bumper Sports on Wednesday that if LSU could have a convincing win over Texas A&M and the offensive performance is great, then his chances could get back up to a respectable percentage. The big story coming out of this game and will be for the coming days is who wants this job? Rumors came out saying that Tom Herman may have accepted a job to coach the Tigers and have since been refuted from Joe Alleva in a statement released during the game but these rumors cannot be ignored as we get closer to a decision being made. The audition for Coach O has ended and his performance has been similar to his tenure at USC which is a good sign, but there’s more to it when it comes to picking a coach to lead this team to the future.
-Clint Domingue