Welcome everyone to the latest edition of #4Downs where I break down what went right and what went wrong for LSU on Saturday night. This week, we look at LSU’s shocking loss to Troy.
1st Down: Indecisiveness
Last week, Myles Brennan was put in for another one of head coach Ed Orgeron’s tests. He had some issues, but still managed to keep it in control against Syracuse. A similar situation happened against Troy after Danny Etling was hit hard as he got a pass off.
Brennan looked okay in his limited appearance before throwing an interception in the second half. After that interception, Etling came back in and helped get LSU back in it.
That being said, the Tigers seem to have some indecisiveness at quarterback and that looks to be a bad thing for this team going forward. Both players had okay showings, but there was no real reason to pull Brennan. Let the freshman make up for his mistakes and learn from what he did. That’s the only way any player can get better.
LSU will need to make a big decision about which way they want to go as they are staring into a gauntlet of tough SEC matchups. After what we saw on Saturday, it’s time to sit down Brennan for the year and have Etling become the leader on offense.
2nd Down: Lack of Control
The first play of the ballgame for LSU wound up setting the tone as Nick Brossette coughed up the football to give Troy fantastic field position. That brought up one question: why was he out here on the very first play of the game and not Darrel Williams?
According to Orgeron, Williams was supposed to take that first carry but wasn’t aware that Brossette would be the one who took the rock to start things off for LSU offensively. That’s not exactly a good sign that the head coach didn’t know that their third-stringer was out there.
It just seems like Orgeron doesn’t have true control over the coaching staff and this loss should be the wake-up call for him to truly take control of this coaching staff once the calendar flips over to October.
3rd Down: More of the Same Offensively
Five weeks into the season, LSU’s offense seems to be stuck in a pattern and it’s not exactly a good one. Yes, they had more offensive yards, but they were unable to convert on third down. The Tigers went 0-for-8 and that’s unacceptable at a level of football that they play at.
You saw more of the same in terms of pre-snap motions and not really simplifying the offense like Orgeron talked about all this week. It also showed that when you take away the player that the offense revolves around, it can’t work that way. There needs to be a change at how this offense works and it shouldn’t all revolve around one player, even if this player is a potential first rounder in the draft next year.
4th Down: Soul Searching
There are a lot of things that the Tigers need to do over the next seven days. They need to figure out what kind of offense they want to be, especially if Derrius Guice is unable to go against Florida. The junior running back as mentioned earlier is who the offense revolves around, but maybe that mentality needs to change and begin to have it not revolve around just one person.
LSU’s defense needs to find that true leader. Devin White has shown an ability to be a leader, but someone needs to prove that they can be a leader both on and off the field. They also need to do some soul searching and flush this loss down the drain. If you let that eat you up inside, the rest of the season won’t be much better.
-Clint Domingue