LSU Steamrolls Georgia Southern 55-3
It didn't take long to see the hype around LSU's new-look offense was indeed legitimate. LSU quarterback Joe Burrow led the LSU offense down the field for touchdowns on each of LSU's first five drives taking a 35-0 lead over the Eagles.
Accordingly, the Tigers soundly and swiftly defeated Georgia Southern 55-3 Saturday in Tiger Stadium.
All offseason, the talk was around LSU's new offense aided by newly-hired passing game coordinator from the New Orleans Saints, Joe Brady. Needless to say, it did not disappoint.
LSU (1-0, 0-0) outgained Georgia Southern 472-98.
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For an idea of just how different this looked from a normal LSU offense, 14 different players recorded a catch, LSU passed the ball 39 times, and Burrow tied the school record for passing touchdowns before halftime.
And the cherry on top who have bemoaned LSU's vanilla offense over the past decade or so: with the exception of a handful of specialty plays, LSU did not take a snap from under center.
Burrow was nearly flawless finished the night passing 23-27 with five touchdowns and zero interceptions. And on LSU's first five drives, the Tigers looked simply unstoppable.
"It felt like we were clicking all night, but we still left some points on the field," Burrow said. “My coaches put trust in me, and I put trust in my receivers. When you have comradery like that it usually looks pretty good.”
The offense did indeed leave some points on the board, but not many. WIth Burrow in the game, the Tigers scored on eight of nine drives, with seven touchdowns.
While LSU’s offensive prowess was a shock to most in attendance, it was expected for LSU coach Ed Orgeron.
“What we saw tonight was what we saw at practice for the last so many days,” Orgeron said. “We have a great scheme. Steve (Ensminger) and Joe (Brady) did a tremendous job with checking with me and putting everyone in the right place.”
Clyde Edwards-Helaire lead the way rushing for the Tigers with 9 carries for 45 yards. Four other running backs received carries in the game.
“Higher-tempo, more wide receiver sets, RPOs, things where they went hurry up,” Georgia Southern coach Chad Lunsford said. “I think a lot of it was matchups, and I think they made more plays than we made.”
Other than Burrow, the breakout star of the night was LSU wide receiver Terrace Marshall with three touchdown grabs.
“I was so happy for him,” Burrow said of Marshall. “He didn’t get many touchdowns last year, so I was looking for him on the first one. Plays just ended up going to him on the other two.”
While the offense's resemblance to that of a hot knife slicing through butter will likely dominate all the headlines, the defense was equally impressive.
Dave Arranda's defense yielded only 98 yards, 8 first downs, three points with less than per play Saturday night.
"Our defense held the, to 98 yards," Orgeron said. "This was a good offense and a well-coached football team."
While LSU's is known as DBU, Georgia Southern's option attack allowed for the linebackers to shine.
LSU's leading tacklers were linebackers Jacob Philips and Damone Clark with ten and nine tackles respectively. Notably, Jacoby Stevens debuted at his new role of outside linebacker was fourth on the team with seven tackles.
Everbody's All-American, Safety Grant Delpit, made only three tackles on the night. But with half of those tackles being for a loss, he led the team in tackles for a loss.
“I felt like we took care of business,” Delpit said. “I believe at halftime they had something like 12 passing yards. We did what we were supposed to do - come out and execute.”
The Tigers limited Georgia Southern (0-1, 0-0) starting quarterback Shai Werts to 1-3 passing for zero yards and negative seven rushing yards on 6 carries.
To complete the trifecta of domination, LSU's special teams units performed quite well.
Highly-touted five-star freshman, Derek Stingley Jr. looked very sharp returning punts including his first return which he took for 32 yards. LSU punter Zach Von Rosenberg was not very busy Saturday night, but he managed to average 53 yards on his 3 punts. LSU's new kicker, Cade York also nailed both of his field goals for 39 and 48 yards.
After LSU's dominating performance, the Tigers will move on to play Texas next week at Darrel K Royal Stadium.