No. 8 LSU spent a half flirting with disaster before the game finally snapped into place.
Sam Leavitt’s night started as badly as it could have. He was picked off three times and taken down four times in the first half, and LSU, a 32-point favorite, went into the locker room up only 10-7 on Louisiana Tech. By the end, though, the Tigers had ripped the game open and rolled to a 45-14 win before a sold-out Tiger Stadium crowd of 102,321.
Leavitt finished 25 of 38 for 344 yards and a touchdown, but the box score only tells part of the story. For long stretches, LSU did not resemble the team that had looked so polished in last week’s 51-10 win over No. 23 Clemson.
The first half turned on turnovers. Safety Kam Franklin opened the sequence with an interception of Leavitt early in the second quarter.
Then, with LSU at the Tech 6-yard line and facing 3rd-and-Goal late in the quarter, Leavitt threw a 100-yard interception return to safety Jordan McRae, cutting the Tigers’ lead to 10-7 with 1:53 left before halftime. After LSU reached the Tech 14-yard line on another drive, Leavitt was picked off again, this time by linebacker Zheric Hill, preserving the 10-7 halftime score.
LSU finally settled in after the break by leaning on the ground game. Dilin Jones broke loose for a 46-yard run to help set up a 25-yard field goal from Scott Starzyk that made it 13-7. Jones led LSU’s shaky rushing attack with 66 yards on 18 carries.
The Tigers kept feeding Jones on the next possession, and that drive eventually produced a 23-yard completion from Leavitt to Trey’Dez Green to the Tech 27. Leavitt finished it himself, sprinting nine yards for a touchdown and a 21-7 lead after a two-point conversion at the 4:32 mark of the third quarter.
LSU added more cushion late in the period when DJ Pickett intercepted a pass and returned it 32 yards to the Tech 11-yard line, setting up another 23-yard Starzyk field goal for a 24-7 advantage.
Once Leavitt got comfortable, LSU started pushing the ball downfield again. He connected with Eugene Wilson III on a 53-yard pass to the Tech 5, then scored from there on a 5-yard run to make it 31-7 with 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Leavitt and Green hooked up again later for a 10-yard touchdown, pushing the margin to 38-7 with 9:41 remaining after LSU safety Jhase Thomas set up the drive with a 22-yard return to the Tech 20. Backup quarterback Landen Clark closed out the scoring with a 7-yard touchdown run.
Even with the lopsided finish, LSU’s offense was messy enough to leave plenty to clean up. The Tigers will need to be sharper, especially up front and in the run game, when they host No.
9 Ole Miss next Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on ABC. Ole Miss improved to 2-0 with a 41-9 win over Charlotte on Saturday.
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