USU football heads into Death Valley to take on LSU
The Utah State University football program travels to Baton Rouge, Louisiana this weekend and waiting for the Aggies will be the fifth ranked team in the nation.
In its previous game, Utah State had to battle all four quarters before pulling away by 10 points courtesy of a David Woodward strip-and-run touchdown. The Aggies were 23.5-point favorites and still had a hard time putting away Colorado State. Stealing a victory against SEC opponent LSU will obviously be a much harder task. And that’s exactly what it would be — stealing — as the visitors are currently 28-point underdogs.
In years past, the game plan when going up against LSU would be to try and stop whomever is running the ball and get pressure on the quarterback. Traditionally, the Tigers haven’t had a premier, Heisman-candidate quarterback to carry the team.
This year is different.
In his second year with LSU, senior Joe Burrow is lighting it up through the air. Over the past four seasons, the program has resided at the bottom of the national passing rankings, averaging just 200.63 yards per game. Albeit in a short sample size, this season Burrow is averaging 380.0 passing yards per game, 1,520 total through four games, nearly half his total from all of last season. The addition of former New Orleans Saints coach Joe Brady could have a great deal in Burrow’s improvements, but nevertheless, this is no longer one of LSU’s weaknesses.
“He loves the RPO’s, more so than anybody that we’ve played this year, even more so than Wake Forest, who plays a little bit of a different style, which was very effective,” head coach Gary Andersen said. “Teams have tried a lot of different things against him. They’ve tried pressure against him, and I would say that’s been probably the least effective part for the defenses. He’s carved up pressures and really given his skill players a chance to catch the ball in space, and that has not gone well.”
LSU’s toughest test this season came in week two against then ninth ranked Texas. Burrow led his team to a win by completing 31 of 39 passes and throwing for 471 yards and four touchdowns. The Tigers ran the ball just 28 times in the game, which is about average for this season, having dropped to the bottom of the nation in rushes per game. Last season, the team finished 17th in the country at 43.7 rushes per game, and presumably due to Burrow’s improvement throwing the ball, LSU runs the ball 32.2 times per game on average, 95th in the nation.
Utah State is going to have to play excellent to win in this game, that’s no surprise. LSU is the top scoring team in the nation, putting up 57.8 points per game. Andersen had some insightful comments during the team’s weekly press conference about how you scheme against a team like LSU and how to use what other teams have already attempted to do to their advantage.
“Texas and some other teams have tried to drop eight a lot, and that’s where the chess match comes in,” he said. “Can you get him off his point with a three-man rush and cause some problems, or is he going to sit back there for five or six seconds with a really good O-line and still have the ability to pick you apart?”
USU football plays Colorado State for its homecoming game Saturday September 28, 2019. USU won 34-24. Photo by Chantelle McCall
Utah State has played more soundly in the secondary over the past two games, but it’s been on display multiple times this season the team’s ability to give up big plays. The Aggies are 99th in the country in yards allowed per completion, which could be a concern if Burrow is allowed time to sit back and pick the team apart. Utah State has a strong front seven, and it will need to come with the same tenacity and discipline it showed two weeks back when it stopped the Aztecs behind the line 10 times including four tackles for loss.
Offensively, Utah State has been just as much of a concern for LSU’s coaching staff.
“The thing that makes their offense go is the speed of their offense. Very, very fast. Faster than any team we’ve seen, including Missouri,” LSU head coach ED Orgeron said. “They also do some look-overs, get to the line of scrimmage, see what you’re in and check, and they’re very good at it. We’re expecting a very, very tough challenge from Jordan Love and Gerold Bright, their running back and Mariner, the wide receiver.”
Utah State has a potent offense of its own, one that produces 38.5 points per game. The previous week’s game against Colorado State, Love probably underperformed by his high standards. But luckily, Bright had a career-high in carries with 36 and led the team with 179 yards, also a career-high. Reaching those numbers would be a victory in itself for the Aggies with the caliber of defense LSU has cultivated over the past decade.
“You just don’t see a bunch of missed assignments, you don’t see a bunch of errors, and you don’t see a lack of communication for the most part,” Andersen said. “Playing fast isn’t something they’re not used to. Hopefully, we can get into those situations sometimes and cause some confusion, that’s always the goal, but they’ll have the same goal for us.”
Twitter: @dren_sports