Ole Missed Opportunities<\/h3>\n
The Tigers survived a slow offensive start with the help of Ole Miss not being as sharp as usual. Tre Harris<\/a>, the nation\u2019s leading receiver, dropped a deep pass in stride that led to an early Ole Miss punt. The Rebels\u2019 next possession ended in a missed 32-yard field goal. The first-quarter miscues granted LSU time to settle down, as the aggressive nature of the Tiger offense resulted in some challenging third-down situations.<\/p>\n In fact, LSU did not score on its first five possessions. With LSU\u2019s wide receivers dropping like flies to injury, Nussmeier hit freshman tight end Trey\u2019Dez Green with a 12-yard strike to cut the Ole Miss win to 10-7. Dart used his legs on the ensuing possession to get the Tigers off balance. He then completed five of his next six passes, finishing the drive with a touchdown pass to Harris. LSU answered with field goals on its next two drives to go down 17-13 at the half.<\/p>\n LSU broke its year-long trend of short passes and rare downfield shots with mixed results. While the offense\u2019s attacking approach seemed to backfire at times, Blake Baker\u2019s defense was rewarded in the second half for going all-in. LSU sent extra rushers liberally, even on second and 37 in the third quarter. Baker\u2019s change in philosophy resulted in the Tigers recording four sacks in the second half.<\/p>\n Even when the Tigers didn\u2019t get sacks they negatively affected plays with pressure. Dart\u2019s lone interception came after taking a hit and underthrowing a ball to Cayden Lee<\/a>. The LSU secondary took its lumps but proved that it could be trusted in man coverage. Zy Alexander<\/a> and Ashton Stamps<\/a> maintained tight coverage and tackled well in space. We’ve stressed the need<\/a> for the corners to step up, and they did so. Their coverage allowed LSU to send linebackers, safeties, and even corners to affect Dart.<\/p>\n Ole Miss and LSU traded field goals to eventually put the Rebels up by seven with the score of 23-16 around the three-minute mark of the fourth quarter. Nussmeier\u2019s demeanor makes it easy to forget that he\u2019s never been in this situation. Down late against a heated rival with the hopes of a season riding on one drive, he delivered. Nussmeier brushed aside a few questionable decisions that led to interceptions to drive LSU down the field.<\/p>\n This was no ordinary drive; Nussmeier converted on fourth down twice to keep the drive and game alive. He hit Mason Taylor<\/a> three times after Taylor was on a milk carton for three quarters. All three catches went for first downs. Finally, a Nussmeier dime to Aaron Anderson<\/a> tied the game, leading to overtime.<\/p>\n The next series of events fell in line with the unpredictable nature of the game. The Rebels got the ball first in overtime and quickly found themselves in fourth and 25 due to penalties. Of course, kicker Caden Davis<\/a> nailed a 57-yarder to put Ole Miss up by three. Nussmeier responded with a perfect back-shoulder pass to Kyren Lacy<\/a> for a touchdown on LSU\u2019s first overtime play to pull out the win for the Tigers.<\/p>\n The win is obviously consequential but in more ways than one. LSU is still a one-loss team and undefeated in the SEC. Perhaps it\u2019s even more encouraging that the Tiger defense held Ole Miss to 26 points. Perceived as the downfall of the team, this defense has grown.<\/p>\n Bradyn Swinson<\/a> continued his dominance with two sacks, but Major Burns<\/a> added 1.5 sacks. A healthy Alexander completely changes the Tiger secondary. Whit Weeks<\/a> was a tackling machine and continuously came up with big plays in bigger moments. The win is always of the utmost importance, but the process of improving is possibly even more encouraging for the Tigers.<\/p>\n LSU Beats Ole Miss In a surprising defensive struggle, LSU scored a late touchdown in overtime to beat Ole Miss and keep its playoff hopes alive. This was far from the track meet of 2023, but possibly more entertaining since the defenses showed up this time. Both teams entered the game with impressive pass offenses, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4690,"featured_media":66234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,35582,3],"tags":[4504,86,258,20,33807],"class_list":["post-66231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-ole-miss-rebels","category-sec","tag-blake-baker","tag-lsu-tigers","tag-ole-miss-rebels","tag-sec","tag-treydez-green"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4690"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77914,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66231\/revisions\/77914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Effects of Baker’s Blitz<\/h3>\n
Trust In Nuss<\/h3>\n
Overtime and Beyond<\/h3>\n
![\"LSU](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24480802_168400536_lowres-300x214.jpg\")