{"id":71310,"date":"2024-12-31T21:27:22","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T02:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=71310"},"modified":"2025-01-01T11:47:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T16:47:55","slug":"lsu-outscores-baylor-to-win-texas-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/31\/lsu-outscores-baylor-to-win-texas-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"LSU Outscores Baylor to Win Texas Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two proud teams came into the Kinder\u2019s Texas Bowl motivated to play<\/a>. Complementary football is key, as LSU (9-4) outscores Baylor (8-5) to win the game 44-31. The Tigers scored on offense, defense, and special teams for the first time this season. Despite an impressive offensive game from the Bears, LSU made enough plays early on to create a cushion on the scoreboard. Baylor had success behind the play of quarterback Sawyer Robertson<\/a>. However, the LSU defense made enough stops to keep the game out of reach.<\/p>\n

LSU Outscores Baylor<\/h2>\n

Every Play is Bigger in Texas<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This New Year\u2019s Eve contest was appropriately equipped with fireworks. LSU got the ball first and immediately set the tone offensively. The Tigers marched down the field easily on their first drive, ending in a touchdown pass to freshman Trey\u2019Dez Green<\/a>. Freshman linebacker Davhon Keys<\/a> quickly returned an interception for a touchdown on Baylor\u2019s first drive, putting the Bears down multiple scores.<\/p>\n

Baylor showed resolve and didn\u2019t flinch. Robertson delivered passes with conviction and accuracy. The Bear receivers routinely created separation, even when the passes were off target. Robertson missed on a few shot plays but kept Baylor in the game by patiently taking what LSU\u2019s soft coverage gave him. The Bears\u2019 gunslinger had 234 yards at the half. In fact, Baylor out-gained LSU at the half yet trailed by a score of 34-17. Zavion Thomas\u2019s second-quarter 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown kept the Bears at arms\u2019 length.<\/p>\n

Overcoming Adversity<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Baylor has proven its competitive mettle this year with a six-game winning streak, so one would expect things to get tense in the second half. Baylor safety and Louisiana native Carl Williams<\/a> punched the ball out of Aaron Anderson\u2019s hands after a long catch and run. The opportunistic play got the ball back to the Bears on LSU\u2019s first possession of the third quarter and led to a touchdown. Garrett Nussmeier<\/a> then threw an interception on the next Tiger possession, and it appeared Baylor was primed to make it a one-possession game.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for LSU, its defense managed to stop Baylor on fourth down, and the Bears would never get closer to a comeback. The Tiger defense was the epitome of a \u201cbend but don\u2019t break\u201d unit on this day. Baylor repeatedly looked unstoppable while driving but failed to finish drives. The normally cerebral Dave Aranda gave shades of Les Miles while repeatedly going for fourth downs when it didn’t always seem necessary. LSU stopped Baylor on four different fourth-down conversion attempts throughout the game.<\/p>\n

Bright Future for the Bayou Bengals<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The LSU defense didn\u2019t have its best day, but there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the future in Baton Rouge. The Tiger offensive line played three freshmen on the offensive line, and they all looked comfortable. There were no busts in pass protection and minimal penalties. Green was a go-to guy at tight end, converting an early fourth down and scoring two touchdowns. Freshman Caden Durham had 60 rushing yards and converted a massive 3rd<\/sup> and eight to keep the momentum on LSU\u2019s side in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Keys had several impactful tackles at linebacker to go along with his pick-six. We\u2019ve seen the impact sophomore Whit Weeks<\/a> can have on games, and he was well on his way to an impressive performance with six tackles before a second-quarter injury. Even though the secondary struggled at times, sophomore Ashton Stamps<\/a> and freshman PJ Woodland made impressive plays on an island in the second half.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let LSU\u2019s portal success overshadow the returning veterans. Chris Hilton could not be guarded. His speed jumped off the screen as LSU outscored Baylor. Hilton led the Tigers with 113 yards on only four catches. Aaron Anderson<\/a> had over 90 receiving yards on a day that didn\u2019t meet his standard as far as drops are concerned. Nussmeier looked as comfortable as ever, and he’ll have even more weapons at his disposal in 2025.<\/p>\n

The 2024 version of LSU has looked like a playoff contender<\/a> at times this season. There have also been weeks when it could be mistaken for a Sun Belt cellar dweller<\/a>. While the addition of high school recruits and college transfers is critical. More importantly, the energy level in this bowl game indicates that there is buy-in within the program. That leads us to think that LSU\u2019s place in college football is trending in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two proud teams came into the Kinder\u2019s Texas Bowl motivated to play. Complementary football is key, as LSU (9-4) outscores Baylor (8-5) to win the game 44-31. The Tigers scored on offense, defense, and special teams for the first time this season. Despite an impressive offensive game from the Bears, LSU made enough plays early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4690,"featured_media":71312,"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":[2,6,7361,3],"tags":[5681,32984,8012,1671,86,32975,10222],"class_list":["post-71310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-big12","category-bowl-games","category-sec","tag-baylor-football","tag-caden-durham","tag-chris-hilton","tag-dave-aranda","tag-lsu-tigers","tag-pj-woodland","tag-zavion-thomas"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71310","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=71310"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71313,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71310\/revisions\/71313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}