In its loss to Florida, LSU's greatest obstacle on offense was itself. Here's why KOKI RILEY | The Advocate Staff writer Nov 16, 2024 Updated 11 hrs ago The drive was a continuation of the first half, but this felt different. LSU was running the ball through Florida with ease. The rushing attack — a maligned aspect of the offense — had five carries of 4 or more yards on the drive, including a 16-yard run on third and 12 and a 22-yard carry that put the Tigers in the red zone early in the third quarter. The score was tied at 10-10, but LSU seemingly had found a rhythm for the first time all night. And then the drive suddenly stalled. Florida edge rusher Tyreak Sapp (94) tackled LSU running back Caden Durham (29) after the handoff in the first half between the Tigers and the Gators, Saturday, November 16, 2024, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla. LSU gained 1 net yard on first and second down. On third down, quarterback Garrett Nussmeier found wide receiver CJ Daniels for a touchdown, but the score got called back for offensive pass interference on wideout Kyren Lacy. The mistake forced LSU to settle for its third field goal. The Tigers took a 13-10 lead, but Lacy's mistake was part of a trend they couldn't shake all night. LSU lost 27-16 on Saturday in Gainesville, Florida. "When you're playing in this league — in the SEC — where it's a razor-thin margin for victory and defeat, if you don't have a clean performance, you're going to struggle," LSU coach Brian Kelly said. Statistically, LSU outplayed Floridas. The Tigers possessed the ball for 23 more minutes, converted 13 third downs, ran 49 more plays and outgained the Gators.
An accurate write up, just a tad bit too critical. However, it is a good read, in the sense that the Gator Fan base dose not let the win over LSU go to their heads. As for the statistics, I agree that the Gators were on the short end of the stick. In the evaluation of the statistics, there is only one stat that matters. That one is the numbers on the scoreboard. To call the Gator offense and defense great or lacking would be an overstatement for both calls. At this point we can describe the offense and defence units as a being a "Bend but not Break". To get beyond that "Bend but not Break" description is going to require getting some injure gators back into an active playing status, win the next two games, and to have a killer 2025 signing class. Thankfully the: Injured Gator players are young and are hopefully on the mend. A lot of recruits were either at the Swamp last night or were watching the game on TV. It appears that this team has significantly grown over this season. Grown enough to deliver at least two more wins.
It looked to me during the game that LSU could effectively run against us. They just decided to pass. Our D had them in the ropes, but just couldn’t stop the 3rd or 4th down plays, which cause the massive time differential. I think the LSU OC called a terrible game for them. And today I am still happy!!
Florida averaged 3.2 yards per pass attempt and 3.3 yards per running attempt more than LSU, resulting in a fairly minimum difference in actual output. Essentially, LSU was very inefficient on offense to the point that the massive TOP differential was wasted. I think Napier used a 45% 3rd down efficiency percent as the benchmark for “goal” and LSU was at 54.2%, while Florida was at 33%. On the other hand, Florida only had 9 third down attempts compared to LSU’s 24 - which kind of reflects that efficiency was better on 1st and 2nd down for Florida and scoring efficiency was next level. Think back to Florida’s woes in the red zone earlier in the season, and compare that to yesterday. Complete difference maker. Where the team would do well to put in work would be on figuring out how to be more efficient on defense to give the offense more chances. I don’t think the offense really has any issues other than just continuing to get better. I wonder how much more efficient the defense would be with the starters back in the defensive backfield. You wouldn’t see linebackers being used to cover so much area - much of which is outside their wheelhouse and leaves the shorter passes wide open where big receivers can build up steam and pick up 1st down yardage. That said, the linebackers did a great job covering a huge area - but it was asking too much.
I feel like this analysis does not credit us for efficiency. We possessed the ball a lot less, but got more big plays. While our defense is not elite, when you don’t give up a big play, you can face more third downs. This article fails to mention that Florida sacked LSU more than they had been all year. We made the big plays on both sides of the ball.
The Gator Gameday postgame went into deep stats detail. I think the conclusion: LSU passing game was more of a threat, so we did pass defense most of the time when they converted with runs. Terrible conversion rate but low explosives. Perhaps some good coaching strategy?
Florida averaged .61 pts per play. LSU averaged .17 pts per play. That's where the true efficiency is.
The defense scheme will get eaten up from the 25 to the 25 but will clamp down when field gets shorter. Essentially trying to stop big plays. Why the numbers are skewed. LSU ate its lunch until it got close to the end zone. It worked, but the offense really needs to have less 3 and outs.
True, but the defense needs more three and outs. They let LSU's offense hold the ball for 40 minutes. Imagine how many more possessions that would have given our offense?
We were so beat up in the secondary. You need to recognize both our starting safeties and starting CBs played 93 plays. Brutal. Hopefully get some players back.
Muschamp would proclaim LSU won the game by winning time of possession and controlling the midline...
