Offense beyond even LSU’s imagination
ATLANTA – The final score of LSU’s 63-28 win in the Peach Bowl against Oklahoma came as a surprise to wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase. He thought LSU would score 45 points, but 63?
“Probably 45 points, we thought about putting up,” said Chase. “We got out there and did more than we thought.”
It didn’t surprise Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Joe Burrow, who would’ve busted by “Price is Right” rules but came closest to nailing the pregame prediction: Burrow, who set a Bowl Subdivision postseason record with eight total TDs, told LSU offensive lineman Saahdiq Charles the night before kickoff that the Tigers would score 70 during Saturday’s national semifinal.
“He didn’t say 70 for the first half,” Charles said. “I thought he meant 70 for the game.”
It was 28-7 at the end of the first quarter and 49-14 at halftime. The nation’s best offense, by yards gained per game, played the nation’s secondbest offense and blew the Sooners out of the water, adding another volume of acrobatic passes, runs and receptions to a growing collection of highlight-reel moments.
“Damn, that’s a lot of points in the first half,” Chase said. “Man, I don’t even be realizing what the score is until the third quarter, honestly.”
Even for an offense that had burst onto the national scene with incredible ferocity, this was a performance beyond imagination, worthy of being framed for posterity. On one of the brightest stages the sport can provide, LSU’s offense put on the sort of clinic that raises an intriguing question heading into the championship game: Can anyone, Clemson included, stop the Tigers?
“We’re the No. 1 team,” said wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who joined Burrow in setting a slew of postseason records. “We just going to continue to do what we want to do. Continue to put up points. Continue to dominate other teams. That’s just our statement right there.”
The record book needs a rewrite. Burrow set the high-water mark for passing touchdowns in Peach Bowl history not long into the second quarter. Burrow tied the Bowl Subdivision record with seven touchdowns in the first half. (After the end of the second quarter, Burrow had more touchdowns than Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts had completions and one fewer touchdown pass than the Sooners had first downs.)
The senior ended with eight touchdowns, one rushing, to set an FBS postseason record and finished with more passing touchdowns at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this season – with 11 combined across Saturday night and the Southeastern Conference championship game against Georgia in December
– than Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, who calls the stadium home.
He wasn’t alone.
Most receiving touchdowns in a Peach Bowl? Jefferson with four.
Most catches in a Peach Bowl? Fourteen, by Jefferson.
Most receiving yards in a College Football Playoff game? Jefferson again, with 227.
Oklahoma defenders were left throwing their hands in the air, often literally, amid an offensive explosion that should rock the Sooners’ program on its heels.
“We go into every game thinking nobody can stop us,” Burrow said. “That’s the way we think. We think we need to score every time we touch the ball. If we don’t, then we’re still kind of chasing that perfect game. It’s always something to get better at, and today was a lot fun. But still room to improve.”
This has become par for the course. The Tigers lead the nation in yards gained per game, with that edge due to grow after dumping 692 yards across 74 plays on the Sooners’ defense. Since hiring former NFL assistant Joe Brady last winter and overhauling its tired and predictable scheme, LSU has developed into the most prolific offense in SEC history by utilizing a base of talent and athleticism that sat largely unused and underutilized before this season.
“Our whole offense is predicated on getting our speed in space, and fortunately we were able to do that,” said Brady, before adding a comment that speaks to LSU’s newly christened standard: “We left a few out there, which is going to kind of bother all of us.”
In all likelihood, the answer to whether LSU can be stopped is simple: No, the Tigers are simply too fast, too athletic and are led by too talented a quarterback to stopped, let alone slowed to the point where defenses, not offense, will determine which team wins the national championship next month in New Orleans.
“We’ve had drives where we haven’t scored before, so I guess we can be stopped,” said Charles, which is technically accurate, if misleading. Yeah, LSU’s offense hasn’t scored on every possession – the Tigers have scored only 89 touchdowns across 14 games.
The confidence is as palpable as it is understandable. Only one opponent, Auburn, has held LSU under 30 points. Only two, along with Georgia, have held the Tigers under 40 points. In the Playoff semifinals, in a matchup of No. 1 against No. 4, LSU made the gap in speed and execution between these two national powers seem abundantly clear.
“Being able to watch film and understand our strengths, we knew that we’re able to put up 40, 50 points a game,” said running back Clyde EdwardsHelaire, who ran for 1,260 yards during the regular season as the Tigers’ featured back but was limited by a hamstring injury to just two carries Saturday.
“But being able to put 40 in the first half was something we were not expecting. It’s the semifinal Playoff game. We were expecting to win but you’re not expecting that. But that’s just our offense being our offense.”
Oklahoma shouldn’t feel too bad: LSU would do a variation on the same performance on nearly every team in the FBS, even those at the very top of the final Playoff rankings.
Yet the Sooners were a poor matchup – or a great one, from the Tigers’ perspective – from the start. It wasn’t long into film study after the Playoff pairings were announced in early December that LSU offensive players grasped the Sooners’ defensive scheme and identified the stunts and pre-snap movements, and the Tigers “were confident knowing that we could pick them up,” Charles said.
“We came into this game with a bunch of confidence. We never doubted ourselves, not one bit,” said Chase. “We just went out there and played like grown men.”