Injuries aside, Saturday went about as well ask Lane Kiffin could have hoped for. Coming off of their second loss of the season at Kentucky the week before, LSU needed a good, clean performance to get back on track for the back half of their schedule. With a 31-0 blanking, their first SEC shutout since 2007 against the same Bulldogs, the Tigers took care of business to improve to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in conference.
Tigers
Sam Leavitt
For the first time all season, Leavitt played a completely clean game
without any turnovers. He’s had some games where he played very well outside of one or two plays (see the UK game last week), but this was by far his best game as a Tiger. He finished as the highest graded offensive player per Pro Football Focus with an 81.4, but it was his 82% completion percentage that was most impressive.
The signal-caller was accurate and decisive, carving up Zach Arnett’s 3-3 defense. That’s notable, because it’s a similar defense to what Louisiana Tech runs and LSU struggled offensively for 30+ minutes of that game.
Leavitt finished 31-38 for 289 yards and 4 touchdowns. His hamstring didn’t allow him to run very much, but it seems as if that was a good thing with how impactful that he was with his arm in the pocket.
Jordan Ross
After a scorching hot start from the Tennessee transfer, folks had been questioning what happened to Jordan Ross. He quickly made his impact felt during his debut against Clemson, getting a sack, a few tackles for loss, and then the electric interception return for a touchdown. The defensive end got half of a sack against Louisiana Tech in week 2, then disappeared ever since then, despite not missing any time with an injury or anything of the sort.
He burst back on to the scene on Saturday, though, giving Mississippi St quarterback, Billy Puckett, fits all day. Ross filled up the stat sheet with 6 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, a sack, another QB hurry, a pass breakup, and a forced fumble.
With a PFF grade of 92.0, he was the highest graded player on the entire team. He did this after the Tigers lost Princewill Umanmielen to a head injury after just 7 plays, stepping up in a big way. If Blake Baker’s defense is going to continue their top-10 play, they could really use more games like this.
PJ Woodland
It was going to be a tall task for whoever was asked to guard Mississippi St’s top receiver, Anthony Evans III. To no one’s surprise, that ended up being Woodland and he was excellent.
Evans entered the game averaging 8 receptions for 119 yards and a touchdown per game. He had been unstoppable, surpassing 100 yards in 4 of the 5 games played. LSU held him to just 7 receptions for 40 yards. Part of that is, obviously, the absence of Kamario Taylor, but Woodland still deserves a ton of credit. That showed through his PFF grade of 73.7, which included a coverage grade of 73.1, well in to the green (good) zone.
Dilin Jones
While we typically list just three players, it felt wrong to exclude Jones. For the second week in a row, he emerged in the passing game. The running back led the team in receptions with 8 and racked up 142 yards from scrimmage, by far tops on the team. His 4.7 yards per carry average is back to what we’ve become accustomed to seeing with him, following a season-low 3.5 in Lexington.
He’s a special runner and his ability to run with power and then make a man miss with his footwork on the very next play is uber-impressive. It’s easy to wonder just how much better Jones could be if LSU’s offensive line could run block with more consistency.
Cubs
Jordan Seaton
It was a rough week for Seaton. He had, by far, his worst game of the season with an overall grade of 38.1. That includes a putrid grade of 3.3 in pass blocking. With 69 snaps played, he allowed 4 pressures, 3 QB hurries, and one hit on Sam Leavitt.
Seaton is far too important to this offense to have games like this, but thankfully it came in a win. With what LSU has invested in him, he needs to be significantly better.
William Satterwhite II
It was another poor performance for the starting left guard for the Tigers. His overall grade of 55.8 was second lowest amongst starters on the offensive line, but it’s his 37.8 pass blocking grade that’s concerning. That’s supposed to be his strength. It was the overall run blocking that took a dip with the switch to him from Bo Borderlon, so games like this are disappointing. Satterwhite allowed 2 pressures, a hurry, and a QB hit, while also being penalized once.
The guard spots continue to be a struggle area for LSU.
Stephiylan Green
It’s typically hard to find three Cubs in good win like this, so we must dig a little deeper. Green had a great game last week against Kentucky, but came back down to earth on Saturday. It wasn’t anything detrimental, as the defensive shutout shows, but his overall grade of 51.4 is far lower than you’d like to see.
It was his tackling that dinged him. While he finished with 2 tackles, he also missed 2 of them. That gave him a tackling grade of 23.6. There is no long term concern going forward with Green, though, so he should immediately bounce back.
