Bo Pelini protested about the shirt pulling he was the victim of.
The LSU defensive coordinator knew that the Tigers desperately needed a stop, they had to unite in the fourth quarter, after his two-score advantage had evaporated into a flood of yards and Ole Miss points.
She was third and 12th at Ole Miss 23. Ole Miss called timeout. Meanwhile, LSU star wide receiver Kayshon Boutte rode a training bike with a towel draped over his shoulders.
Boutte had come out of the front with a twisted ankle, he said later. His record day helped LSU in two points. And LSU’s defense needed another stop.
The teams faced off in the fog. The defense jumped on hold. The ball broke. Time passed, it passed as defender Matt Corral ran into the background. No one was open. Neil Farrell fired Corral from behind.
Less than three minutes remained for a return of LSU. Boutte returned to the field.
The shoot went really tight. Boutte caught him, pulled away from a defender’s grip and ran 45 yards for the touchdown, the final score in a wild 53-48 LSU victory on Saturday at Tiger Stadium.
Ole Miss had one last chance. Corral led the rebels to the 28-yard LSU line. But a sack of Ali Gaye forced a fall that was recovered by JaCoby Stevens, and the game ended.
“This is one I will remember for the rest of my life,” said linebacker Jabril Cox.
How else could this LSU season end in 2020, but with a surprise? How else could that surprise be presented, apart from a victory over Ole Miss, which contradicts recent history and shakes, no matter how lightly, the conclusions that were formed in the games that led to this nuanced ending?
The numbers seemed to provide enough evidence for a working theory: LSU’s crime had too many wounds and waiver options to make it work, and the Tigers’ defense had deeply flawed schemes that yielded most of the nation’s games over 50 meters and several meters per match.
Then LSU changed the defenders.
Johnson led the Tigers (5-5) to an astonishing upset at the time. 6 Florida and broke its 2-0 record against Ole Miss (4-5) targeting another true freshman, Boutte, who finished the game with a school and Southeastern conference record, 14 catches, 308 meters and three touchdowns.
And the LSU defense has become volatile.
Really volatile.
In a season that began with Mississippi State throwing for an SEC record of 623 meters – when Stevens said “DBU didn’t show up today” – and tackled the losses caused by Auburn and Alabama, the LSU secondary began playing with boasting, even without American Corner Derek Stingley Jr., who missed the second game in a row due to injury.
Real freshman Eli Ricks returned an interception for a touchdown against Florida a week earlier and headed for Gators mockery, Kyle Trask, just before entering the final zone.
Against Ole Miss, turnover went up almost as much as the heavy rain that poured on Tiger Stadium and announced its crowd of 21,905. LSU recorded six meals.
That’s what Pelini’s defense should look like, Cox told reporters afterwards.
LSU intercepted Corral five times, four times in the first half. Jay Ward, starting in Stingley’s place, raised a slow lob on the side and returned it 31 yards for a touchdown.
Ward’s pick-six was LSU’s fourth season, which was higher in a year than in the previous seven seasons combined. It was also the first time the Tigers have had four interceptions in the half since they played San Jose State at the start of the 1999 season.
That year remains the last time LSU had a lost season. The Tigers avoided such a record on Saturday – and yet, the defensive problems that were present in LSU’s five losses continued to arise against Ole Miss.
The rebels had no problem moving the ball when LSU did not force turnovers. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, a respected player who called the game, exploited a defense dropped by the Tigers in the tone of 7.4 meters per game.
In the first drive of the Ole Miss game, tight Casey Kelly pitched to level two and was wide open when he caught a 57-yard pass and ran to LSU 26. Two pieces later, Corral threw a touchdown pass. of 20 meters. to Braylon Sanders, who was placed just above Ward on the right side of the end zone.
Mistakes mixed with an aggressive LSU defense helped build a 34-21 lead lead at the break.
There have been many series that resemble Ole Miss’s second possession:
Cox recorded a loss attack to start driving; then Corral overturned Damarcus Thomas, open in the seam again. LSU’s defensive end Andre Anthony then fired Corral and forced a point.
Later in the first quarter, Ole Miss came in 4th and 3rd in LSU 40, and Corral launched a pass that was easily intercepted by safety Todd Harris.
LSU’s pace often disturbed Corral, and the Tigers recorded two sacks in the game. Gaye hit Corral’s arm as he threw in the second quarter, then caught the modified pass for the third interception of the game.
Meanwhile, a slow-moving LSU crime has found its way. An offensive line that struggled this season gave Johnson enough protection to pass, which allowed the freshman to adjust offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger to hit Ole Miss with a series of passing patterns.
On the fifth unit of LSU, Johnson led a course of nine games, 86 yards, in which he completed two passes to Boutte and Koy Moore for a total of 49 meters. Then Josh Williams, a former player, tried to defend an open field defender for a 30-meter rush to Ole Miss 4. Johnson threw a 1-meter touchdown on the fourth and goal to give LSU a 17-7 advantage with 12:03 remaining in the first half.
LSU coach Ed Orgeron was not clearly interested in the goals on the field against Ole Miss, an explosive offense that staged its own comeback in the second half.
After Corral’s third interception, Johnson found Boutte open on a shallow cross on the fourth and second, for a 32-yard touchdown to go 24-14 with 4:50 in the half.
In the next race, Johnson threw a new touchdown to Boutte on the fourth and 2nd, a score of 18 meters in which Boutte was wide open after crossing from the left side of the field.
Cox intercepted Corral in the next race, giving LSU enough time before the break for Cade York to leave a 34-yard goal to give the Tigers a 34-21 lead.
LSU’s defense performed well to this point, allowing only 238 meters of offense and two touchdowns. Jerrion Ealy, the returner of Ole Miss, also returned a 100-meter shot for a touchdown in the second quarter.
Then, however, LSU’s defense erupted in the second half, when its two-score advantage evaporated as Ole Miss entered a 27-6 race attacking the Tiger’s defense from the ground.
An awful quartet of junctures – Corral, Henry Parrish, Ealy and Snoop Conner – destroyed LSU for a combined speed of 307 meters, 200 in the second half alone.
Countless times, the rebels produced constant units that led to a pair of Corral and Parrish Corral landing and landing passages.
LSU managed only two field goals and, suddenly, Ole Miss had a lead of 48-40, with 8:43 remaining in the game.
Again, Johnson headed for Boutte to go down. They connected twice, for 16 yards, for another 14, and Johnson snuck in a 1-yard touchdown to shoot 48-46, with 5:31 left in the game.
But Boutte came out of the game with an injury and, while checking on the sidelines, Johnson’s 2-point try with Trey Palmer fell incomplete.
Then came the besieged defense of Pelini for the stop that established the victory of the return to end an unlikely and complicated season.
There is optimism for the future, Orgeron and the players said. The last two games serve as an “eye opener” for next season, according to Boutte.
But as the emotional maximum of thrilling victories drops in the coming days, Orgeron will have to decide whether the working theory has changed, whether he will have to make changes to his off-season coaching staff.
He will?
“You know what?” Orgeron grinned. “I will enjoy victory.”