After a rough first half, LSU’s defense turned up the heat in the second half. The defense pitched a shutout over the final two quarters and allowed the offense to put the game away.
LSU’s first-half troubles boiled down to explosive plays, an issue that’s plagued LSU throughout the year. Head coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] called the mistakes “maddening.”
UCLA’s first touchdown drive included three plays of 10+ yards. On the second drive, Bruins QB Ethan Garbers found WR Kwazi Gilmer for a gain of 29. After that, LSU managed some stops but UCLA put another scoring drive together before the half that included two more big plays and a touchdown pass of 11 yards.
Giving up that many big plays isn’t a sustainable way to play defense. Kelly and the entire LSU defense know that.
LSU buckled down in the second half — and Kelly said it was just a matter of execution.
“They didn’t make any changes. They executed the defenses that were called,” Kelly said on the second-half improvement.
“We need to do our job. They did it in the second half,” Kelly said.
UCLA’s struggling offense isn’t the standard LSU should be judged against and the explosive plays allowed in the first half remain a reason for concern, but LSU showed an ability to execute at a level we haven’t seen yet in the second half.
LSU will face a surging South Alabama offense next week and if the Tigers miss assignments again, it could be a long night against a less talented team. But if LSU did indeed turn a corner in the second half against UCLA, Kelly’s squad is in a good position to move to 4-1 next week.
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