LSU fought back from being down 17 points at the end of the first half to tie the game in the fourth quarter, but Ole Miss answered back with the last touchdown and a two-point conversion to win 32-24 on Saturday. The loss drops the Tigers to 2-1 after lopsided wins over Clemson and Louisiana Tech.
Ole Miss took control early. Lucas Carneiro hit a 37-yard field goal, Kewan Lacy bullied his way for a 5-yard touchdown run, and Trinidad Chambliss found Traylon Ray for a 21-yard touchdown to make it 17-0. LSU got on the board when Dilin Jones scored from 2 yards out late in the second quarter, but Chambliss marched down the field with less than two minutes in the half and no timeouts, hitting Deuce Alexander for a 20-yard score with 5 seconds left. The Rebels went to the locker room up 24-7.
LSU came out of the break with far more life than they showed in the first. Sam Leavitt ran in a 4-yard touchdown early in the third quarter, then hit Winston Watkins Jr. for a 26-yard score to make it 24-21. Sean Starzyk’s 23-yard field goal early in the fourth tied it at 24. It was a complete turnaround on the defensive side of the ball as Blake Baker put more pressure on Chambliss and company. They forced a big interception that completely shifted the momentum in LSU’s favor.
Things were looking good for the Tigers after they tied it up at 24 a piece. That is until the defense let Ole Miss march down the field once again and score a touchdown with just over 6 minutes left in the game. The Rebels lined up to go for the 2-point conversion, and LSU jumped offsides not only once, but twice, which gave Ole Miss easy field position to punch it in with former Tiger JT Lindsey. Now down 8 points, LSU needed to go down the field and score not only a touchdown, but complete the 2-point conversion to tie it.
Sam Leavitt and Dilin Jones led the Tigers all the way down to the Ole Miss 5-yard line, but a crucial false start penalty ended up hurting their momentum. On 3rd down and goal, Sam Leavitt missed wide open tight end Zach Grace right at the goal line. Leavitt’s final pass ended up being batted up in the air and intercepted in the endzone to end the game.
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LSU gets no time to dwell on this one. Texas A&M comes into Baton Rouge next Saturday, coming off a big loss to unranked Kentucky. Both teams will be fighting to avoid two straight massive losses early in the season. The Tigers need to clean up the secondary issues and the slow offensive start before a crowded SEC slate gets going later in the season.
— Eric Palmer, TigerSources