How we were all deceived by LSU football in 2020
By Zach Ragan
LSU football is not having a lot of fun right now.
The Tigers are 3-3 after a disappointing 42-21 blowout loss to the Kentucky Wildcats this past Saturday.
Suffice to say, this is not the LSU team we thought we’d be seeing this season.
After watching the Tigers’ strong finish to the 2020 season, I think we all thought the 2021 version of LSU would look a lot more like what we saw in 2019 than what we saw to start the 2020 season.
But instead of getting better, the Tigers are worse. The defense is still struggling, and the offense has looked out of sync most of the season.
This is likely going to end with Ed Orgeron getting fired. It’s not how I thought the season would go, but it’s probably something we should’ve saw coming.
We were all deceived by LSU football in 2020
The main reason I felt like LSU would be a good team in 2021 is because of the way they finished the 2020 season.
Max Johnson went 2-0 as a true freshman — beating Florida and Ole Miss — to finish the 2020 season.
A true freshman quarterback beating two pretty good teams is enough to give anyone confidence that a team will be solid the next season.
But if we took a deeper look at those games — specifically the Florida game — we would’ve realized it was fool’s gold.
LSU didn’t beat Florida last year.
Florida beat Florida.
From the shoe toss that gave LSU life late in the game, to the bizarre interception in the first half, there were plenty of self-inflicted wounds from the Gators that gave the Tigers the win.
A win is a win when it comes to the standings. But when it comes to evaluating how good a team is, a win doesn’t always tell the full story.
I think a lot of folks — myself included — felt decent about LSU going into 2021 mainly because of that Florida game. If the Tigers finish 4-6 last season (instead of 5-5), I think the perception of the team heading into this year is much different.
Next. 2 big mistakes sealed Ed Orgeron's fate. dark
LSU tricked us. We thought they were better than they really were. The win against Florida last year was fun, but it didn’t come anywhere close to telling the full story of the state of the program.