Only one side of the LSU Football team lived up to expectations on Sunday

The LSU Football team dropped its week one matchup with the USC Trojans which once again puts the LSU Tigers behind the 8 ball when it comes to making the College Football Playoff. The Tigers now face the uphill climb of an SEC schedule with minimal mistakes. The loss is disappointing as it feels like Groundhog's Day when the Tigers felt like the better team on Sunday.

Coming into the game, the biggest concern was the defense as LSU underwent a massive shakeup in its coaching staff. Heading into this game, everyone predicted a high scoring affair despite both teams losing Heisman quarterbacks.

The defense has caught a ton of slack for the loss but, the blame being placed on the defense is not deserved. Heading into the game, if fans were told that the Tigers would hold USC to 13 points through three quarters and USC would only score 27 points, we would've taken it any day of the week. If we were told that LSU would hold USC to 3-9 on third downs and 0-1 on fourth downs we would've been excited. The Tigers even held USC to only 3 yards per carry in the rushing attack as expected.

LSU had ten possessions in this football game, and they only scored on four of them twice scoring touchdowns. The Tigers continue to struggle rushing the football which has been a recurring theme under Brian Kelly as the team only averaged 4.5 yards per carry. You remove John Emery Jr from the picture and LSU only averaged and the Tigers average fell to 3.5 yards per carry. If heading into the game you were told LSU's leading rusher was Emery Jr, you wouldn't have believed it.

Garrett Nussmeier limited turnovers which was the biggest concern as he only threw a pick once the game was in hand. In the passing attack, LSU racked up a ton of yards but, with meaningless results as Nussmeier passed for 304 yards. The Tigers lacked explosive plays as only Kyren Lacy and Aaron Anderson created big plays while Lacy didn't catch the football in the second half.

This team clearly lacks an identity in the red zone which is the biggest concern at this point. We heard all off-season about how dominant the tight ends were yet; we didn't see the group on the field together in the red zone. The team will get better in the red zone as chemistry builds with Nussmeier as the starter and the team will have four easier games to work through things.

Blake Baker called a great game for the LSU defense

Holding a Lincoln Riley defense under thirty points is a great game for any defensive coordinator. The defense was also put in some tough spots due to big returns, penalties, and a lack of sustained drives in the second half. There's some clear development on the defensive side of the football and it's something to be excited about as the season progresses.

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