For LSU this is the year.
Enough about Alabama, enough about Florida Gators, enough about Oklahoma, enough about Georgia. The only team standing between the LSU Tigers are another Tigers, Clemson. They won 10 games last season, in a pretty good year but absolutely no one could see the progression this program would undertake in 2019.
Joe Burrow in 2018, in his first year since moving over from Ohio State had a solid if not spectacular season, with 16 TD’s and 5 Int’s, but with a reasonably low passing completion percentage of 57.8%. LSU mainly got to 10 wins due to their impeccable defence.
However, this year Joe Burrow has turned into a monster. His completion percentage has rocketed up to 77.6% with a 55-6 TD-INT ratio. This is partly down to the excellent performance and improvements of Burrow, but equally down to the team around him. That being the passing coordinator Joe Brady, Coach O himself and others.
LSU have come good under Burrow
This program almost overnight has developed into an offensive monster that can’t be stopped. And Clemson will have their work cut out to even come close to stopping the Juggernaut.
LSU isn’t all Joe Burrow and the coaching staff though. Burrow has weapons, lots of them. Where to start? Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Thaddeus Moss.
Jefferson against the Sooners in the Semi-Final (Peach Bowl) had 227 receiving yards and 4 TD’s, the majority of those yards in the first half as the Tigers blew Oklahoma out of Atlanta with a whimper. I could go on about all weapons in this offence, but with Jefferson, whichever team picks him up in the NFL Draft next year are going to have a star.
They have an excellent offence, an excellent coaching staff and a QB who’s won the Heismann, they can’t also have a good defence can they? Of course they can!!! The defence only giving up an average of 340.6 yards per game, where as on offence LSU are putting up 564.4 yards of total offence per game.
An average of 18.6 first downs given up, down 9 on the offence, I could go on. LSU also average 1.2 interceptions a game. Joe Burrow and the LSU offence only give up half that. The tigers as long as the offence plays to 75% of it’s capability can comfortably win games as long as the defence holds together and gets the turnovers that it is built to get.
Let’s have a quick look at their opponents this season. You may say they’ve had a relatively easy ride avoid Ohio State or Clemson in the semi finals but LSU earned their number 1 spot beating the likes of Alabama (Away), Auburn, Florida, Georgia and the Texas Longhorns. No other team in College this season have that sort of record to their name.
So in conclusion, much like the Peach Bowl, if Clemson let LSU get ahead they won’t be able to keep up with the offence. And by chasing the game Trevor Lawrence could well see that the LSU defence are more than capable of getting the critical turnover needed to be Champions. This is LSU’s title to lose.
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