NEW ORLEANS — The good news is BYU will not face a running back like Derrius Guice again this season. The bad news it is may not have mattered Saturday night in the Superdome because No. 13 LSU was too good for these Cougars that wandered into SEC territory without Kevlar vests.
LSU 27, BYU 0.
LSU’s defense, missing nine starters from a squad that allowed just 16 touchdowns a year ago, was fast enough, talented enough and mean enough to intimidate Tanner Mangum and his band of new receivers and running backs into a punchless performance heading into a rivalry game with Utah next Saturday at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
There, the Cougars will make do without starting safety Micah Hannemann for the first half (again), after he was ejected for the second time in three games for targeting. It happened in the third quarter trying to bring down Guice on a hit that barely stopped him.
This was never going to be a BYU win, by best guesses of most all national and local and national prognosticators. So, there’s that. I projected BYU 1-1 weeks ago in the guessing game.
But the futility to which BYU’s offense did not move the ball — even against an inexperienced LSU defense — was not a pretty sight.
The Cougars never crossed midfield on LSU’s defense.
BYU had minus-5 yards rushing. LSU outgained BYU 479 to 97 yards and had 26 first downs to BYU’s 6. The 97 total yards is the fewest by a BYU offense since Iowa State in 1974.
BYU’s offensive line, one of the strengths of the second-year Kalani Sitake team, struggled to dent or move around LSU’s front seven. That put pressure on Mangum to advance the ball with his arm. That was stymied as Mangum was indecisive and inaccurate, out of sync, overthinking.
BYU did not lose to LSU because of Mangum. But the Cougars were never going to have a chance if he didn’t deliver a career performance.
Mangum’s underthrown bomb to Beau Tanner in the first half led to his first interception. He did the same thing with Tanner in the Portland State game. Mangum targeted tight end Matt Bushman with mixed success but misfired enough with Talon Shumway and others when his line did give him time. Drives died quickly and often.
That is no way to get after LSU with no bullets in the chamber. Credit LSU for jamming the barrel.
The Cougar offense hung its defense out to dry against QB Danny Etling and Guice and play action and time of possession and long drives and long bombs. That led to poor tackling by a gassed BYU defensive unit in the second half.
It might be too cruel to label this loss a step backward for the Cougars. But you could color it that way when punter Jonny Linehan, conjuring up delusions of grandeur from the Boise State game a year ago, decided to fake punt on his heels near his own goal line in the fourth quarter down 20-0.
Serious? Yes, serious as a heart attack.
Linehan was never going to sprint past one of the fastest teams in college football towards the short and well-covered side of the field. Not in this lifetime. And the play gifted LSU its 27th point on a 1-yard Darrel Williams TD run with 8:12 left in the game.
BYU left the Big Easy humbled. And after that fake punt, embarrassed.
LSU’s shutout was BYU’s first since the loss at Michigan two years ago. And it looked similar offensively.
It also marked the first time in Sitake’s 15-game head coaching career his team did not keep it competitive until the end final gun.
This is how BYU enters Utah week.