By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Rarely has an LSU football team screwed up in so many ways in just one game.
Two botched snaps.
A blocked punt.
Bad tackling angles by its defense allowing 75 and 66-yard touchdown runs.
Failing to score on two straight plays from the 1-yard line.
Throwing two interceptions returned for TDs, both luckily nullified by personal fouls committed by the same opposing player.
And somehow, the No. 16 Tigers staggered across the finish line Saturday afternoon as a 36-33 SEC road winner over South Carolina.
LSU running back Josh Williams’ 2-yard TD plunge with 1:12 left to play proved decisive when South Carolina placekicker Alex Herrera’s potential game-tying 49-yard field goal floated just wide of the left upright as time expired.
“They knew we were going to run it and we knew we were going to run it,” said LSU junior redshirt quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who in his fourth college start threw for 285 yards, 2 TDs and an interception while taking his worst physical beating yet. “We needed two yards to win the game.”
The Tigers (2-1, 1-0 SEC) tied its second-largest road comeback in history, stealing a win after trailing the Gamecocks (2-1, 1-1 SEC) 17-0 with 12:19 left in the second quarter.
At that point, South Carolina had gained 148 yards on 27 plays to LSU’s 7 yards on 14 plays. Tigers’ punter Peyton Todd just had his punt blocked, a mistake Gamecocks’ running back Rocket Sanders immediately cashed on a 10-yard TD run.
And it could have been worse. A Nussmeier pass that was returned 25 yards for a TD in the first quarter by South Carolina’s O’Donnell Fortune was wiped out when Gamecocks’ D-lineman Kyle Kennard was whistled for a horse collar tackle personal foul penalty.
“I just never felt like the guys were in a panic mode and didn’t feel like they could come back,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly said. “We needed to get a score and come up with a stop and clean up some things. They know what they needed to do to get back in the game.”
The game turned for LSU with five seconds left in the first half when South Carolina starting QB LaNorris Sellers injured an ankle as he was sacked by Tigers’ defensive end Bradyn Swinson.
Since at that point Sellers had thrown for 113 yards and run for 85 yards including a 75-yard TD, it was a break for LSU that Sellers was replaced by former Auburn QB Robby Ashford for the rest of the game (except for one series).
Ashford didn’t have Sellers’ athleticism and LSU’s defense teed off on Ashford when the Tigers began blitzing him from all directions.
LSU flipped game momentum with a dominating third quarter when it outgained the Gamecocks 175 to 1, finding a running attack spearheaded by true freshman running back Caden Durham.
In the period, Durham gained 52 of his team-high 98 yards rushing yards. He scored on a 9-yard run with 6:47 left to cut South Carolina’s lead to 24-22 and set the table for Nussmeier’s 2-yard TD toss to tight end Mason Taylor on the first play of the fourth quarter for a 29-24 LSU lead.
The Gamecocks responded with nine straight points. Sanders scored on a 66-yard TD sprint when Tigers’ linebacker Whit Weeks was sucked inside and couldn’t get back outside to cut off Sanders.
Then, LSU gifted South Carolina’s Herrera a 42-yard field goal for a 33-29 lead with 10:34 left to play after Tigers’ center DJ Chester fired a shotgun snap when Nussmeier wasn’t looking, resulting in a fumble.
It could have been lights out for LSU when Nussmeier had an interception returned 100 yards for a TD by South Carolina’s Nick Emmanwori. But instead of the Gamecocks leading by at least 10 points with 5:58 left to play, the return was wiped out when South Carolina’s Kennard blindsided Nussmeier on the return.
It was one of the last of 13 Gamecocks’ penalties for 123 yards. If it hadn’t been for the continuous infractions – several of them questionable in LSU’;s favor – the Tigers would have held a 417-398 edge in total offense yardage.
“You’re not going to win football games in the SEC with 13 penalties,” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said. “We’ve got to be better there, and that starts with me as the head football coach. We had way too many inflicted mistakes.”
LSU won just about officiating replay review, including Nussmeier’s fourth-and-3 29-yard pass to Kyren Lacy to the South Carolina 4 which was originally ruled an incompletion when Lacy lost the ball after taking two steps inbounds, then hitting the ground out-of-bounds.
The replay officials in the SEC office in Birmingham overturned the call and said the pass was complete . Four plays later including an offsides penalty on the Gamecocks, Williams found a hole for the game-winning TD between left tackle and guard on a perfectly executed counter play.
“Everything is changing, and we are going with the flow,” Williams said. “We understand that this is a completely different team (than last season), and we’re going to have a different identity.
“But we’re not going to force that identity. We’re going to let that be on us and our play and our process. I’m tired of just thinking about this and thinking about that. We’re just going to focus on one play at a time, and at the end of the day we’ll figure out what our identity is.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com