FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Before every football season, LSU has made it a tradition to award jersey No. 7 to an offensive or defensive playmaker whose play elevates his teammates.
Arkansas may want to suggest the Tigers change that number, at least on the defensive side of the ball, to No. 40.
Because here Saturday night with the game in the balance, LSU’s Whit Weeks upheld almost a decade-long history started by Devin White and continued by Harold Perkins Jr. of a No. 40 jersey-wearing Tiger linebacker torturing the Razorbacks.
A week after he won SEC Defensive Player of the Week when he stonewalled Ole Miss with 18 tackles and forced a key fumble, Weeks deflected and intercepted an Arkansas QB Taylen Green pass late in the third quarter on the Hogs’ goal line doorstep. LSU freshman running Caden Durham immediately followed with a 2-yard TD plunge, starting a run of 18 unanswered points for a 34-10 Tigers’ road victory.
“The backbreaker in the game,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly said of Weeks’ clutch play.
“We couldn’t bounce back from that,” subdued Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said.
“He’s quick and fast all over the field. . .he just plays like that,” Green said of Weeks.
“That’s the defense you expect us to play,” said Weeks, whose DNA is doing the extraordinary in the most opportune moment.
Like White winning SEC Defensive POW honors for 14 tackles in 2017 vs. the Hogs or Perkins Jr. being National POW for his 8 tackles including 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles two years ago at Arkansas, Weeks’ 9 tackles, a sack and his huge interception off his two-handed tip after roaring coming untouched around an end inspired LSU’s eighth win in its last nine games against the Razorbacks.
The Tigers held Arkansas, which entered the game averaging almost 200 yards rushing, to 38 yards including minus 7 in the second half when the Razorbacks gained 101 yards and scored just a field goal.
Combine that with LSU’s offense grinding for 131 yards and possessing the ball for 14:40 of the game’s final 20 minutes. It was the exact formula the now 7th-ranked Tigers (6-1 overall, 3-0 SEC) must repeat next Saturday at No. 14 Texas A&M (6-1, 4-0 SEC) in a showdown of league co-leaders. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. on ABC-TV.
“Our vision of how we want to play four quarters of football is to start fast, have the great kind of focus that we had in the second quarter, the effort enthusiasm in the third and an eight-minute plus drive to finish this game off,” Kelly said. “I thought we had four quarters of LSU football for the first time.”
Kelly didn’t utter the phrase “complementary football” once in his postgame presser. Because it’s now understood complementary football is Kelly football which is LSU football.
It’s a quest for perfection in every phase of the game. And even if it’s not close to perfect – which it rarely is because that’s the nature of all sports – one side of the ball picks up the other until mistakes are solved, and everybody marches to the same beat.
For instance, LSU led the Razorbacks 16-7 at halftime after the Tigers offense had seven false start penalties and the defense allowed Arkansas wide receiver Anthony Armstrong to roam free to catch six passes for 94 yards and a TD.
But LSU placekicker Damon Ramos kicked field goals of 33, 48 and 33 yards, keeping the Tigers afloat long enough for the offense to shake its penalty bug and take control in the second half when its defense held Anderson to one catch and also reduced Arkansas’ vaunted rushing attack to dust.
Particularly simpatico was synched brainwaves between LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and offensive coordinator Joe Sloan.
Nussmeier had season-lows of 224 passing yards, 33 attempts and no TDs and tied his season-low of 22 completions set a week ago.
But against a defense armed with quick pass rushers off the edges and determined not to get gouged by Nussmeier’s deep balls, Nussmeier was satisfied to keep his team in positive down-and-distance situations with short passes (17 of 19 for 159 yards on screens or passes of 1 to 5 yards).
“I think we came into the game overcompensating to stop the deep ball,” said Arkansas defensive end Landon Jackson, an LSU transfer who was part of the Tigers’ 2021 recruiting class along with Nussmeier.
Sloan anticipated the Hogs’ defensive gameplan.. Not only did he call for numerous passes that got the ball out of Nussmeier’s hands in a blink, but he also ordered a season-high 37 rushing attempts led by a trio of backs (Durham’s 21 carries for 101 yards and three TDs, Kaleb Jackson 5 for 30 yards, Josh Williams 5 for 18 yards).
“Nussmeier is really good, their wideouts were really good and their line was pretty good,” Pittman said. “They ran their stretch (rushing) play so well we knew it was coming and we couldn’t stop it.”
When the game clock struck zero and what was left of a disappointing Homecoming crowd of 75,983 quietly dissipated, a beaming Kelly exited the field.
Although the trip from the penthouse to the outhouse occurs in the ultra-competitive SEC weekly – the league now has seven teams either undefeated or with one loss in conference play – Kelly said his team senses they’ve positioned themselves.
After its game at Texas A&M, there’s an open date followed by three of the last four games at home starting with Alabama in Tiger Stadium on Nov. 9.
“They’ve got to go earn it again on the road, but there’s clearly a different way that they perceive the next six weeks,” Kelly said of his team. “By their standards, they believe they’re getting better, and I believe they’re getting better each and every weekend. This is a good time to get better later in the year.”
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