The Good, Bad, and Ugly: LSU
It's wasn't pretty, and in the end, the final score certainly qualified for ugly as the LSU Tigers rolled through Nashville on Saturday night and beat up Vanderbilt in a 41-7 whipping of the Commodores before approximately 2,000 students who were allowed to attend the game.
Thought families were not allowed to attend, freshman quarterback Ken Seals family found a way to be there as close as possible for their son. His family reserved a room in the hotel adjacent to the stadium and strung a row of lights around their window so that Seals could see exactly where his family was watching him from in his first career start at Vanderbilt Stadium.
Along with the Commodore's ugly defeat on Saturday, we also got a second glimpse of the Aggies of Texas A&M, who the Commodores had taken to the wire a week earlier. It's safe to say that wasn't pretty either, as Alabama proved the Aggies aren't exactly ready for primetime just yet.
We also learned that the Commodores are likely to finish as the No.14 team in the conference following Arkansas' upset of Mississippi State, who last week took down LSU in Baton Rouge.
When the final whistle blew ending the weekend in the SEC, we had learned a lot, but here are some specifics for the Commodores.
THE GOOD
The Running Game: There's no Ke'Shawn Vaughn in this group, but collectively and perhaps even individually, we saw a running game that did its part on Saturday night.
Ja'veon Marlowe led the Commodores with 85 yards while Jamari Wakefield contributed 61 yards. Several others had carries included in the final 183 yard total, which is a solid combined total for this team.
Donavan Kaufman: The freshman safety was all over the place on Saturday, and at one point, made three tackles on consecutive plays. While it's not ideal when a safety makes a lot of tackles (he led the team with 10), Kaufman showed his understanding of the defense along with his speed and willingness to battle on every play.
He also provided the most explosive play of the game for the Commodores with his 58-yard kickoff return that gave his offense excellent field position to begin a first-half possession.
THE BAD
Interceptions: It's a learning process that Ken Seals and Commodore fans will have to endure, but the freshman tossed two more interceptions this week to go along with his second touchdown pass of the season. So far, Seals has two touchdowns and four interceptions. Again, it's a learning process, but hopefully, those numbers will begin to reverse themselves soon.
Cooke Misses Again: For the second week in a row, Pierson Cooke misses on a field goal try, this one from 22 yards away. It wasn't a devastating miss considering the final score, but at 22 yards, that should be all but automatic for a college kicker.
THE UGLY
LSU Quick Strikes: The time of possession favored Vanderbilt by a whopping:47 seconds, yet the Tigers managed to score on seven of their thirteen possessions, with five of those scoring drives taking less than two minutes to complete.
The Commodore's defense wasn't worn down and tired; they couldn't keep up with the Tigers skill players and quarterback Myles Brennan's arm.
Secondary: Brennan tossed the football around the yard for 337 yards, and four touchdowns as the Commodores secondary was exposed in this one. Brennan did serve up one interception, but for the majority of the game, he sat in the pocket and distributed the football on time and target repeatedly.
Pass Rush: Nonexistent would be the proper word to describe the pass rush in this one. Vanderbilt managed only three quarterback pressures in the 29:13 LSU possessed the football, and they failed to sack Brennan even once.
So much for those PFF stats on the Commodores defensive line after week one. This game proved that Texas A&M's offensive line isn't excellent.
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