It’s halftime in Death Valley and the only thing dying is Offensive Coordinator Randy Sander’s chances of keeping his job.
Rick Minter’s run defense has stuffed LSU’s running game, and if it wasn’t for a no call on a 12 men on the field, the score would have only been 3-0 after 1.
Formally suspended quarterback Jordan Jefferson was brought in to run a sneak from inside the 1 yard line to take a 7-0 lead.
The Kentucky offense did not attain 1 first down in the 1st quarter as they totaled 12 yards.
Yes, 12 yards.
The defense on the other hand only gave up 12 yards on 6 carries, but bended a little on pass defense on the Tiger scoring drive as they couldn’t get off the field on 3rd and long twice.
The second half saw a lot of the same as the defense stuffed the Tiger running game, but couldn’t stop them on 3rd and long again.
Odell Beckham caught a pass on 3rd and 10, then went prancing(Anthony Mosley missed tackle) around the Kentucky secondary(3 more missed tackles) for 51 yards to extend the LSU lead to 14-0 with 11:14 left in the 1st half.
Kentucky, on a Josh Clemons run down the left side, gains their inaugural 1st down with 10:53 left in the 2nd quarter.(Now that’s an efficient offense) Before that play, Kentucky’s offense had totaled 13 yards on 15 plays. You would think the first down would maybe get the offense going, but to no avail, they went 3 and out again to set up the team’s best player Ryan Tydlacka for another nice punt.
The LSU offense took over and you could tell the Kentucky defense was beginning to wear down as the Tigers begin running at will. Even though the offense had decided they like to sit on the sidelines and watch the defense play, the Cats still stopped the Tigers at midfield and punted into the endzone for Kentucky to take over on their own 20 yard line.
With 5:14 remaining, LSU was outgaining the Cats 192-23.
Clemons began the UK drive with a 17 yard rush to the left sideline to the Cat 37.
After a Clemons loss on 1st down, Morgan Newton tries to hit Matt Roark for a pass and the Cats luck out and get a pass interference call. Newton was 0-7 at this point.
On 3rd and 8, Newton gets sacked with 3:10 left, while Roark was wide open over the middle. Tydlacka punts again and the Tigers get the ball on the 21 with 2:30 remaining in the half.
The Kentucky defense stands strong again, as the Tigers punt again with 1:05 left.
Kentucky got the ball after a 50 yard punt, and start the last drive of the half with 53 ticks left.
On second down, La’Rod King caught Newton’s first completion with 42 seconds remaing for a 1st down. Newton was 0-9 before that completion.
The next 2 plays consisted of a run for a loss and a Newton sack.
The offense is not giving this team any chance at all to win, while the defense is keeping them in the game.
14-0 LSU at the half.
