BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU answered a disappointing SEC loss with a commanding performance on both sides of the football.
Sam Leavitt threw two touchdown passes to Jackson Harris, the LSU defense completely disrupted Texas A&M’s offense, and No. 10 LSU rolled past No. 23 Texas A&M 35-6 on Saturday night.
The Tigers improved to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in SEC play, while the Aggies fell to 2-2 and 0-2 in the conference after suffering their second consecutive loss.
The defining moment came early in the third quarter, when coach Lane Kiffin decided to take a major risk on fourth down.
Facing a fourth-and-short situation, LSU used a play-action look that completely froze the Texas A&M defense. Harris raced untouched down the middle of the field, and Leavitt found him for a 57-yard touchdown.
Kiffin was already sprinting down the sideline before the ball reached Harris.
The touchdown pushed LSU’s lead to 21-3 and effectively ended Texas A&M’s hopes of making the game competitive.
Kiffin admitted he briefly considered playing it safe and punting because his defense had been controlling the game. Instead, he trusted his aggressive approach.
“That’s probably part of why we were hired here — that aggressiveness — and I almost didn’t do it,” Kiffin said.
“But then I thought, ‘That’s not how we roll.’ It’s not how we talk to our team, you know, being conservative. We go for it. We take shots.”
The decision paid off.
Leavitt finished the night 17 of 23 passing for 312 yards, completing 74% of his attempts while repeatedly finding receivers downfield.
His first touchdown connection with Harris came in the second quarter on a 16-yard timing route to the right corner of the end zone, giving LSU a 14-3 halftime advantage.
Dilin Jones got the Tigers on the board first with a 1-yard touchdown run, and LSU never trailed.
The Aggies’ offense, meanwhile, struggled to find any consistency.
Quarterback Marcel Reed completed only 10 of 26 passes for 106 yards and failed to throw a touchdown. He was intercepted by LSU safety Tamarcus Cooley deep in Texas A&M territory and was sacked four times.
LSU finished with a commanding 506-197 advantage in total offense.
Texas A&M coach Mike Elko was blunt when assessing his team’s performance.
“We have to play better football. I just don’t know what else to say,” Elko said. “We got to look at everything.”
Much of the defensive success centered on LSU’s ability to contain Reed’s legs.
A year ago, Reed torched the Tigers in Death Valley, rushing for 108 yards and two touchdowns while throwing for two more scores in Texas A&M’s 49-25 victory. That performance helped propel the Aggies toward a College Football Playoff berth.
This time, LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker had a very different plan.
LSU spent the offseason preparing specifically for Reed and the challenges presented by a mobile quarterback.
“Blake did a really good job of what good coaches do,” Kiffin said, explaining that he and Baker had discussed LSU’s struggles against running quarterbacks as far back as January. “They spend offseasons preparing for a specific game like this.”
Princewill Umanmielen was one of the biggest problems for Texas A&M’s offensive line. His seventh sack of the season helped end a third-quarter Aggies drive before it could develop.
Reed acknowledged that LSU’s defense prevented him from finding the same running lanes he had exploited in previous meetings.
“I am sure they knew I was effective running the ball the past two years,” Reed said. “Things didn’t open up like it did last year.”
The Aggies eventually turned to Brady Hart at quarterback in the fourth quarter.
Reed’s recent struggles have become increasingly concerning. Over the past two SEC games, he has completed just 36 of 75 passes for 342 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.
“Right now, it’s bad,” Reed said. “We are at rock bottom, but we’ve got to dig ourselves out of this hole.”
LSU had to deal with an injury of its own when linebacker Whit Weeks left the game and was later seen heading toward the locker room in a walking boot with an apparent ankle injury.
Kiffin said he did not have an update on the severity of the injury.
Leavitt also suffered an injury during the game, revealing afterward that he pulled a hamstring in the second quarter.
He briefly left the field on several occasions, allowing backup Landen Clark to take snaps. Clark responded by rushing for touchdowns of 4 and 2 yards late in the third quarter.
Leavitt nevertheless returned and continued to lead the offense.
“I’ll be just fine,” Leavitt said. “It kind of almost locks you in on a different level when you get a little hurt because you don’t have another option than distributing the ball.”
Kiffin joked that the injury may actually have helped Leavitt settle into the passing game.
He said the hamstring issue “might have been the best thing that happened because he had to stay in the pocket and throw on time because he knew he couldn’t run.”
For LSU, the performance erased any concern about a hangover following last week’s hard-fought loss at Mississippi.
The Tigers responded by dominating a ranked opponent, controlling the line of scrimmage and producing one of their most complete performances of the season.
Although Leavitt threw his sixth interception of the season, he consistently delivered accurate passes downfield and finished with an impressive 74% completion rate.
Kiffin called the quarterback’s performance “really gutsy.”
The Takeaway
Texas A&M: The Aggies’ offense continues to struggle against SEC competition. Reed has thrown three interceptions while accounting for only one touchdown over the past two conference games, and Texas A&M has now opened SEC play 0-2. The Aggies will need to find answers quickly.
LSU: The Tigers responded exactly as Kiffin wanted following their loss at Ole Miss. Leavitt delivered a strong passing performance, the running game produced four touchdowns, and the defense completely shut down an Aggies offense that had been dangerous in previous meetings.
What’s Next:
Texas A&M returns home next Saturday to face Arkansas.
LSU will remain in Baton Rouge for another home game against McNeese State.
