Death Valley is where dreams come to die, and WKU’s dream of defeating LSU fell, falling 13-10 to the team from Baton Rouge. The Tigers were vulnerable. LSU fired its head coach, offensive coordinator and athletic director. The Tigers’ starting quarterback, Garrett Nussmeier, was benched for a second straight game due to injury. The Hilltoppers and Tigers combined for 14 punts, seven third-down conversions on 31 attempts, and one converted fourth down. A truly defensive battle that saw WKU come up short. Only two teams have held LSU to under 14 points this season: Alabama and WKU. The Hilltoppers forced an interception and allowed just three third-down conversions to keep themselves in the game. The Tigers had just 67 yards of offense in the first quarter and were shut out until the 1: 36 mark of the second quarter. Senior linebacker Jaylen Wester and junior defensive back Jaylen Lewis combined for 32 total tackles, 16 solo tackles and 1. 5 tackles for loss. The public address announcer was constantly calling one of their names, or, on some plays, both. “A lot of great individual effort on the defensive side,” Head Coach Tyson Helton said. “We didn’t tackle as well in our previous game, and that was a point of emphasis for us. A lot of players stepped up tonight, so hopefully we can carry that into next week as well.” When you go into a hostile environment, every play counts. The Hilltopper defense made its plays count, giving ample opportunities for the offense to capitalize. And then queue the LSU Tiger Marching Band playing Chinese Bandits, the song played when the visiting team fails to convert third or fourth down. Hilltopper punter Cole Maynard often followed, taking the field and putting the game right back on the defense’s shoulders. On two WKU drives in the second quarter, points were left off the board. The first, after an interception by sophomore edge rusher Harper Holloman, was a 13-play drive that featured seven plays snapped inside the LSU 20-yard line. An incomplete pass to junior wide receiver Moussa Barry on first-and-goal, an incomplete pass from freshman running back Marvis Parrish to Tisdale, who dropped the ball in the endzone. Freshman wide receiver Cameron Flowers caught a two-yard pass on third-and-goal, taking the ball to the LSU two-yard line. Fourth-and-goal saw Tisdale attempt a tight window throw, but he could not connect with senior wide receiver Matthew Henry. Turnover on downs. This was the paramount drive of the night, as a touchdown would have given the Hilltoppers a potential 10-0 lead, pending the extra point, in a night game in Baton Rouge. Some experts argue that the Hilltoppers should have taken the field goal and gone up 6-0. This was never on Helton’s mind. “Not in a game like this,” Helton said. “If we want to win, we’ve got to try to go for it. Three points wasn’t going to get it done, and so that wasn’t even a question.” Despite a couple of chunk plays from the Tigers, putting them past midfield, a false start on third down stalled the drive, resulting in a turnover on downs due to an incomplete pass. WKU now had the ball at its own 42. They drove to the LSU 38-yard line with a 4th & 1. Rather than attempt a 55-yard field goal, the Hilltoppers went for it again, but Parrish was chopped down immediately after catching the ball, resulting in another turnover on downs. While the playcalling can be questioned, what can’t be questioned is the impact. LSU stole momentum and drove down the field in eight plays and scored a touchdown. Speaking of drives, the WKU offense gave fans first drive optimism, driving all the way down the field before stalling for a field goal. From there, it was nothing but a traffic jam. The Hilltoppers would only have two drives after the two turnovers on downs mentioned above that weren’t a three-and-out or turnover. The Hilltopper offense managed just 152 yards of total offense, with 22 yards on the ground. This is only the third time this season that WKU has rushed for under 100 yards. The three-headed monster of running backs in seniors George Hart III and LaVell Wright, and Parrish were mostly invisible. If you blinked, you missed them, and if you didn’t blink, you still missed it. The leading rusher, Parrish, had just 32 yards on the ground. Tisdale started off strong, but eventually fell victim to the Baton Rouge crowd. His leading receiver was junior wide receiver K. D. Hutchinson was the only Hilltopper with more than four catches. He was utilized heavily on screen plays, something that has ramped up since conference play began. “Through the week, they already had (screen plays) in the game plan,” Hutchinson said. “They (coaches) were trying to get me in position to make plays. Some of them I did make, some of them I didn’t.” Through all of it, the game was an entertaining, defensive affair that turned into a fight with Mike the Tiger using a pool noodle. The Hilltoppers will have a winner-take-all game against Jacksonville State for the right to make the Conference USA Championship Game.
https://wkuherald.com/89233/sports/mike-drop-wku-falls-just-short-at-lsu/
Mike Drop: WKU falls just short at LSU
