"You can’t make a living with 33 yards rushing", Kelly rips LSU's run game
LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier became the focal point of LSU’s meltdown against Texas A&M on Saturday night, ending the game with three key interceptions and completing just 50 percent of his passes. After playing one of his best halves of the season in the first 30 minutes, Nussmeier was unable to continue carrying the offense on his back and eventually collapsed.
Nussmeier accounted for 405 passing yards and even had a 12 yard rush, but the mistakes in the second half were the daggers.
After being clutch for the Tigers all year, Nussmeier struggled to pull along an offense that frankly was once again not giving him much to work with. The Tigers had four drops in the first half, botched three field goals, and had no run game to speak of, failing on multiple fronts around Nussmeier.
“These are interceptions that led to points and it’s easy to point those out as important times in the game, but we had an opportunity to rally on defense and we couldn’t do that,” Brian Kelly said. “You can’t make a living with 33 yards rushing. We’ve got to help Garrett out quite frankly. We have to give him a more balanced offense. He can’t be that guy that has to throw for 365 yards. There has to be more balance within the offense. We can go all night and gang up on Garrett Nussmeier if we want, but the reality of it is, we have to put him in a better situation and get more balance on the offense.”
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The rushing attack has been abysmal all season outside of spurts against South Alabama and Arkansas. It nearly cost the Tigers against Ole Miss and did cost them tonight. Caden Durham had 15 yards on 11 carries. LSU ended the night with 1.9 yards per carry even after you remove the two sacks, a number that signifies what Kelly is talking about.
The lack of a run game continues to be the biggest struggle for this LSU offense this year and it is compounded with limited weapons at wide receiver with injuries and inconsistencies plaguing the group. Ultimately, for LSU to end the season strong, the run game has to become a viable option.
“It was disappointing. I’m disappointed. I know Brad Davis, Joe Sloan, and Frank Wilson are disappointed,” Kelly said. “That’s not what we expected. We spent a lot of time on our run game. We feel like we should be better there. We thought we made the progress necessary against a good front in Arkansas and we just did not see that come to fruition tonight. It’s hard for me to sit here right now and give you a detailed evaluation of what happened, but we did not get the kind of production that would keep Garrett Nussmeier from standing on his freaking head at the quarterback position and making plays. He feels like he has to. I get it, he’s going to be the guy we all blame. I just don’t think we give him enough balance within the offense and it makes him vulnerable because he has to do so much.”
