Tigers escape the Great Northwest with a victory (9/6)

Posted September 6, 2009 at 12:25 am
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By SCOOTER HOBBS
AMERICAN PRESS

SEATTLE — Here in the Great Northwest, the University of Washington is known affectionately as U-Dub.

The visiting school Saturday night toyed with the notion of becoming LS-Who-Flubbed.

But the Tigers, looking not a whole lot like the 11th-ranked team in the country, got just enough from a close-to-the-vest offense and an opportunistic defense to escape Seattle with a 31-23 victory over the Huskies.

““This will be a great film for us to look at and improve by,” LSU head coach Les Miles said after winning his season opener for the fifth time in as many tries. “It’s our first game. Everybody has things to work on after the first game.

“All in all it was a great start to the season.”

Still, a Washington team that didn’t win a game last year and is now one more setback shy of the Pac-10 record of 16 straight losses over the last three seasons, gave LSU all it wanted for the full 60 minutes.

In fact, the Huskies outgained the Tigers 478-32, mostly due an uncanny ability to convert third downs, and controlled the ball for almost 14 more minutes than LSU.

“I wasn’t only surprised at how many yards they got, I was surprised at how few we got,” Miles said. “It seemed like, for a long time, we didn’t see the ball.”

But LSU sophomore quarterback Jordan Jefferson did manage to throw three touchdown passes, two to Terrance Toliver on the same play call, and the game-clincher to Brandon LaFell from 6 yards out with 1:54 to play to put LSU up 31-16.

The Huskies scored on the final play of the game to close the final score to the 31-23 margin.

The huge contingent of LSU fans finally breathed a big sigh of relief over a sluggish performance, still wondering what the coaching staff has in mind for highly touted freshman Russell Shepard.

Shepard, the wunderkind talent who’s worked out at tailback, wide receiver and dual-threat quarterback — amid speculation there’s a whole subset of ball plays designed specifically for him — didn’t play a down and will have to wait until at least next week to make his college debut.

“That was the one thing we would have liked to have accomplished,” Miles said. “But the opportunity to get him in, with the closeness of the game, never came, it just wasn’t there.”

LSU was crisp early and late of both halves, but had trouble sustaining any kind of momentum in between.

Toliver, whose 25-yard reception also set up the final touchdown, had four catches for 117 yards and Charles Scott and Keiland Williams combined to rush for 103 yards from the tailback spot.

But they had precious few opportunites the way Washington grinded it out, converting 11 of 19 third downs. Husky quarterback Jake Locker threw for 321 yards on 24 of 45 passing, while also rushing for 62 more.

“Locker was the whole story,” Miles said. “He makes so many plays with this feet and he’s very accurate. He’s a seasoned quarterback and hes real comfortable in their offense.

“They were uncanny on third down, made some really big pickups.”

But LSU, turning the tables on last season, turned one of Locker’s few mistakes into six points when Tiger linebacker made a juggling interception and returned it 29 yards for the Tigers’ first touchdown of the season.

“I think our new defensive coaches did a good job,” Miles said. “The team was in position to make tackles and do things, but we missed some tackles early on.

“But at times I saw that Tiger defense be the way that I want it to be.”

That was mostly on first and second down

“He was tremendous on third down,” Miles said. “There was definitely some differences in what we were expected.

“We started playing the run a lot better in the second half, tackling better” said new defensive coordinator John Chavis. “Some of those runs were plays we should have stopped at the start.

“We got a win, we’re going to be happy with that, and it’s going to be a lot easier for us to go back and teach some things.”

The LSU defense had trouble getting off the field at times, but didn’t allow a touchdown after Washington’s game-opening drive ended with James Johnson’s 17-yard scoring pass from Jake Locker until the game’s final play.

“Washington did a great job,” Jordan said. “They’re going to surprise some people this season,”

But if the Huskies don’t win a game again this season, it could spell bad news for LSU.

Washington missed a chance to make it even more interesting when Erik Folk missed a 42-yard field goal attempt early in the fourth quarter.

Folk did convert on a 32-yarder with 5:24 to play to cut LSU’s lead to a single possession, 24-16, with 5:24 to play.

But, pressed to the limit and with an exuberant Washington crowd starting to sense a possible miracle, LSU promptly marched 67 yards in six plays before Jefferson hit Toliver for 25 yards and, moments later, found LaFell wide open in the end zone.

LSU muddled through the first half, getting little to no offense between an opening drive that stalled for a field goal and a burst at the end on Jefferson’s 45-yard touchdown pass to Toliver.

“We sputtered in the first half at times on offense,” Miles said. “There were opportunities to take advantage of our opponent, and we didn’t attack them the way we should have.”

LSU’s defense was more opportunistic than dominating and even the Tigers’ strategy backfired at the end of the half.

Toliver’s score, in which he side-stepped a Washington defender at the 30-yard line on a crossing pattern, put the Tigers up 17-10 with 1:15 to play and the Huskies looked content to run out the clock after the ensuing kickoff.

But LSU used two timeouts to extend the action and try to get one last chance with the ball.

Washington got a first down anyway and, with some breathing room and time on the clock, Locker lofted a long pass that Devein Aguilar beat Jai Eugene on for a 46-yard gain down to the LSU 20 with 16 seconds left.

It allowed Washington’s Folk to kick a 38-yard field goal on the final play of the half to cut LSU’s lead to 17-13.

Of course, the Tigers were probably fortunate to have any kind of lead after forcing only one punt before halftime.

The Huskies almost doubled LSU’s first half total offense — 295-159 — and converted 7 of 9 third downs.

But LSU, which died by the Pick Six a year ago, got the early jump this season when middle linebacker Jacob Cutrera picked off Locker with a juggling interception that he returned 29 yards for a touchdown and a 10-7 lead.

LSU also stopped one the Huskie’s better drives when Patrick Peterson recovered a fumble at the Tigers’ 4-yard line late in the first quarter.

LSU got 40 of its 95 yards rushing in the first half on their first two plays from scrimmage, making it look almost too easy.

But that drive stalled on a false start inside the 5-yard line, forcing Josh Jasper’s 24-yard field goal, and nothing else came very easy for the LSU offense.

It was deceptive as the Tigers didn’t really get going again until very late in the half.

Jefferson completed his first pass, a 12-yarder to LaFell, but didn’t complete another one until the final two minutes of the half and, even with the late touchdown toss, was 3 of 8 for 65 yards.

Rating: 3.7/5 (3 votes cast)

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