LSU Defense Fails Miserably Against Another Mobile Quarterback as Marcel Reed Accounts for 4 TDs

By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, TIGER RAG Staff Writer

LSU’s defense proved to be fraudulent in the 49-25 loss to Texas A&M.

Just a week after struggling to contain Vanderbilt’s mobile quarterback, Diego Pavia, the Tigers allowed Aggies’ quarterback Marcel Reed to do whatever he pleased. Reed completed 12-of-21 passes, throwing for 202 yards and two touchdowns.

Just like last year’s 38-23 loss to Texas A&M in College Station, Reed embarrassed Blake Baker’s defense with his legs, rushing for 108 yards on 13 carries with two touchdowns.

LSU’s defense was able to force two turnovers in the first half, but regardless of the takeaways, A&M’s offense was able to dominate the line of scrimmage, averaging a mind-boggling 5.6 yards per rush. The Tigers also couldn’t get off the field as Texas A&M converted 7-of-10 times on third downs.

“I think they just had some plays that kind of shifted the momentum and then we just didn’t get stops when we needed to,” senior linebacker West Weeks said.

The Aggies averaged 7 yards per play on offense, but Weeks said he believes the coaching staff put the team in the best position to succeed against Reed.

“We practice our tails off the whole week and they’ve prepared us,” Weeks said. “I mean, this was probably one of the best preparation weeks that we’ve had and it just didn’t come together tonight.”

Weeks said the defense’s performance should fall on the players’ lack of execution rather than the coaches.

“I think we just didn’t play our best game, I guess. We had all the right calls in we had all the stuff we needed to do. We just didn’t execute.”

LSU’s struggles with the mobile quarterback continue to be the Achilles’ heel for defensive coordinator Blake Baker and his unit. Weeks said it’s apparent what the weakness of the team is.

“Well, obviously, it’s the running quarterback and we got the calls in to stop the running quarterback,” Weeks said. “It’s just we got to go out there and we got to do it.”

And guess what? LSU faces several more dual threat quarterbacks that can impact the games by using their legs including Alabama’s Ty Simpson, Arkansas’s Taylen Green and Oklahoma’s John Mateer.

But the senior linebacker isn’t giving up.

“I’m a LSU Fighting Tiger until I die, so, every chance I get to represent those three letters on my chest, I’m going to come in every single day. I’m going to work my tail off and I’m going to bring everybody else around with me,” Weeks said. “I’m going to keep fighting till the end and I know everybody else is.”