LSU powers past Utah State, 42-6, with stingy defense, long drives

Once LSU finished wiping the sleep from its eyes, the final picture became pretty attractive.

The No. 5 Tigers (5-0) overcame some early ups and downs in their 11 a.m. matchup with Utah State (3-2) to roll away, 42-6.

"What an outstanding day for our team," coach Ed Orgeron said. "Getting up early, everybody was early to the meetings this morning, so I've very proud of our football team. We went our there and probably played our most complete game. We ran the football like we wanted to run it. We controlled the clock and kept the ball away from their offense. Our defense tackled well in space. I thought we played lights out on defense, and holding those guys without a touchdown was phenomenal."

A heavily criticized defense returned to action after last week's bye to all but pull the plug on the typically high-powered and fast-paced Aggies' offense.

Utah State managed just 19 rushing yards, 140 passing yards and 159 total yards in its first failure to score 10 or more points since Sept. 10, 2016.

The Aggies managed just two first-quarter field goals — one after taking possession at LSU's 7-yard line — and didn't sustain a drive of more than five plays after the opening minute of the second quarter.

Quarterback Jordan Love completed just 15 of his 30 passes (50 percent) for 130 yards on an afternoon on which the offense fell more than 30 points and nearly 200 yards shy of its season averages.

"I feel like, as far as the defense, we needed this," junior outside linebacker K'Lavon Chaisson said. "We needed something to help establish and help get our confidence back up and get going. A lot of criticism's been coming toward the defense. We know we haven't been playing well ourselves, so we definitely needed this as a defense to get back rolling.

"Now we know how we want things done and what can be done — especially going against an offense like that."

Joe Burrow and the Tigers' offense meanwhile overcame their occasional miscues, including the interception to set up that Utah State kick, to grind their way to another productive day.

LSU marched 75 yards down the field to open the game with a 7-yard touchdown from Burrow to senior wide receiver Derrick Dillon.

The possession took 4:19 off the clock, the Tigers' longest touchdown drive to that point in the season and a sign of things to come.

"It depends on who we are playing," Orgeron said. "If depends on how well our defense is playing. If our defense is going to play like that, we can do anything we want. We wanted to control the time on the possession. I thought our guys did a great job. We wanted to run the football more. Yes, there will be some games where we will have to use that type of clock management.

"Just watching their tempo, and I think it slowed their tempo down a little bit, to be honest with you. So it was just a chess match out there, but we wanted to be able to control the clock, give our offense some rest and let them play."

The Aggies answered with its pair of Dominik Eberle field goals — from 30 and 47 yards — but wouldn't scratch the scoreboard again.

And LSU slowly, but surely pulled well away with a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter and another three in the third.

Burrow scored the Tigers' second touchdown on a 1-yard keeper to cap a six-play, 74-yard, 2:42 drive, then punctuated a 13-play, 99-yard drive that took 6:42 off the clock with an impressive 25-yard connection with a leaping Ja'Marr Chase.

The senior then found Justin Jefferson for 4- and 39-yard scores and Thaddeus Moss from 8 yards out for a trio of scores in the third quarter.

Burrow finished 27-for-38 with 344 yards, five touchdowns and one interception and rushed 10 times for 42 yards and another score.

Jefferson led the receiving corps with nine catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns.

And Moss's five receptions for 39 yards marked an LSU career-high and first score.

Chase caught three passes for 54 yards and his touchdown.

"We just go out there and try to put up as many points as possible," Chase said. "It's not a goal that we have to put up that many points, but we just go out there and try to execute the offense, and we put a display on.

And junior running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire led a balanced ground game with 14 attempts for 72 yards.

Freshmen Tyrion Davis-Price and John Emery added 53 yards on 11 rushes and 45 yards on eight rushes, respectively.

The team finished with 248 rushing yards, 353 passing yards and 601 total.

Junior linebacker Patrick Queen led the defense with six tackles, including three for loss.

Freshman Derek Stingley Jr. swiped the second interception of his career — and second in as many games — and juniors Kary Vincent' Jr. and Grant Delpit each added the first of their season.

Junior defensive end Neil Farrell Jr. and sophomore linebacker Micah Baskerville each recorded sacks and a combined 3.5 tackles for loss.

"We emphasized tackling this past week, especially on the bye week," Delpit said. "I think we did a good job of that. We didn't miss too many tackles, and we played lights out."