On a chilly Saturday when 7th ranked LSU came perilously close to losing to one of the worst defenses in the SEC and a third-string quarterback, the easiest decision Tigers’ head coach Brian Kelly had all day was awarding the game ball to freshman linebacker Harold Perkins Jr.
Coaches like to say no one player wins or loses a game, that it’s a “team” game.
That did not apply in the Tigers’ 13-10 victory at Arkansas that eventually gave LSU (8-2 overall, 6-1 SEC West) the SEC West Division championship when Alabama later edged Ole Miss 30-24.
Perkins concluded one of the greatest defensive performances in LSU history with his victory-clinching sack of Hogs’ QB Cade Fortin that forced a fumble recovered by Tigers’ tackle Mekhi Wingo with 1:19 left to play.
If Perkins’ SEC Defensive Player of the Week performance (8 tackles, 1 sack, three QB hurries) in last Saturday’s 32-31 overtime win over Alabama was head-turning, his 8 tackles vs. the Razorbacks including a school-single game record-tying 4 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and 1 QB hurry were mind-blowing.
The superlatives for Perkins escalated afterward when LSU head coach Brian Kelly revealed Perkins had the flu before the game at the team hotel and vomited as the Tigers were about to enter a team meeting.
“Hey, you know, M.J. threw up when he had his greatest game,” Kelly told Perkins, citing Pro Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan’s 38 points in game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals when he had the flu.
“Who's MJ?” Perkins replied.
Perkins may not have a sense of NBA history, but he sure knows how to spy opposing quarterbacks and pick his way through pass protections designed to stonewall him.
In the last three games (Arkansas, Alabama, Ole Miss) of LSU’s four-game win streak, Perkins has had 22 tackles, 6 sacks, 6 quarterback hurries, 3 pass breakups and 2 forced fumbles.
“Flu. . .no problem. . .four sacks,” Kelly said after Perkins single-handedly saved the Tigers on a day when Arkansas sacked LSU QB Jayden Daniels 7 times and held him to a season-low 96 yards total offense.
“We had a real good (defensive) game plan,” said Arkansas coach Sam Pittman, whose team dropped to 5-5 overall and 3-3 in the SEC West. “It wasn’t let’s get to thjs gap and that gap or let’s be gap sound, or let’s make sure he (Daniels) doesn’t run. It was blitzing and let’s get him on the ground.
“Our defense played lights out, by far the best defensive game we played all season.”
Protecting Daniels became such a problem it surely influenced LSU offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock to abandon the passing game in which Daniels completed 8 of 15 throws for 86 yards and threw just his second interception of the season.
Also, it was the way the contest transpired, the Tigers leaning toward relying on any sort of rushing offense (51 LSU carries for 198 yards led by RB Josh Williams’ 122 yards and 1 TD) and putting the game in the hands of LSU’s defense.
Arkansas, playing without starting QB KJ Jefferson and starting sixth-year offensive tackle Luke Jones, had 249 total offense yards including 133 rushing (100 yards less than its per game average).
Even when Daniels committed two first-quarter turnovers – an interception and a fumble – the Hogs scored just three points on a 28-yard Cam Little field goal.
Malik Hornsby, who started in place of Jefferson, was twice stopped on fourth-down gambles.
The first was on fourth-and-goal at the LSU 2 in the first quarter and then on fourth-and-two at the LSU 48 in the third quarter when his 12-yard loss to the Arkansas 40 set the table for the Tigers’ only TD drive of the game..
A Daniels 26-yard pass to Kayshon Boutte at the Arkansas 1 led to Williams’ TD plunge and a 13-3 lead with 5:25 left in the third period.
Hogs’ boss Pittman decided his offense needed a legitimate passing threat at that point, so he yanked Hornsby in favor of the less-mobile Fortin.
The switch eventually paid off. On a third-and-15 from the Arkansas 15 on the first play of the fourth quarter, he completed a 29-yard pass to Matt Landers. Then, four plays later Fortin fired a 40-yard TD strike to Landers with 13:17 left and suddenly the Tigers’ lead was 13-10.
LSU managed to hold serve the rest of way, even when the Tigers failed to convert a fourth-and-one at the Arkansas 43 with 6:08 left to play. The Tigers forced a three-and-out from the Hogs, punctuated by Perkins’ third-down pass breakup.
“I could go through a laundry list of things that we have to do better. . . but we found a way to win on the road and that's really what this is about when you play in the SEC West,” Kelly said. “I’m proud of our guys having the mental toughness to battle and find a way to win a football game when we were challenged the way we were today.”
