If LSU Can Do These Five Things, The Tigers Will Dominate Ole Miss

Heading into this Saturday’s matchup with the Ole Miss Rebels, the LSU Tigers have plenty of reason to be motivated for this contest. First off, Oxford is where Ed Orgeron got his first job as a head coach. Things went extremely bad during his tenure as the head coach at Ole Miss, and he was fired after three seasons. He’ll certainly be looking to stick it to the Rebels this weekend.

From the players’ side of things, this one is personal after what happened the last time these two teams got together. In 2015, the Tigers were absolutely dismantled by the Rebels, suffering an embarrassing 38-17 loss on the road.

Orgeron and his players clearly want this win very much, so here are five things the LSU Tigers must do against Ole Miss if they are to take care of business at home.

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1. Keep Chad Kelly From Running

Ole Miss is a pass-first team, and they are not going to deviate from that. The Rebels have one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Chad Kelly, and they rely on his ability to throw the ball and make plays with his feet for the majority of their offensive production.

The LSU defense boasts one of the top secondaries in the SEC, and possibly the nation. Passing for big chunks of yardage against the Tigers is no easy task, so if Kelly is able to be efficient and productive throwing in this game, you can’t do anything more than tip your cap to him.

The important thing to do is to keep him in the pocket. Trust your DBs to cover the receivers down field, and limit his ability to run as much as possible. Kelly is the second-leading rusher on this Ole Miss team, so it will be important to force him to beat you throwing downfield rather than with his legs.

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2. Hit The Rebels With Fournette Early-And-Often

This Ole Miss team is not one that is typically able to come back and take the lead once you have them in a decent sized deficit. If you can grab the momentum early and take a double-digit lead over them within the first two quarters of play, chance are you can just sit on the ball and get out with a win.

In order to take control and put Ole Miss away early, the Tigers need to hit the Rebels with a massive dose of Leonard Fournette early in the game.

Fournette is finally back healthy, and I imagine he’s itching to get back out there and dominate like we are used to seeing. Orgeron and his staff need to give him the ball and let him do just that. If he gets rolling early and begins to pick up big yardage and lead the offense to scores, the Tigers could put this one to bed relatively quickly.

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3. Convert On Red Zone Opportunities

Obviously, it’s important for every team to capitalize when they get an opportunity within the opponent’s 20-yard line. But against this Ole Miss team, doing so becomes even more important than usual.

Statistically, the Rebels have one of the worst red zone defenses in the nation. Opposing offenses have reached that part of the field 27 times this year against Ole Miss, and have put the ball in the end zone 17 times. That’s an absolutely horrid ratio, and it is something the Tiger offense will need to take advantage of if they are to win.

The Rebels have one of college football’s most explosive offenses, so if a team fails to convert prime opportunities, they can and will make you pay. If LSU scores when they find themselves deep in opposing territory, Ole Miss will have a hard time gaining any control of this contest.

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4. Set Up Strong Play Action Passes Early In The Game

Like I said earlier, the LSU Tigers need to come out of the gate and shove the ball down the throat of the Ole Miss defense. With Leonard Fournette and Derrius Guice lining up in the backfield, Ed Orgeron’s team should be able to hand it off and have their way on the ground.

If all goes to plan, that means the Tiger offense will have no problem setting up and sustaining a productive play action passing attack. This Ole Miss defense lacks depth and size, so in order to limit LSU’s dominating rushing attack they are going to have to load the box. That should give the Tigers one-on-one coverage across the board, and taking advantage of that with big-yardage plays off of play action is going to be important to building momentum as the game plays out.

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5. Play A Full Game

Ole Miss has been able to play quality opponents tough this season, but they have been completely unable to close out tight games. Ole Miss had leads against both Florida State (28-6) and Alabama (24-3) but choked the game away in the second half on both occasions.

If the Rebels get off to a fast start Saturday, the Tigers have to play through the struggles. Chances are Ole Miss will let them back into the game at some point.

But, the Rebels have also shown the ability to come back late in games, so it will be important for this LSU team to play well from start to finish, because you genuinely never know what to expect from this Ole Miss team.