Austin, Texas — The new-look LSU offense flexed its muscles again in week two, to the tune of 573 yards of total offense. Highlighting that production were a trio of Tigers who all had more than 120 yards receiving.
“I’m just glad we showed people that we can all catch,” said LSU sophomore receiver Ja’Marr Chase. “Three receivers on one field had 100 yards. That’s something big that I don’t think LSU ever did before so I’m just glad we had to do that.”
Ja’Marr Chase was right– this was the first time the Tigers ever had 3 players with 100-plus receiving yards in one game. He had 147, Justin Jefferson had 163, and Terrace Marshall Jr. had 123.
“Marshall was the number one receiver in the country,” said LSU Head Football Coach Ed Orgeron. “Ja’Marr Chase was the number one player in the state of Louisiana coming back so we knew they were good players. I’m so proud of this offense. We’re able to give them the ball in space and let them make plays.”
And the guy getting them the ball put-up some pretty impressive numbers himself. Joe Burrow was 31 of 39 passing for 471 yards. Through two games, he leads the SEC in passing yards (749), passing touchdowns (9), completion percentage (81.82), yards per pass (11.35) and QBR (219.11)– basically every category.
“Most importantly, our quarterback Joe Burrow stays composed,” said LSU junior running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who had 87 yards rushing on 15 carries and a touchdown, plus 15 yards on 4 catches. “When you have a quarterback that’s always calm, cool and collected and you know he’s going to make the throws that need to happen, and keep everybody calm on the offensive side of the ball, everybody has confidence in that situation. Being able to get up and down the field with Joe and our receivers making some big catches on some big third downs was something that was a big highlight as far as that 4th quarter stat line. Joe, the receivers, the offensive line, everybody stepped-up.”
“It just showed us that we have a lot of confidence in our offense,” Chase said. “When we go on road games, we’ve got to be disciplined out there, makes sure we’re focused on the game and handle our business.”
“It’s the vision that I’ve always had when we took over and we finally got there,” said Orgeron, who is now 12-2 in non-conference games at LSU. “It took a couple of miscues to get there but we’re finally there. We have the coaches to do it. We have the receivers to do it. We have the quarterback to do it and we’re going to get better. We’re going to keep getting better in this system.”
Through these first two games, the Tigers rank 4th in the country and first in the SEC with 821 passing yards. They have scored 100 points (12th in the country, 2nd SEC) and have 1,045 total yards of offense (17th in the country, 2nd SEC).