GREEN BAY, Wis. — So it’s back to the drawing board for LSU.
“Not what we wanted,” head coach Les Miles said after his No. 5-ranked Tigers auditioned for early Bust of the Year with a 16-14 loss to unranked Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.
In the stadium where Vince Lombardi became a Green Bay icon, Miles would have been excused for borrowing one the legend’s most memorable lines: “What the hell is going on out there!”
Not much for LSU, was the answer.
“We knew what was at stake,” said LSU’s Tre’Davious White, a rare bright spot in the disaster. “Our goal was to win it all and to go undefeated. It’s a hurtful feeling.”
The Tigers managed 257 yards and the offense scored one touchdown while converting 2 of 10 third downs — none in the first half.
“We didn’t move the football,” Miles said. “Certainly at times we moved it well but not often. Anytime you do that you’re going to be in trouble.”
“I thought our defense played their butts off,” Miles added.
It wasn’t enough.
Wisconsin’s Rafael Giglianone hit three field goals — including the winner from 47 yards with 3:47 to play — and Corey Clement capped the Badgers’ best drive with 5-yard run to open the second half.
The drive for the touchdown and two of the field goals began in LSU territory.
LSU’s Leonard Fournette gained 138 yards on 23 carries, but was bottled up early.
Mainly, he didn’t have much running room.
“That’s on us,” LSU center Ethan Pocic. “He’s always ready. He’s Leonard. The offensive line, everybody’s that’s blocking has to execute.”
Harris also spent much of the game running for his life, although he was sacked only twice.
“It seems to me that some guys were not necessarily blocked,” Miles said. ‘Some guys had a heckuva day and blocked extremely well.”
“At times we executed,” Pocic said of the problems with the Badgers defense. “But at the same time there were spots when we weren’t on the same page.”
LSU had the momentum only briefly.
White — a cornerback — scored LSU’s first touchdown of the season on a cross-field 21-yard interception return at 5:28 of the third quarter.
Moments later he recovered a Wisconsin fumble at the Badgers’ 41-yard line and the Tigers offense, in a rare fit of efficiency, scored two plays later on Brandon Harris’ 10-yard pass to Travin Dural.
“We had to make something happen,” White said. “I feel like it definitely changed the game. It was a play we needed. I felt like it put us in the right direction.”
The two touchdowns in less than a minute gave LSU a 14-13 lead, but the Tigers never could build on it.
Gaglianone’s 47-yarder came with 3:47 to play and a last-gasp LSU drive ended when Harris was intercepted at the fringe of field goal range with 57 seconds to play.
Harris, as usual this day, had to escape a strong Wisconsin rush before misfiring badly to throw it right to the Badgers’ D’Cota Dixon.
“He dodged the rush extremely well,” Miles said. “He was getting sacked and really got out of the grasp, but then he didn’t make play that he wanted to make, that is for sure.”
Harris finished 12 of 21 for 131 yards and two interceptions, the other pick a harmless bomb on the final play of the first half.
“It’s more than the quarterback,” Miles said. “It’s a team issue.
“Again, Brandon made what appeared to be some close throws that should have been caught.”
LSU was probably fortunate to trail 6-0 at the half after the Badgers outgained LSU 180-64, held the Tigers to five first downs and controlled the clock for 21:52 to just over 8 minutes for LSU.
LSU was 0-4 on third down in the first half — and 0-for-1 on a fourth down in its own territory that allowed Wisconsin to get its second field just before halftime.
Fournette was stacked up a half yard short on fourth-and-1.
“We felt like we had a call that would get us a first and some points just before the half,” Miles said. “It would have given us some nice momentum.”
Not on this day.
Follow Scooter Hobbs on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ScooterAmPress
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