GREEN BAY, Wis. — But on a positive note, no LSU players had to hitchhike home from Lambeau Field Saturday.
For all the other sins the Tigers committed Saturday, there were certainly no Lambeau Leaps amidst this mess, this 16-14 loss that could have been a lot worse, at least on the scoreboard.
You’ll recall that head coach Les Miles had threatened that any overexuberant lad who took the leap into the famed stands would be using his thumb to get home to Baton Rouge.
Not to worry.
Nothing worth celebrating here.
Now, whether the Tigers could find their way back to the waiting charter flight is up to debate.
They sure looked lost as baby lambs in everything else they attempted while losing to Wisconsin.
They’re probably out there wandering around Sheyboygan or Appleton as we speak.
Probably waiting on a play to come in from the sideline.
Their thumbs would most likely be in their … well, never mind.
LSU stunk up the joint for 59 minutes — and then it really got ugly.
Josh Boutte did not have to use his thumb, but he got the thumb from officials after using his arm to clothesline Wisconsin’s D’Cota Dixon after the Badger had gone down and gotten back up following his game-sealing interception.
Miles said he’ll have to check the film before deciding if Boutte might have to miss more than the one game for his offense that the SEC office could decide on.
But the rest of the film won’t look much better.
This was a monumental egg plopped down in the heart of dairy country.
Really, considering the expectations, the promises, the rumors heading into this season, this might have been the most damning Miles game at least since the 2011 national championship clunker against Alabama.
Really?
They saved Miles’ job at the last minute of last season for a performance like this?
Bygones were going to be bygones, and now it’s right back onto the hot seat — with almost an entire season to go.
Hasn’t Louisiana been through enough lately, particularly Baton Rouge?
If the Tigers’ offense doesn’t figure out how to block somebody — anybody — you’re looking at 11 long weeks like that awful, rumor-filled November of a year ago.
Did they learn nothing?
After all the soul-searching of a year ago, this was the best Miles & Co. could come up with?
What about those promises to join the 21st century on offense?
Remember, it was the Miles pledge after that last-minute reprieve when the powers that be got cold feet.
Instead, the Miles epiphany looked like more of the same 2015, only with less space for Leonard Fournette to run and without the 7-0 start to tease.
This brain trust studied spread offenses near and far so Derrius Guice could fumble the jet sweep on their first brush with it.
They put all the assistant coaches on the sideline and still had to blow two timeouts early in the second half trying to get play calls in.
They rethought the offense from top to bottom over the offseason so they could stare at team-portrait defensive fronts and convert 2 of 10 third downs (0-1 on fourth down).
It’s not going to work with the way this offensive line played Saturday.
The new-and-improved Brandon Harris — it’s all you heard in August, rave reviews — didn’t really look much different, although to be fair he didn’t get a lot of help from his talented wide receivers while throwing for 131 yards.
I kind of thought it would be better if he threw a few more interceptions, just to give the passing game a chance by taking more chances.
But his second one, which clinched the loss, was certainly ill timed and way too easy to a wide-open Badger.
Bottom line: The “new” offense was a bill of goods — the Tigers’ defense scored LSU’s first touchdown and force-fed the other one on the unsuspecting offense with a turnover.
Miles took the high road, of course, the only path he knows.
He congratulated Wisconsin on a job well done and an excellent performance.
The fact was, the Badgers did everything they could to help LSU win this game.
Why Wisconsin wasn’t up by two or three scores at halftime is a mystery for a higher pay grade to solve.
The Badgers sometimes seemed to be begging the Tigers to sit up and act like an SEC team.
The two interceptions LSU got were right between the numbers, too.
And, still, a much more talented — on paper — LSU team couldn’t take advantage of it.
So maybe the coaches who put together this game plan should have hitchhiked home.
It didn’t like Saturday they learned anything from last year.
l
Scooter Hobbs covers LSU
athletics. Email him at
shobbs@americanpress.com
Follow Scooter Hobbs on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ScooterAmPress
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