Ed Orgeron maintained his typical, stoic demeanor following LSU's beatdown at the hands of Kentucky. Starting quarterback Max Johnson had a more difficult time disguising his emotions after the Tigers' latest SEC loss.
Asked about his frustration level, the sophomore didn't mince words.
“Yea, it freaking sucks, I’m not gonna lie," Johnson said. "But we’ve just got to come back to work on Monday, just get better and grind. Block out the noise and just be ourselves. It’s only us. It’s only our team. Yea, we’ve just got to work harder and be better.”
Johnson's box score numbers didn't quite show the difficulties he had in the passing game, with Kentucky laying several hard hits. One of those included a sack-fumble from a blitz to his blindside on the opening possession. Johnson finished with 261 yards and a touchdown on a deep ball to Malik Nabers. But he also had some tough misses.
"I try to play my heart out every single down," he said, after recalling missed throws to Jack Bech, then Trey Palmer on an underthrown deep ball.
But Johnson and coach Ed Orgeron both made a point to identify the improvements in the running game. Junior Ty Davis-Price logged the best game of his career, even in the loss, with 145 yards and a pair of scores on his two carries.
"I thought he ran the ball very hard, the best he’s run," Orgeron said. "But he stayed with it. We did not abandon it, and Ty had a good night.”
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NO NEWS YET ON KEY INJURIES
Orgeron didn't have any updates as of Saturday on wide receiver Kayshon Boutte or pass-rusher Ali Gaye. Boutte reportedly suffered injuries to both ankles and left the game on a cart in the second half. Gaye suffered a lower-leg injury, with a report from LSU Radio indicating it could be Achilles-related.
“We’ve got to see. We’ve got to see what’s going on with the diagnosis," Orgeron said. "We’ll obviously let the doctors look at them tomorrow after the swelling goes down. Those guys will let me know what it is, but way too premature to say what’s going on with them right now.”
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WAS FATIGUE A FACTOR IN THE RUN GAME
LSU's coach went into the game knowing the zone run game would be a factor. He made it clear he didn't expect to see 331 yards rolled up against his group. He pointed to issues with player discipline with their run gaps, not fatigue.
“I can’t say that we’re tired. We can’t use that as an excuse, there’s no way," Orgeron said. "I believe we were beat at the point of attack. I knew they were a good zone blocking team, we got cut out of our gaps."
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The run yardage total is the second highest allowed by LSU under Orgeron, with the record-holder actually coming in a three-score Tigers victory. Ole Miss ran up 402 total yards and lost 58-37 back in 2019, with QB John Rhys Plumlee rushing for 212 on his own.
The impact of those rushing yards was very different this time around.
“I think it’s a matter of missed tackles. I think it’s a matter of us getting out of our gaps. I think it’s a matter of us getting out of our gap," Orgeron said. "Give them some credit, I knew they were a good zone team coming in. I think sometimes we were out of our gap and that was giving them either a cutback lane or a lane right in the gap where we needed to be.”