The injury report coming out of the bye week is good for the LSU Tigers. Starting right tackle Weston Davis is good to go for Saturday night’s SEC contest against South Carolina. Coach Brian Kelly also declared starting running back Caden Durham and quarterback Garrett Nussmeier good to go for the Gamecocks. Receiver Aaron Anderson, who is battling several nagging injuries, is probable.
The week off allowed Nussmeier to take a lot of mental reps at practice, and his throwing was limited. Kelly has said on multiple occasions that the ab strain he suffered in preseason camp needed a week’s worth of rest.
Can a positive injury report help, and a week off help an offense that’s been ailing?
Kelly on what he wants to see from his offense that’s ranked 81st in the country.
“Have to be more efficient in our passing game, we’ve got to hit shots down the field, and then we have to be much more efficient with the run game, so we’ve been working hard on it, proud of the way they’ve really locked last week in a bye week and my expectations is this offense is going to get better week after week,” Kelly said.
Until LSU can get its run game going, the offense will remain stuck in neutral. Ole Miss didn’t respect the Tigers’ ground game, so they were able to play more defenders in pass coverage, making it difficult for Nussmeier and company to make plays through the air.
“We need to have a running game that keeps you honest that you can’t put five guys in the box and cover down with seven others, if you want to play two high safety and give us fair numbers, we’ve got to be efficient in running the football and we will be eventually,” Kelly said.
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South Carolina is another opponent that provides LSU a chance to run the football. The Gamecocks are allowing 143 yards rushing a game.
USC is like most teams this season; they couldn’t stop Missouri from running the football. Mizzou has the best running back in the SEC in Ahmad Hardy, and Missouri on September 20th rushed for 285 yards.
LSU doesn’t need that many yards, but like Kelly said, it needs to be somewhat of a threat running the ball to open the offense for the passing game.
Kick off on Saturday is at 6:45pm.