Grading Out: LSU vs. Western Kentucky

QB

Jake: B. Harris continues to make good strides from week to week. The rollout throw from near the goal line was good to see. There's gonna be situations where Harris is in a really tough spot field position wise and will need to make a throw. He did there. Deep balls to Dupre and Johnson were very good too. B is due to low comp% mainly, and because if I gave him an A for the Florida game, can't quite go with that for a similar, maybe a tad worse performance vs WKU.

Paul: B-. He's become a bit of a big play specialist. I appreciate his ability to make defenses pay for not respecting his downfield throwing ability (not really sure how the disrespect continues), but I'd like to see more stability and consistency from him. The efficiency wasn't there this week, as it has been in his past couple of starts. That said, he was competing with bad conditions, and if this is the bar for his play, we're in really good shape.

RB

Jake: A. Fournette with another "quiet" 150 yards. Only he can make a great game for everyone else seem pedestrian for him. Guice's TD run was great, and I've got a feeling there's gonna be a big role for him in the offense on Nov. 7

Paul: A. Any attempt to discredit the performance is poppycock. Look, Fournette averaged 5.8 a carry, his second lowest output of the season. That is what Derrick Henry is averaging on the year. Fournette didn't spring any big ones, and sure it'd have been fun for him to purely eviscerate a porous run D, but WKU was gonna die trying to stop him, passing defense be damned. 9 man boxes, missing his starting FB, sloppy conditions and he's piling up a rushing clip equivalent to a guy that many consider a Heisman candidate.

WR

Jake: B+. Very solid again. Dural made some great things happen after the catch, which I think this offense needs. Dupre continues to be a big vertical threat for this team, and his TD grab was very nice. Great to see Tyron Johnson get involved as well. This team needs more threats beyond Travin and Malachi

Paul: B. Hey, another receiver besides Dural/Dupre made a play! Dural had a nice game and 3 receptions over 50 yards, it's hard to rate it poorly.

OL

Jake: B- . They improved in the second half, when the run holes started to open up a bit more, but the first half was still very pedestrian and seemed like a really poor effort.

Paul: C-. LSU's offense was comatose in the first half, and it was largely because the OL up and decided they didn't really feel like trying. Then two false starts. An unsportsmanlike. And a holding. Not a banner day.

DL

Jake: B. Not as great in the run game as they usually are, which is what docks this down from an A. Did great job getting pressure on Doughty, and the blitzes were executed very well.

Paul: B-. Pretty quiet night. WKU popped one big run, and otherwise were stalemated at a 3.09 clip. The pass rush was absent this week. Neal wasn't as disruptive. They tallied only 4 hurries on 61 pass attempts. WKU certainly tried to mitigate their impact by utilizing gobs of short throws, though. Not a bad effort, but not their best.

LB

Jake: B. Not quite sure about them in coverage still, and it appeared like they struggled there on some of the underneath throws made by WKU. But they generally did a good job with the blitzes.

Paul: B. Debo has quietly emerged as one of the best players on this team. Another 10 tackles, another sack, another QB hurry. He's one of the few guys making big impact plays.

DB

Jake: B+. The one coverage bust was a bad one, but this group got an interception, and maybe the 2nd best QB they'll face all year only had 5.3 YPA against them and completed well short of his season comp%.

Paul: C. I'm of two minds about this performance. LSU played this exceptionally conservative defensive shell wherein they were content to let WKU complete all the 5 yard passes they wanted, only to swallow them up. This was strategic driven. To that end, they executed the gameplan well, by limiting to a 5.3 YPA. Still Doughty completed 60% of his passes, threw for 325 yards and 3 TDs. That's not really a dominant performance in my book.